Combat Shock

The film opens to a flashback of the Vietnam war and in particular, one soldier's plights of that war - it is a horrible intense sequence. As the movie progresses, we get to see what has happened to that solider. He is now living with a nagging wife and deformed baby son on the extreme poverty line in New York City. They haven't eaten for days and he wanders the streets, trying to look for work with no luck at all.

He suffers flashbacks and hallucinations throughout the film, where he is being tortured in 'Nam and then his supposed recovery in a hospital after. He is cut off from the world and desperate for money. We then meet one of his friends, a drug addict who is in equal dire straits. At one point, the addict uses a coat hanger to open his vein and pour in the drug whilst he bleeds - a truly horrifying moment.

This is very strong stuff. It has no budget but that somehow suits the story - it's totally gritty and real, no gloss whatsoever. It's probably the bleakest, most depressing film I've ever seen and all I can say is, if you're having a bad day or work or a bad day in general, just see what happens to this guy!

I got the excellent Troma DVD release which features the full uncut Director's version - the only one really worth seeing.

I don't know if I'd exactly recommend this; it's so hard going that it sure ain't entertainment, but it does have an appeal and is worth watching. However, if you're not used to zero-budget horror, avoid at all costs.

Combat Shock (1984)

*** (out of 4)

Frankie Dunlan (Ricky Giovinazzo) returns home from Vietnam after some bizarre experiments were done on him and he's hit a string of bad luck. His wife is pregnant and also trying to take care of their deformed one-year-old son. Frankie has lost his job, all three are starving and the future doesn't look too bright but he heads out one day in search of something better.

Buddy Giovinazzo's COMBAT SHOCK is without question one of the most raw, depressing and bleak character studies ever created. The director stated that the film was meant to be something in between TAXI DRIVER and ERASERHEAD and that's the best way to describe it. The movie isn't the best made film that you'll ever see and it's certainly very raw in regards to various technical things but at the same time there's just something so wrong and so off about the subject matter that you can't help but be drawn into its nightmare.

The film certainly has a lot to say about mental illness as well as the troubles that faced vets when they returned home. The film is extremely bleak to say the least as there's not even a glimmer of comedy or even a brief smile to be bad. You certainly wouldn't want to show this film to anyone suffering from a depression because it would probably push them over the edge. The flashbacks to Vietnam are all that convincing and there are other technical problems with the film but at the same time this is a lot deeper and a lot more troubling than what most filmmakers would try on a $40,000 budget.

Giovinazzo does a very good job in the lead role as he's certainly believable as this broken man who really is at the very end of things. He certainly comes across as a real person and this helps give the film a more realistic approach to the dark material. The direction is spot on and this is certainly true during the incredibly disturbing final fifteen-minutes of the picture.

What another guilty pleasure this is! And a truly incredible one! COMBAT SHOCK is not what you'd expect from Troma, but it doesn't matter anyway. This is a strong and powerful account of Frankie, a former American P.O.W. in Saigon facing a harsh dilemma of society and family matters back home following the war. It's all based on true experiences with very disturbing levels of detail, and does become nerve-shattering. There possibly has never been a film that could deliver a high amount of intensifying power like this before, even outweighing its minimal plot and graphic violence. While some will find the infant looking like a stupid clone of E.T., others will worry about its povertic and dying state, but the character becomes a victim in its notorious shocking ending. This was the first "Tromatized" movie I've seen, and it sure ain't like the rest of 'em! A rock solid independent outing from Buddy G, whose brother plays the leading role as Frankie. Low budget, but delivers powerful meaning. Asks the all-important question of the hour: "Where will you be tomorrow?". Highly recommended!

Certainly lacking in wise-cracking rubber monsters and outlandishly- dressed brain-dead punks, Combat Shock - a serious, if extremely low- budget drama/psychological horror by writer/director/producer Buddy Giovinazzo - proves that Troma Entertainment occasionally took their movies seriously. The shell-shocked Vietnam veteran story had been done many times before, and certainly a lot better, but never quite as unsettling. Far from a masterpiece, and riddled with terrible production values, Combat Shock nevertheless is a glowing statement as to just what scraping-the-piggy-bank film-making can sometimes offer.

After an event during the Vietnam War that left a village dismembered and massacred, Frankie Dunlan (Rick Giovinazzo - brother to Buddy), struggles to adapt to civilian life. Living in poverty, unable to find work, and saddled with a whining wife (Veronica Stork) and a deformed baby, he is about the have the worst day of his life. Owing money to a group of drug-dealing punks, led by Paco (Mitch Maglio), Frankie wanders the battered streets of his native New York, coming into contact with various low-lives and looking for any way to make a buck. Seemingly without hope, and terrified to go back to his starving family empty- handed, he resorts to an act of violence.

You could imagine running a finger along the negative of Combat Shock and immediately needing to wash your hands afterwards. The movie seems awash with grime, and the streets Frankie wanders down have an almost apocalyptic quality. This is utterly depressing stuff, nearly entirely devoid of laughs, where the types of people Frankie befriends are gun- wielding junkies or child prostitutes. It's sometimes laughably pessimistic, a journey into utter depravity, and combined with some extremely amateurish production values and an occasionally plodding narrative, can be a bit of a slog to get through at times.

Yet for all it's sloppy editing and wide-eyed, over-the-top thesping, it is at times extremely effective. The baby, horribly disfigured due to Frankie's exposure to Agent Orange, looks cheap, but the way it moves and sounds, combined with the dump that surrounds it, is just as disturbing as Eraserhead (1977). There is also a horrible moment when a junkie, unable to find a needle for his fix, opens his damaged arm with a coat hanger and pours heroin into his black, bleeding vein. Some will find it's relentless depravity too much to take, but there's a gritty honesty here, going deep into the dark heart of a post-Vietnam America, where traumatised Vets were hung out to dry by a country that had forgotten them.

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Buddy Giovinazzo's Combat Shock, an unsettling cross between Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant (1992) and David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977) as far from the tone of your typical Troma movie in the offering. The film follows Ricky who is afflicted with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder trying to make ends meet for his family. He lives in an unsafe apartment along with his wife and their deformed baby (a consequence of Ricky being subjected to the poison Agent Orange during the war. Ricky is also plagued by nightmares from the war, where few scenes reminds you of classic Jacob's Ladder (1990) eventually causing him to lose his grip on his existence. Combat Shock (or, if you prefer, American Nightmares in its director's cut) , is somewhat unsatisfactory for the gore hounds , but it's a very bleak film driven by nihilism that captures depressing slice of life with music ques from Rick Giovinazzo who performs a haunting synth score. It's a must watch for fans of the genre, a lo-fi borderline horror film with a mutant baby that tops even the baby in Eraserhead for sheer creepiness.