TheSupernaturals

The Supernaturals (1986)

The movie opens towards the end of the Civil War with some Union Soldiers force some Confederate Soldiers to walk thru a minefield they planted to kill Yankees. One of the soldiers is actually a young boy who has recently lost his father in the war and with some foreboding is said to be special. When his mother is killed trying to save him some weird glowy stuff happens around his hands and the action moves to the present day. It just so happens that soldiers from the same unit are on maneuvers in the forest where all this nastiness went down. Before you can say honorable discharge the motley crew of recruits meet up with a woman who looks just like the boys mother and are attacked by Confederate zombies (though they are never referred to as zombies). Will any of them survive the encounter with the relics from the past or all they all doomed?

This movie had some potential but is really bogged down by a plot that maybe needed to figure out what it wanted to be and of course is a victim to some poor casting. The movie has a cool idea at it’s core with the whole zombie/ghost Confederates rising from the Grave. But they never really decide what is going on and leave too much unexplained, which makes for a movie that just doesn’t make any sense. Was it the boy’s power that brings the soldiers back from the grave, or was it his mother? Why did he age and she didn’t? Also I had a hard time buying into the fact that the kid was supposed to be 131 years old (at least!). But then again maybe I’m just being picky because the movie has long slow stretches where I was bored and allowed my mind to wander. I also have to mention two casting choices. First is that of Maxwell Caulfield in the lead role of Private Ellis. I’ve never really like Caulfield in anything that he has been in and is one of those actors that I think stinks up whatever movie he is in. But again that is just my opinion. The one casting choice that just really doesn’t make any sense to me is that of Star Trek veteran Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) in the role as the grizzled sergeant leading the troops on their maneuvers. She is really miscast in this role, to the point that it is really distracting. Not trying to be mean but I just never bought her as the character and it bugged me every time she was on screen.

For a zombie film (and again they never call them that, but they obviously are) there isn’t that much in the way of gore. In fact most of the kills are pretty tame. But what always struck me about this movie is how cool the Confederate undead look. We don’t get to see much of them, but the creature design and effects are memorable and fun. Also be aware that most of the good effects work are seen in the last 20 minutes of the movie, so if you are going to watch this do yourself a favor and stick with it.

This is one of those movies that I remember from the video store back in the day. Mostly because it has a great cover on the VHS, which unfortunately the movie just can’t live up to. I can’t really recommend spending too much time or money getting yourself a copy of this movie (which doesn’t have an official DVD release). I got my copy from one of my favorite websites, Kentucky Bootleg. While I don’t normally advocate grey market movies sometimes that is the only way to get your hands on something. Check them out at http://kentuckybootleg.com/ for more information.

1 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer