After being killed by friendly fire during the Gulf War, soldier Sam Harper (David Shark Fralick) inexplicably returns from the dead to wreak revenge upon corrupt military men, draft dodgers, tax cheats, and flag burners. His memory is cherished only by his nephew, who doesn't realize that in life Sam was an angry, violent alcoholic who abused his family members and earned his heroic medals simply by being psychotic on the battlefield. Sam crawls out of his coffin after being brought back to his hometown, steals an Uncle Sam costume and proceeds to wreak havoc on insincere patriots during a Fourth of July celebration. Fred Beldin, Rovi
This dark, brooding low-budget effort opens in Vietnam, where young infantryman Andy Brooks (Richard Backus) is struck down by a sniper's bullet. At the same time in Andy's hometown, his poor mother is uttering a desperate prayer for Andy to come home... and shortly thereafter, he does. Despite Mrs. Brooks' exultation at her son's safe return, it becomes apparent to the rest of the family that there's something terribly wrong with Andy; he won't do much more than sit in a chair, staring blankly at the walls of his room... that is, until nightfall, when he prowls the town in search of human blood, which he extracts from his victims through a syringe and injects into his own veins. The first horror effort from director Bob Clark, who followed with Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things and the effective thriller Black Christmas, this haunting film (released as The Veteran in 1972) functions as a Vietnam-era variant on the classic story of "The Monkey's Paw" and was one of the first films of the genre to address the stateside reactions to the horrors of that war. Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Genre: Horror
- Category Slasher Film, Horror Comedy, Creature Film
- Theme: Home From the War, Zombies, Ghosts, Fathers and Sons, Vampires, Mothers and Sons, Serial Killers
- Studio: Blue Underground
- Run Time: 02 hr 58 min
- Language: English
- Picture Format: widescreen
- Release Date: April 25, 2006
- Lead Actor: Richard Backus
- Supporting Actor: Lynn Carlin, Robert Cannon, Raymond Michel, Arthur Anderson, David Grawlikowski, Arthur Bradley, Mal Jones, John Marley, Anya Ormsby, Jane Daly, Jeff Gillen, Bud Hoey, Virginia Cortez, Michael Mazes, Robert Noble, Alan Ormsby, Henderson Forsythe
- Director: Bob Clark, William Lustig