Deathdream
By Chris Hyde
July 19, 2004
Blue Underground resurrects Bob Clark’s Vietnam War era zombie pic in a new Special Edition DVD.
Prior to becoming a successful mainstream Hollywood director during the 1980s, filmmaker Bob Clark would make a trio of horror films that have always maintained enduring reputations among genre fans. Though best known for works like Porky’s and the yuletide classic A Christmas Story, it was low budget terror that got the man his start - back in the days when it was actually possible for an independent to scrape up enough money to make a cheap film that could still garner theatrical distribution. Sandwiched in between the Romeroesque Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things and the proto-slasher Black Christmas came Clark’s metaphorical take on the Vietnam war: a creepy little film called Deathdream.
Set in Florida in the early '70s, Deathdream tells the story of a young man who is killed during the conflict in Southeast Asia. Back in America, his father, sister and devoted mother at first merely hope for his safe return - but these wishes are dashed when a military representative comes to tell them the sad news of their son Andy’s (Richard Backus, in a great and understated performance) demise. Taking the information in an especially bad manner is mom (Lynn Carlin), who more or less refuses to believe that her son will not come back to her alive. Perhaps there’s something to her contention, though, for while she might have some of the facts slightly wrong, it does indeed seem that Andy is on his way home to see them.
The movie then cuts to an unknowing truck driver who picks up a soldier boy hitchhiker on the road late one night. Not realizing that he’s got a lifeless zombie for a passenger, he tries to be friendly with his charge, mostly to no avail. It follows that he likely should have passed right on by the mysterious stranger, for unsurprisingly he ends up quite dead - just around the same time as Andy Brooks makes his shocking appearance at the house of his previously bereft family. At first of course they’re just thrilled to find that he hasn’t perished in some godforsaken swamp, but as the days go on it becomes plainly evident that the boy who has come back is in no way the same nice young man who got shipped off to the Mekong delta.
Andy’s family tries to pretend that everything’s OK, but this eventually becomes impossible for everyone but the mother of the clan. She’s so blinded with love for her lost son that she willfully ignores his every action, preferring to lie to herself about the reality of her son’s condition. Others, from the father and sister to Andy’s old girlfriend, are a little more sanguine about what he’s become - but their desire to see him remain among the living clouds their judgment badly. They continue to wish that Andy is simply suffering from some sort of condition related to the stressful period he’s gone through in Vietnam; but this fervent hope is destined to be shattered as the ultimate reality of Andy’s fate becomes too obvious to dismiss.
Deathdream is ultimately the kind of horror film that’s not meant to be taken literally, as there’s never even really any good reason given for why the principal character rises from the dead to return home. It’s more of an extended metaphorical take on the war in Vietnam, using the form of a genre film to tackle a controversial subject. But director Clark handles this angle with a great deal of restraint, so that viewers can easily just see the film as a straight up piece of fright film if they so desire. The screenplay is completely effective, save for a couple of off-key moments that are meant to be humorous; but for the most part the miasmatic Florida setting and interfamilial dynamic of the action are make a perfect backdrop for the unsettling nature of the film’s storyline.
Though we’re some three decades removed from its date of release, Deathdream still stands up quite well as a film - and its new DVD incarnation is a just tribute to an American horror classic. Blue Underground is well known for the attention that they lavish on their product, and this release is certainly no exception. Along with the feature, the edition contains commentaries by both director Bob Clark and Alan Ormsby, the man who wrote the picture. Both tracks are informative and worth a listen, though the head filmmaker’s memory for detail is pretty suspect at this point (luckily, he’s teamed with a member of the Blue Underground staff who seemingly remembers everything). Also included are an interview with Richard Backus and a short documentary on Tom Savini, the famous makeup artist who got his start in the movies with this one. There’s also a nice collection of ads and posters, an alternate title sequence and a bonus version of the ending packaged on the disk, all of which makes a lot of extras for something that you can find for as little as 12 bucks.
Once again, Blue Underground has dusted off a forgotten piece of film and returned it to the public with a vengeance, adding on plenty of material that makes the DVD an excellent buy. At times this company’s approach has a “lipstick on a pig” feel, as occasionally the films that they choose fail to live up to the level of love that they give them; their recent disk of the turgid The Final Countdown being a case in point. But given the care with which they handle their product, it’s really hard to fault the outfit for devoting too much time and energy to their disks - and regardless, in this instance the movie in question is quite worthy of the devoted treatment that it has received. Long a neglected rarity known mostly by its reputation, with this new transfer to digital, Deathdream can now take its rightful place in the pantheon of '70s American horror films.
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