Night Wars

(1988) Night Wars WAR/ SUPERNATURAL

Straight-to-rental flick that is co-written and directed by David A. Prior, which is like a Freddy Krueger-like war movie with two Nam friends by the names of Trent (Brian Edward O'Connor) and Jim (Cameron Smith) become telepathically linked to one another after figuring out that an old war vet is still alive at an POW Vietnam camp assumed to be dead. But, as a result of many spontaneous dream sequences which the only thing they dream about is still being in Vietnam again, a double crossing Vietnam war soldier by the name of McGregor (Steve Horton) keeps appearing in there so-called dreams, just so he can continue his torture tactics. And upon the two stars waking up again, they would even have the scars where they were tortured too without fully understanding how they got them in the first place, except to remember that they got them as a result of a dream that is similar to the 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' movies. What's kind of ludicrous is the fact that viewers are never shown how they ended up getting these dreams in the first place. I mean, was there some strange ritual ever practiced on them before they manage to escape, and then settle back to the States? And the answer is no. The other ludicrous thing is the fact that the two main stars never had to spend money on a plane ticket back to Vietnam to save the friend they left behind because they can do that while they're sleeping, and firing their weapons at the same time. The only thing that's saving this film from being a complete disaster is the fact that there's an unexpected twist that occurred at the end, and can give viewers something to think about besides tolerating the awful second rate performances. Dan Haggerty also stars who's best known for playing 'Grizzly Adams' as Mike Campbell as Trent's doctor and shrink.

Viewers will find it easy to criticize this low-budget, no-name effort found only on the dusty backshelves of a few video stores. It suffers from the flat dialog, so-so acting, haphazard scripting, and awkward pacing so often found in these Grade-Z productions.

And yet there's something about the merger of nightmare and reality in "Night Wars" which gives it an odd, almost haunting quality which softens the edges of all its many faults. Or, putting it another way, considering the vast resources spent on "Pearl Harbor" versus the scant resources spent on this movie, which one is really the more satisfying achievement?

Aside from that blurring between waking and dreaming, the most distinctive feature here comes in the form of two torture scenes occurring in Vietnamese POW camps. In the first scene, Cameron Smith has a red-hot metal rod pressed against his bare chest while he's tied between two posts, and in the second, Brian O'Connor -- tied between two trees -- has strips of barb-wire tightened around his naked torso. Unlike many Hollywood movies in which the hero suffers stoically, these two men scream with open-mouthed agony. (You can even count the fillings in Cameron Smith's teeth.) And unlike many Hollywood heroes, these two men don't have perfectly-chiseled physiques. (O'Connor especially shows signs of middle-aged flab.) The result is unnerving because the torture seems to be inflicted on real men rather than movie actors.

Top-billed Dan Haggerty has little to do in his part and Steve Horton overdoes the wild-eyed look as the sadistic villain, but Jill Foor invokes suitable sympathy as Brian O'Connor's bewildered wife. As for the two tormented ex-POWs, O'Connor is earnest and almost even appealing and Cameron Smith has the born-to-be-tortured look which is just right for this part.

Vietnam veterans Trent Matthews (Brian Edward O'Connor, a poor man's Robert Ginty) and Jim Lowery (Cameron Smith) are suffering from recurring dreams about the war; as they sleep, they battle the Vietcong in an attempt to rescue fellow soldier Johnny (Chet Hood), who they had to leave behind during their escape from a prisoner-of-war camp nine years earlier. Also haunting their nightmares is sadistic traitor McGregor (Steve Horton, overacting wildly), who wants to continue with his torture of the men.

Waking to find that injuries sustained in their dreams leave real marks on their bodies, Trent and Jim realise that they must confront their fears or die. Arming themselves to the teeth, they enter their dreams to make one last ditch effort to find Johnny and drag him into reality.

Borrowing heavily from A Nightmare on Elm Street, but with a Vietnam war film twist, Night Wars is wholly unoriginal late-'80s straight-to-video nonsense that suffers from a serious lack of logic. Now I know what you're thinking - dreams don't have to make sense - but the film needs to adhere to a few rules for it to work.

