The Lost Platoon

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.

More AIP madness from b director David Pryor. It's got and interesting story behind it, but, its super low budget weighs it down. The extremely corny final battle were they try to pass a civil war fort in Alabama off as some palace in Nicaragua doesn't help either. The two best things here are the final end credits song and the quote "Thought I had the world by the balls, 'til I looked down and I saw that the balls in my hand were my own".

"The Lost Platoon" is a peculiar but fairly ambitious and admirable blend between war-drama and horror from David A. Prior; a writer/director of whom I actually thought he only makes vile and nonsensical stuff, like "Deadly Prey" and "Killer Workout". This is a substantially lacking but nevertheless atmospheric film. There's not a lot of blood and gore, but the narration is spirited and the plot is compelling enough to keep you interested. The acting performances are weak, but at least the wholesome is well-paced and there are a few interesting plot twists near the end. Actually, the best plot description I can give is by comparing the film to the (famous) Stan Ridgway song "Camouflage". The lost platoon consists of soldiers, one from each great war, who were strangely resurrected at a point of certain dead on the battlefield. Now they're doomed – although most of them really enjoy it – to fight wars for all eternity. In Vietnam, a photographer and WWII veteran thinks he recognizes one of the soldier as the one who saved his life in the frontline and then miraculously disappeared. He begins to dig a little deeper and discovers stories and photographs of this exact same platoon in several great wars, yet they never aged. This definitely isn't a bad concept for a supernatural war movie. Immortal vampire soldiers are at least something different than haunted bunkers and obscure Nazi-experiments. It's really too bad "The Lost Platoon" didn't benefice from professional cast and crew members, because there's a lot of potential in the basic premise. Fans of the horror genre will appreciate the opening sequences, which are a straightforward homage toward "The Evil Dead", as well as the tense WWII flashback.

"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

An American reporter covering a civil war in Nicaragua discovers that four soldiers also fought in the Civil War and World War II and are actual vampires fighting their own personal war.

Late director David A. Prior's The Lost Platoon offers B-movie thrills, it's arguably better made, but not as cult status as B-favourite Deadly Prey, which borrowed from Rambo and Commando. In this must watch (VHS rental in the day) both David and Ted Prior's screenplay offers an on the nose mix of The Lost Boys and Platoon. It shines with its great suck you in concept, with group of soldiers that have fought battles through time reminiscent of Highlander. Granted it's a low budget production, don't expect quality sound design or locations; but Prior uses every trick in the book to bring the story to life.

Actor William Knight features and Stephen Quadros does his best Bill Paxton, Billy Drago lookalike David Parry is memorable as the vampire leader. The supporting cast appear to be having a good time - just being in a film.

Overall, on a personal note I miss Prior. The intriguing hook idea gives the viewer exactly what's on the tin, without the blockbuster budget.