The Supernaturals

Nichelle Nichols stars as a drill sergeant who takes some young army cadets to an isolated forest to do some training, but they run afoul of several ghosts / zombies from the Civil War. Some are good, but most of them are seeking revenge for having to walk on fields with land mines at gunpoint. A good cast is wasted in this slow moving, dull flick with poor zombie effects.

Rated R; Violence, Profanity, and a Mild Sexual Situation.

In 1865, In Alabama, during the American Civil War, Confederate soldiers are held captive and forced by the 44th Union Army commander to walk through a field with landmines to blow up them. The boy Jeremy (Chad Sheets) is wearing a Confederate uniform and is also forced to make the crossing. When his mother Melanie (Margaret Shendal) runs to save him, she steps on a landmine and Jeremy uses his mysterious ability to revive her. On the present days, a rookie platoon commanded by Sgt. Leona Hawkins (Nichelle Nichols) in training in the same spot and will camp, and Pvt. Ray Ellis (Maxwell Caulfield) finds the place strange, but Sgt. Hawkins is reluctant to move. Out of the Blue, Melanie reappears and meets Ellis since he recalls her husband. During the night, a mysterious fog surrounds their camp. Soon they are attacked by a horde of zombies and Ellis finds a means to stop the aggressors. Will he succeed?

"The Supernaturals" (1986) is a lame zombie movie from the 80's. When I saw it in the 80's on VHS, maybe I did not see how bad it is. But in 2024, it is awful. Nichelle Nichols should have stayed as Uhura in the cult Star Trek. The beauty of Talia Balsam is the best this movie can offer. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Os Sobrenaturais" ("The Supernaturals")

This is another movie to put on the ALRIGHT chart. Scottish-born Maxwell Caulfield and Star Treks Nichelle Nichols go down to the woods and get a big surprise. No, not Jason, ZOMBIES! A force that has brought back the dead confederate soldiers to wreak revenge on some recruits. The direction isn't up to much, the story is quite shoddy and the characters are wimps apart from the 2 listed above. The scares of being chased through the woods are quite enjoyable and the shoot-outs are quite good. But to be honest, I've seen more gore in Scooby-Doo than in this! 5.5 out of 10.

THE SUPERNATURALS stars Nichelle Nichols as Sgt. Leona Hawkins, who leads some young recruits into the deep woods on maneuvers. While setting up camp, an underground bunker is discovered. Cue the ominous atmosphere.

TWO FACTS BECOME CLEAR RIGHT AWAY: #1- Something very strange is going on. #2- The majority of Sgt. Hawkins' "soldiers" just may be the most annoying, infantile bunch of bananas to ever take up arms! The Sergeant would have her hands full with this mob under any circumstances, let alone in a supernatural situation!

Once night falls, hope arises as the herd is thinned. Cue the shambling, moldering ghouls.

This all ties in with a prologue about a terrible event that took place long ago, on the very spot where these troops are. What are the odds?

Part ghost story, part zombie movie, and part survival horror, Ms. Nichols is the one true bright spot in an otherwise so-so production.

Co-stars LeVar Burton and Scott Jacoby as the two least irritating members of the Sgt's unit...

I am a huge fan of zombie movies, so, when I found this one, I jumped to the chance of renting it. And then I knew I made a bad choice.

The movie is about a group of army recruits being led into the backwoods by their head sergeant, Uhura from Star Trek. And I'll be damned if this wasn't another sequel to those Police Academy movies or something. From that marching band music, to goofy acting, to constant joking, and so on, I was really thinking this was like the 8th sequel, "Assignment in Alabama" or something. And that wasn't a good sign.

Eventually, some "supernatural" stuff starts to happen, relating back to some flashback of a kid walking through a minefield with all these Confederate soldiers, only to have all of them blown away, except for him. A very cheesy scene. There's this woman the group finds, and apparently, they have no questioning as to who she really is, or what she's doing there. She's just with them now.

I was starting to fall asleep until finally some guy got killed by two zombies in an underground bunker. Then there's that, "We've found a body, now let's find the killer" scheme until finally, that night, there is...yes...a shoot-out between zombies--which we barely ever see--and the recruits, who are getting killed left and right. But it's no bloodbath.

There's a lot of scenes with this one guy and the zombies, while Uhura and some other chick hide behind rocks with a few other survivors and shoot at zombies. It was all really lame, until the terrible ending that had nothing resembling a climax. And then it ended. We saw an equivalent of ten zombies in the whole movie, uninteresting deaths, and basically no horror. Skip this one. It's not only a bad zombie movie, it's a bad horror movie in total.