Also rented (on iTunes) the action/horror movie VFW. I hadn’t heard of this one before I watched a YouTube video about the best horror movies of 2020 (so far). I wouldn’t call it a horror movie so much as a violent pulpy action flick… but I guess the gore is enough for some to call it horror.
VFW is about a near future where crime is rampant, there’s a new drug on the streets, and the cops have retreated from downtown. In this mess, a local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) center / bar is operating when they are attacked by the drug kingpin and his army of doped up psychos. Can the old men – ex-Vietnam and Korea veterans – fight off these young gutterpunks and survive the night?
This flick has an interesting cast of veteran “I know that guy” guys. Stephen Lang (the bad guy in Avatar), William Sadler (from a bunch of flicks, notably the bad guy in Die Hard 2), Fred Williamson (ex-footballer and B movie actor), Martin Kove (Creese from the Karate Kid), and George Wendt (Norm!) for some reason. It’s a cool cast of veteran actors playing war vets in a schlocky little movie.
Because this is definitely a shlocky bunch of pulp fiction and it knows it. It’s violent, gory, and a little sadistic… but if you know that going in and that’s your bag, it’s a pretty fun and effective movie. It doesn’t have great big ideas and doesn’t think it’s got a message… other than maybe old guys can kick as too. It does what it sets out to do. Not the best action or tension, but effective enough.
And the coolest thing is that it feels very much like they were trying to emulate 1970s/1980s era John Carpenter. The opening text crawl, the way the credits are interspersed with character and story development, and the use of an evocative synth/electronic score all reminded me of movies like Escape from New York or The Thing. And, hey, the movie feels very similar to Assault on Precinct Thirteen. Now, this isn’t as good as early John Carpenter movies in the long run… but you can tell its trying and the emulation is good. Certainly it’s better than most of Carpenter’s later efforts.
The biggest flaw in the movie though is that its kind of dark and murky. The lighting in the bar/main set is just way too dim for the movie’s own good. This does serve to hide some of the gorier (and they are gory) visual gags though… whether that’s a positive or negative depends on how much you like some good practical splatter work.
So, yeah, if you are looking for some good genre schlock or that very special John Carpenter vibe, this one is worth checking out. It’s not perfect but it does know its genre and plays in it well. Fun – if grisly – little flick.
Score: 78