KILL ZONE (1985)
Label: MVD Rewind Collection
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: Uncompressed English LPCM 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: David A. Prior
Cast: Fritz Matthew's, Ted Prior, David James Campbell, Richard Massey, William Joseph Zip
In the David A. Prior (Sledgehammer) second directed film, the straight-to-VHS low-budge military action-fest Kill Zone (1985) the cruel Colonel Crawford (David Campbell, Killer Workout) operates a military training center known as “Scare Camp”, where soldiers are put through a grueling P.O.W. camp experience. Among the soldiers thrown into the POW simulation are Vietnam War veteran Jason McKenna (Fritz Matthews, Deadly Prey), who because of the stress and the physical tortures endured at the camp is having 'Nam flashbacks, unable to distinguish between the flashbacks, hallucinations and the ongoing P.O.W. exercise which ultimately leads to tragedy. The director's bicep-bulging brother Ted Prior (Deadly Prey) plays a soldier named Mitchell who takes notice that McKenna is mentally breaking down and about to go off the deep-end, but his warnings to McKenna fall on deaf ears. Taking matters into his own hands he helps Mckenna escape the camp, during which the increasingly deranged soldier kills several of the Asian re-enactment actors and escapes into the forest surrounding the camp. Still believing he's in 'Nam he kills several locals, and Colonel Crawford orders his soldiers to switch to live ammo and take him out before he can do anymore harm. Meanwhile Mitchell sets out to take him alive and get him help, but it might be too late for either of them to survive with Crawford looking to sweep the entire incident under the rug, willing to cold-bloodedly kills innocents along the way.
Prior's low-budget action-flick is a cheapie but pretty scrappy and entertaining, it's chock full of muscle-bound guys with too much testosterone getting angry and shooting shit up. The P.O.W. camps looks solid with bamboo and barbed wire holding pens, a corrugated metal hot box, the U.S. woods standing in for the Vietnam jungle looked pretty decent as well. The acting is so-so but that doesn't detract from it much in my opinion, they're playing it pretty straight without any winking at the camera, maintaining the flick's grueling tone for the entire duration. Crawford, McKenna and Prior are our main trio here and they do good-enough to sell me on it the premise. Mckenna as the sadistic cigar-chomping colonel is really chewing up the scenery every chance he gets, chompin' down on that cigar and seemingly punctuating every Southern-tinged sentence with a derisive "boy". Aliso great is Dennis Phun (Surf Nazi's Must Die) as Major Ling, one of Crawford's reenactment cronies with rotten teeth who gets off on tormenting the P.O.W.s.
When the manhunt for McKenna is underway the soldier sets up some First Blood styled booby-traps in the woods, taking out several soldiers with pointed stick to the groin and neck, crushing one with a rock, it's pretty good stuff, not overly bloody though, there's a surprising lack of blood in this flick for what it is, we get some but not nearly enough. What we do get is a pretty decent helicopter chase towards the end of it, it's kinetically shot and edited as the chopper chases McKenna whose in a stolen truck, and later on a motorbike, leading to McKenna and Crawford going mano-y-mano on a hill top, which much like the film as a whole brought to mind the Tim Skerrit starring actioner Opposing Force (1986) which has a very similar premise but came a year later - it's also quite reminiscent of Prior's Deadly Prey. If you're a fan of Prior's action flicks, First Blood knock-offs, Most Dangerous Game type cat and mouse flicks, or stuff like the aforementioned Opposing Force you'll probably have a pretty good time with this low-budget actioner.
Audio/Video: Kill Zone (1985) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from MVD Rewind Collection in 1080p HD in the 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio, scanned and restored in 4K in 2023 from 35mm interpositive. The source has some age-related wear by way of nick, scrapes and scratched but largely looks solid in a raw sort of way in HD. The depth, clarity and vibrancy of color here is quite impressive when compared to the VHS, which is probably no surprise. Of note, this widescreen version is slightly cropped at the top and bottom to fit 16:9, the original VHS is 1.33:1 open matte and has more information the top and bottom. Audio comes by way of English LPCM 2.0 Mono with optional English subtitles. Like the video the audio has some source and related wear, some slight hiss, snaps and pops, and a couple of glitches, but small potatoes all things considered. The quality of the original on-set audio isn't the best either, some of the dialogue exchanges can sound slightly muffled, but again, not rising to the occasion of ruinous, just imperfect.
Disc extra include a new Audio (plus optional Video Commentary) with producer and co-writer Jack Marino moderated by Cereal At Midnight host Heath Holland. The Video Commentary is the same as the audio, only it's video, and we don't actually see the film, just Marino and Holland having the conversation over video conferencing. Also new is the 36-min The Making of Kill Zone, an interview with co-writer and producer Jack Marino moderated by filmmaker and project producer Steve Latshaw that's pretty dang great. They get into the pre-production, how this film directly lead to AIP, and there's a great story of how the original film elements for the film were rescued after nearly being tossed out in the trash, and some notes about the restoration. But wait, that's not all, staying true to the flick's VHS roots we get the Kill Zone: Vestron Video VHS Version of film in all it's cruddy 1.33:1 VHS glory for the VHS fanatics out there, plus it's a great comparison for how nice this restoration is. The disc is finished-up with a Photo Gallery of behind-the-scenes stills, and several MVD Trailers.
The single-disc release arrives in a quality clear keepcase with a 2-sided non-reversible sleeve of artwork featuring the original VHS artwork. Inside there's a Collectible Mini Fold-Out Poster with the same artwork, plus the first pressing comes with a Limited Edition Slipcover featuring the Magnum artwork with faux shelf wear and rips and tears and VHS rental stickers on it, including the class "Be Kind & Rewind". I love the artwork and the cool logo looks great on the spine.
Extras:
Special Features:
- NEW! Audio (plus optional Video Commentary) with producer and co-writer Jack Marino moderated by Cereal At Midnight host Heath Holland.
- NEW! “The Making of Kill Zone” featuring an interview with co-writer and producer Jack Marino moderated by filmmaker and project producer Steve Latshaw (37:52) HD
- Kill Zone: Vestron Video VHS Version SD
- Photo Gallery
- Restored Original Theatrical Trailer (3:04) HD
- 2-Sided Non-Reversible Artwork
- Collectible Fold-Out Mini-Poster
- Limited Edition Slipcover (First Pressing Only)
- MVD Trailers: Action U.S.A. (1:51), L.A. Wars (3:04), Showdown (2:22), Angel Town (2:06), My Samurai (1:24)
Screenshots from the MVD Rewind Collection Blu-ray:
