At last! This is a film that I have been waiting for a long time to get a decent release and finally Synapse have gone and delivered the goods so I was able to get my nth generation and pretty much unwatchable video transfer of this and throw it in the bin. That was the good news, the bad news is that this is only available on Region 1 US DVD and Blu Ray (in a nice combo package) so if you are in the UK you are going to have to get an import unless some nice enterprising company over here releases it too.
This film was a very important little piece of celluloid which sprang up from deep within the woods of Michigan. Prior to it a certain other movie had received one hell of a lot of notoriety, this was the 1981 splatterfest The Evil Dead made by a young director Sam Raimi and starring the man, the legend and the book case wrecker himself Bruce Campbell. The film was a cult waiting to happen and fuelled by notoriety and the hysteria of the video nasty era in the UK was ridiculously claimed to be obscene. Although not part of the collective group of film makers under the Renaissance Pictures Productions who made The Evil Dead, Josh Becker were friends with them. He had started off by shooting a short work print called Stryker’s war in the hope of gaining funding for the feature length in 1980. Originally the lead of the feature (Stryker) was to have been played by Campbell but due the fact he was now a member of the Screen Actors Guild he was unable to star in it and Brian Schultz stepped in to fill his boots It took until 1985 for the movie to see the light of day and even now it really has not got the attention it deserved although it does have a certain enthusiastic cult following and watching it again I can completely see why.
The plot of the film is summed up easily by those involved, what we have here is marines vs the Mansons! We start off in Vietnam as four colleagues have fun in the backwoods of Michigan and play war games with a mock village which they attack and retain heavy casualties. There is plenty of gung-ho action which quickly establishes the mood of the film, which is as much as played for laughs as anything else. It also gives the effects people plenty of time to play around with squibs and the result is an enthusiastic riot of blood and brains. Stryker is shot in the leg and returns home where he lives in a shack in the woods, his army buddies suddenly find themselves in the hood and decide to pay him a visit. It’s an eventful trip and they find themselves up to their necks in hitch hiking jail bait as well as in a good old brawl with a bunch of bikers. The plot moves around fast and the army guys are stereotypical hard drinking hell raisers who like to both tap and kick ass or even both at the same time. On getting to Stryker’s cabin they don’t waste any time in establishing that he has a stash of guns and even though they are so drunk they can hardly walk are quick to head out and shoot shit (literally as its an outhouse) up.
The only problem is that Stryker’s dog and love interest (that is a separate dog and love interest not one and the same) have gone missing and his prospective g/f guardian is also found butchered. There are some odd people in the woods and they have the rest of the good ole townsfolk hostage. Led by Sam Raimi who was keen to get behind the camera as an actor and plays a deranged blinder we have the nastiest drug fuelled bunch of hippy “kill all the pigs” scum seen since 1970 classic ‘I Drink Your Blood’ with which this would make an excellent double bill. They are throwing big darts at the tied up sheriff, pulling faces and wiping blood on Stryker’s intended and as for his dog, well Lassie aint coming home at the end of this one. This makes Stryker and his buddies rather pissed off to say the least and with guns and knives aplenty they are back in the Vietzone and ready to carve up some cult maniac ass.
The fun really starts now and if the deranged performances had not had you chuckling along like a loon by now some of the deaths will do as boy there are some inventive and fun ones as the butchery kicks in. People are often impaled and hacked up and no mercy is shown. Considering some of the torture that Raimi had dished up in the Evil Dead and what producer Scott Spiegel had in store for us in the future with the likes of Intruder, there is a wealth of talent to come up with some sick and silly splatstick. One other important aspect of the crew who also should be mentioned is Joseph Loduca whose evocative, strident and haunting score is really of Hollywood quality as he previously proved in The Evil Dead. It is hardly surprising that today he is working on the music for programs such as Spartacus. Sam’s brother Ted is also involved and plays one of the most amusing characters of the cult group wearing a mask and chains and gets kicked in the face by his brother (apparently ad libbed for real) in the process.
The film is a fun riot and the great thing is it does not seem to have aged that badly at all. The transfer on the DVD is really good with minimal grain in places and has been restored from the original negative. Synapse delayed the release for a while as they were not happy with all aspects and so they have ironed these out to give the best ever version you will get the chance to see of this movie. Historically the people involved have all gone onto much more established things but none of them are ashamed in their roots in the slightest. There is wealth of extra material including two commentaries with Becker and Campbell who co wrote the story, a 30 minute making of, the original short Stryker’s War, interviews, alternate scenes and trailers.
As a bit of trivia, any self respecting metal head who suddenly sees this for the first time and recognises a sampled line and wants to identify it, it’s from Entombed ‘Out Of Hand’ on Wolverine Blues. What better seal of approval do you need?
Pete Woods
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