Smell the Movies
Smell the TV
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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| Year: | 1990 |
| Country of origin: | USA |
| Director: | Adrian Lyne |
| Genre: | Paranoid Vietnam horror movie |
| Starring: | Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña |
| Rating: | 4/5 |
| IMDB link: | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099871/ |
| Tagline: | The most frightening thing about Jacob Singer's nightmare is that he isn't dreaming. |
| Favourite line: | "If you're frightened of dying, and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. If you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the Earth." |
Rumours still abound that certain platoons of soldiers in Vietnam were doped up with hallucinogenic drugs in a bid to increase their aggressive instinct - all the better for fragging gooks apparently - and this is the premise that this movie revolves around.
Tim Robbins plays a Vietnam vet' given an honourable discharge from the army after suffering a severe injury in the line of duty.
Upon returning to civvy street life does not go as expected.
He begins to see strange creatures everywhere he goes, sinister demon like entities with horns, odd tentacles poking out from beneath someone's coat, and even nurses with bony protrusions from their scalp.
Confused, alienated and very afraid, he is mightily relieved when it transpires that he is not the only member of his platoon to experience it. He meets up with the surviving members, only to discover that several have been killed in suspicious circumstances.
Could it be that the army are, quite literally, attempting to bury a dirty part of their warcraft?
Disturbing, intelligent and bleak, this is a very different type of Vietnam movie. Some of the imagery on offer is horrific and at times just plain warped.
The trolley being wheeled through a hospital is one of the nastiest pieces of cinema I've seen in a while.
Slow and deliberate, this is thinking man's horror.
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