VFW: Visceral Terror
VFW is one of the great siege films, up there with Night of the Living Dead, Assault on Precinct 13, and Green Room.
The best efforts of this subgenre waste few beats in the lead-up to the inciting incident. Within a matter of minutes, VFW gives an endearing introduction to our rugged protagonists at the titular location. There’s laughing and drinking as the veterans break balls and recall former glories. One character is reluctant to acknowledge his birthday, which everybody knows.
Then teenage Lizard (Sierra McCormick) bursts through the door with a stash of drugs stolen from the psychotic Boz (Travis Hammer), and the situation drastically changes.
VFW is such a visceral exercise in terror and tension that even a detailed description of its plot wouldn’t come close to capturing the experience. Like the war stories recalled by our weathered – yet game – characters, there is a certain you-had-to-be-there quality to the proceedings.
“Veteran” Tough Guys
The cast is a strategic commingling of actors with experience in comedy, action, andhorror. Stephen Lang played the heavy in the Michael J. Fox comedy The Hard Way, and was great in Don’t Breathe. Martin Kove was Kreese in The Karate Kid films, but also the dim deputy in the original Last House on the Left. William Sadler played the villain in Die Hard 2, channeled Death in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, and was at the forefront of another siege in Demon Knight. Fred Williamson, star of many influential blaxploitation films, satirized his own tough-guy image in From Dusk Till Dawn. David Patrick Kelly depicted creeps in Commando and The Crow, but also played the loopy Jerry Horne on Twin Peaks. As for George Wendt, Norm from Cheers showed a dark side in Stuart Gordon’s underrated King of the Ants.
These guys have had long and storied character-actor careers, and I’m sure the tales they could tell (off-mic, of course) would be amazing. There’s a nothing-to-lose sense of humor to the group, and their camaraderie is a huge part of what makes VFW tick. As actors, they’ve served in the trenches of low-budget obscurity and the Hollywood system alike, and this project feels like a glorious conflagration of their combined talents.
But it’s Lang, voice like a creaky floorboard, and a modesty that betrays his readiness for battle, who commands the film. At the first sign of trouble, there is no slack-jawed down time while the characters scramble to formulate a plan of retaliation. The violence is quick, brutal, and marked by squished prosthetics and lawn-sprinkler arterial spray. The veterans’ survival instincts kick in like a long-dormant reflex; as a result, I didn’t have time to nitpick any “would that really happen?” moments, because I just didn’t care. For 93 minutes, I was swept along on a wave of gore, crackling banter, and strategically-employed neon lighting.
A Streamlined Horror Machine
Maybe that’s why VFW is the first Joe Begos film I really connected with. The older I get, the less impressed I am by the mere spectacle of over-the-top gore. What makes the violence in VFWcomplementary is the level of camaraderie between the vets. Early on, we get a sense of who they are, deepened by decades-long friendship. They joke around, they argue…but in the end, they’re all there for each other, to the point where a young vet fresh off the plane (Tom Williamson) is quickly assimilated into the group.
Max Brallier and Matthew McArdle’s script jettisons time-killing exposition and contrived conflict, keeping focused on the primal emotions of the fight-or-flight tale. The scenario proper is depicted in war-like terms, from the geography (a fence and street separate the VFW from a run-down movie house where the drug-addicted punks reside), to the way the ostensible leaders on each “side” approach their roles (Boz stands on the sidelines, giving commands while his minions swarm the VFW; Fred, on the other hand, is in the forefront of the fight).
I love movies made from borrowed parts as much as those that push into unfamiliar terrain. After the disappointments of Almost Human and Bliss, Begos has crafted one of the great horror films. He cribs from a million different sources, but the assembly is brilliant and streamlined, producing a well-oiled horror machine that does right by its cast of seasoned veterans and up-and-coming talent alike. VFW is a special treat for those who appreciate gory horror and smart filmmaking.
4.5 out of 5 stars
The Plot Sickens: Don’t miss Jonny Numb’s review of 3 From Hell!
Crash Analysis Support Team
Jonny Numb
Jonny Numb (aka Jonathan Weidler) never learned how to swim, but can float just fine. He co-hosts The Last Knock podcast with Billy Crash, and can be found in the social-media sewers of Twitter and Letterboxd @JonnyNumb.
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(VFW image from The Daily Beast.)