Legion of the Night

An action movie with no action, a film with gangsters but only half a gang, an interesting concept drowned in bog-standard dialogue, interesting (but cheap) sets marred by hideous film quality and lighting.

The foundations of the movie are solid, but it needed more prouction cash and some better dialogue (some of the bit-parts deliver their lines in a way which makes you cringe) in order to really pull it above the mire.

As it stands, it isn't a terrible movie, but it has nothing which puts it ahead of the thousands of other 'watch em once' films in the action/horrorish genres (and looks considerably shoddier than most). Some changes for the better would have perhaps made this into a cult movie like Crying Freeman, but that hasn't and won't happen.

Dr. Bloom (Bill Hinzman, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) conducts experiments in dead tissue regeneration and cybernetic implants on the bodies of fallen soldiers. With the help of his assistant, Russell (Ron Asheton, of punk rock band THE STOOGES), they succeed in creating the ultimate killing machines: cybernetic zombie assassins (CZA's for short). Unfortunately, their government funding is cut off and they must turn to Detroit Mob Boss Francis Vansemie' (Jeff Rector, STAR TREK: TNG, NYPD BLUE). Vansemie' (pronounced Van-SEM-ee-ay) cheerfully agrees to finance the Doctor's experiments and allows them to repay the loan by using the CZA's to "rub out" his competition! The Doctor agrees, as he needs to field test his undead troops anyway. Unfortunately, once Vansemie's competition is gone, the brutal mobster decides to eradicate all traces of the doctor and his CZA prototypes. Unknown to Vansemie', Russell survives and contacts the doctor's son Taylor (Tim Lovelace, MOSQUITO). Together, they team up to avenge the doctor's death by bringing the CZA's back "online." The undead assassins perform their job with expert perfection, but then break from their programming and go on a berserk killing spree! Taylor feels responsible and tries to hunt the rogue zombies down, but the creatures are too deadly and he is mortally wounded. Dragging himself back to the lab, Taylor pleads with Russell to transform him into a "Super CZA." Russell reluctantly agrees and Taylor is reborn. He hunts the monsters down and manages to destroy all but one. Returning to the lab, he discovers Russell has been kidnapped, his supply of life-giving serum (needed to power his undead body) has been stolen and Vansemie' still lives! Apparently, the evil crimelord had stolen the doctor's notes and had his own team of (mad) scientists working on perfecting the process. Vansemie' is now a CZA and plots to take over the underworld with his unstopppable CZA army, his "legion of the night." Taylor and Vansemie' battle to the death while the sole remaining CZA attempts to escape with the last dose of the doctor's life-sustaining serum... This is an ambitious production that injects a fresh twist to the zombie genre. The CZA's themselves are extremely impressive, loaded with bizarre high-tech weapons like exploding throwing stars, spinning sawblades and "Wolverine" style spring blade battle claws! If you like dramatic sci-fi/action/horror, then LEGION OF THE NIGHT may be just what the "doctor" ordered!

This is the first film I've seen that sounds exactly like a terrible action zombie movie written by a 10- or 11-year-old boy. The plot is ludicrous with a capital "WHAT", the characters' existence is an insult to cardboard, everybody is acting with a severe case of that enraged sneer disease that was caught by every 90's action cartoon hero, and not only is the dialogue purely functional and ripped-off, the writer decided to add at least one curse word to each sentence, just like a pre-pubescent boy who's seen his first R-rated movie thinks adults talk like. Attempting to create hoardes of zombie super-soldiers on a garage sale budget, this is a must-see just for how hilarious it is. Highly recommended for bad movie fans.

Could this movie be the worst of all time? Quite possibly yes. It's hard to believe something that looks so bad was made in 1995. It looked so poor I thought I was watching something from the 70s. The whole movie is laughable. Be warned, though the preview may look good - the movie is not. Avoid at all costs!

Fairly dark and violent for a low budget movie. The acting ranges from great to terrible, but the action scenes are fun. Felt very much like a 70s or early 80s grindhouse type movie.