The Lost Platoon

Low-budget production values and some ludicrously over-the-top acting, but there's still a good little vampire flick in here, The idea of an immortal platoon that has been following the course of human war for a century definitely gives it points, as does the showboat performance of Stephen Quadros as hotshot soldier Walker and the understated, authoritative calm of David Parry as the troop's Civil-War-veteran leader, But I especially like the casting of vampire soldiers as a tireless force *against* oppressive evil, the low-key humor, and the mythic air that the film gives "los mejores" as the spooked peasants call the lethal, fast-travelling revenants. A nice little surprise; I'm glad we saw it.

My review was written in January 1990 after watching the movie on AIP video cassette.

The war pic genre is given a supernatural twist in "The Lost Platoon", but dull execution makes this a relatively uninteresting direct-to-video feature.

Premise is that four soldiers have become seemingly immortal bad samaritans, butting in during wars ranging from the Civil war to Vietnam. A photojournalist has recognized their presence in photos spanning 100 years and meets up with the creeps during a present-day skirmish in Nicaragua.

Plot gimmick that these baddies are vampires is stated but not followed up. Rather, they're simply meddlers, popping up to pointlessly change the course of various battles.] Film's silliness is telegraphed by the poor thesping of Roger Bayless as a Russian officer in Nicaragua; he doesn't even try to do an accent for the role. Exotic beauty Michiko offers some brief diversion as a sadistic femme working with Bayless, but the film's cheap battle scenes are boring.

Dated finale has the immortal platoon heading to Afghanistan to stir up more trouble.

"Lost Platoon" is not a great movie. "Lost Platoon" is not even an average movie. What it is, is an intriguing idea in a bad movie. Survivors of wars from the last hundred years are tracked down in Niaragua by an intrepid war correspondent, who pieces together a photographic puzzle. Surviving as vampires, these soldiers never lose a battle, and never die. This fascinating premise is unfortunately wasted in "Lost Platoon". The low budget gets in the way of every scene, and other than the initial intriguing idea, everything else is redundant, amateurish, or downright silly. Bad acting only makes things worse, and it's really a shame, because this had tremendous, but unfortunately unrealized, potential. My girlfriend did sit through it though, and that's a miracle in itself. - MERK

This very cheap, no frills action-horror hybrid is something in the vein of "Platoon (1986)" crossed "The Lost Boys (1987)". Also a touch of "Near Dark (1987)". Now that's got to be something… hey? Ah, no. It's inferior film-making, but despite its shortcomings (being plenty) on the technical side. The unusual concept (of vampiric soldiers moving from war to war) might be slight, but it's rather inventive, sincere and downright ambitious. I was only thinking about this film a couple weeks ago, and was hoping to come by it again. I've got fond memories of watching it when I was young. Lucky enough I found a shop selling their ex-rentals with it being one. Watching it again, it wasn't as fun (why did I have to spoil my memories), however it stays interesting and of course is unintentionally humorous. Not to say it doesn't chip in with its own sense of laconic humour.

War correspondent David Hollander heads to Nicaragua to cover the Civil war, and while there encounters four soldiers who he has in photographs going back through the last century of warfare. The thing is they haven't aged, and he believes these immortals to be vampires.

Sounds good, but it's limitations do hold it back. It opens up with kinetic camera-work straight out of "The Evil Dead (1981)", and sets the mood early on with a vivid music score and WW2 flashback sequence. Now here comes the good stuff. Director David Prior has his heart in it, despite the static and sloppy feel of his clammy direction. Action set- pieces are ridiculously goofy, as it's got that sense of; "You stand there, while you go over there. Now stop posing with the guns… shoot… and hide behind whatever is in front of you! When you are shot go out in a blaze of glory ". Well, it goes something like that, as he tries to do too much with very little. At least they're lively, and fruitful. Nearly everything takes place in a humid looking woodland backdrop, but towards the end the climax is wrapped around a Gothic castle. On a whole it gives the atmosphere a raw, gritty and claustrophobic strangle hold.

The performances range from outrageously hammy to plain stiff. David Parry's enigmatic performance is perfectly understated as the vampire leader Jonathan Hancock, donning a civil war coat, hat and sword. A bland William Knight is lousy as David Hollander, and truly living his part with aplomb is Stephen Quadros' as a wild-solider boy Walker lifted off Bill Paxton's turn in "Near Dark (1987)". Roger Bayless' cheesy bad guy impression reeks of lethal politeness, and screwed-up facials. At his right hand is the seductive, but deadly Tara played with utter coldness by Michiko. The screenplay does have some glaring holes of bafflement and an obvious ideology undercurrent to the text, and the script is generically macho with many bad lines. The vampire folklore, has one exception that they aren't effected by the sunlight, but a wooden stake does go a long way here.

In the end it's the unique idea of this supernatural hybrid that holds the shoddy production together.

The idea of immortal vampire soldiers is fascinating, and the mystery is quite well-kept for a while ; but once the idea is exposed, there's nothing left. A bit better than Prior's usual fare, this one keeps the militarism and racism ideology rampant in his "works" - it seems normal that American soldiers would feed on poor South Americans.