Case in point: taking weapons into the dreams. When Trent and Jim fall asleep, they do so with loaded firearms in their hands, which they fire in reality whenever they do so in their dream. In their final rescue attempt, they also lob around a fair few grenades, but conveniently fail to throw a single real grenade in the room in which they are asleep. Consistency be damned!

The film is also unclear about how Johnny and McGregor are projecting themselves into Trent and Jim's dreams. There is no suggestion that they are dead. Is it astral projection? If so, how did they learn to pull off this trick? At one point, McGregor even attacks Trent's wife as she sleeps, with no explanation about how he manages this. And are Trent and Jim astrally projecting themselves as they snooze, their spirits manifesting in Vietnam? None of it makes a lick of sense.

I will give props for the number of bloody squibs used in the shootouts - hence my generous rating of 3/10 - but there are better things you could be doing with your time.

N.B. Despite getting top billing, Dan Haggerty only has a supporting role as concerned doctor Mike Campbell.

Trent (Brian O'Connor) and Jimmy (Cameron Smith) are two Nam vet buddies who escaped a POW prison camp only to face worse horrors at home when the past literally comes back to haunt them. They're harassed by a soldier they left behind and a sadistic traitor who helped torture them, and when they're attacked in their dreams, they emerge with real scars (a la A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET). The two deck out in cameo and carry high-powered machine guns into their dreams to fight back after one's wife is raped and killed by a ghost. Dan (GRIZZLY ADAMS) Haggerty is the top-billed guest star. He plays a psychiatrist who tries to "help" by holding them at gunpoint, drugging them and tying them up in his office!

The premise is somewhat new, but the unconvincing Nam flashbacks look like the stars are playing War Games in the woods behind their house, the dialogue ("Let's do it!," "I'm scared, man!") is annoying and the action and horror scenes just aren't very exciting.

Prolific director David A. Prior also combined the war and horror genres in THE LOST PLATOON (1989) and also directed KILLER WORKOUT (1987), MARDI GRAS FOR THE DEVIL (1992) and MUTANT SPECIES (1995) in between all his cheapo action movies. He scripted from a story he wrote with his brother Ted Prior and William Zipp (both of whom acted in his previous films).

Ha! I notice that practically all my fellow reviewers also make tongue-in-cheek references towards "Nightmare on Elm Street" in their user-comment titles. Logically, because this "Night Wars" is a shameless and blatant imitation of the NoES formula - albeit, admittedly, with a Vietnam war-movie twist!

Vietnam movies, or at least horror/action movies with links to 'Nam, were somewhat the hobbyhorse of writer-director David A. Prior. For more than three decades straight, Mr. Prior was one of the most over-active and prolific trash directors in the business. Nearly forty terrible films in thirty years, that's what I call perseverance and dedication! He was enthusiast and creative, to say the least, but he still couldn't direct very well at the end of his life. After two lousy horror movies ("Sledgehammer" and "Killer Workout"), he quickly turned to jungle adventures and Vietnam action vehicles, with the phenomenal 1987 "Deadly Prey" as their absolute and inarguable highlight. Now there's a movie that everybody in the whole wide world needs to watch, if you ask me!

Trent and Jim are two war buddies with recurring nightmares about their Tour in Vietnam, and then particularly how they were forced to leave behind their pal Johnny as a POW and how another platoon member McGregor turned out to be a psychotic mercenary traitor. The nightmares grow increasingly realistic, however, and the boys are even getting injured in them. They soon realize they'll have to enter their dreams armed to the teeth in order to rescue Johnny and eliminate McGregor who's terrorizing them from beyond the grave. Now, the plot of "Night Wars" isn't entirely bad, but it's totally lacking logic and structure and - with all due respect - David A. Prior doesn't have the intellect for it. He constantly falls into the traps of paradoxes that automatically ensue from a plot like this. On the bright side, there's plenty of gunfire, preposterous warfare (you know, the Asian soldiers shoot a thousand times but never hit anything, whereas the white soldiers never miss) and horrendously over-the-top acting performances (especially Steve Horton).