User reviews

Low-budget production values and some ludicrously over-the-top acting, but there's still a good little vampire flick in here, The idea of an immortal platoon that has been following the course of human war for a century definitely gives it points, as does the showboat performance of Stephen Quadros as hotshot soldier Walker and the understated, authoritative calm of David Parry as the troop's Civil-War-veteran leader, But I especially like the casting of vampire soldiers as a tireless force *against* oppressive evil, the low-key humor, and the mythic air that the film gives "los mejores" as the spooked peasants call the lethal, fast-travelling revenants. A nice little surprise; I'm glad we saw it.

This very cheap, no frills action-horror hybrid is something in the vein of "Platoon (1986)" crossed "The Lost Boys (1987)". Also a touch of "Near Dark (1987)". Now that's got to be something… hey? Ah, no. It's inferior film-making, but despite its shortcomings (being plenty) on the technical side. The unusual concept (of vampiric soldiers moving from war to war) might be slight, but it's rather inventive, sincere and downright ambitious. I was only thinking about this film a couple weeks ago, and was hoping to come by it again. I've got fond memories of watching it when I was young. Lucky enough I found a shop selling their ex-rentals with it being one. Watching it again, it wasn't as fun (why did I have to spoil my memories), however it stays interesting and of course is unintentionally humorous. Not to say it doesn't chip in with its own sense of laconic humour.

War correspondent David Hollander heads to Nicaragua to cover the Civil war, and while there encounters four soldiers who he has in photographs going back through the last century of warfare. The thing is they haven't aged, and he believes these immortals to be vampires.

Sounds good, but it's limitations do hold it back. It opens up with kinetic camera-work straight out of "The Evil Dead (1981)", and sets the mood early on with a vivid music score and WW2 flashback sequence. Now here comes the good stuff. Director David Prior has his heart in it, despite the static and sloppy feel of his clammy direction. Action set- pieces are ridiculously goofy, as it's got that sense of; "You stand there, while you go over there. Now stop posing with the guns… shoot… and hide behind whatever is in front of you! When you are shot go out in a blaze of glory ". Well, it goes something like that, as he tries to do too much with very little. At least they're lively, and fruitful. Nearly everything takes place in a humid looking woodland backdrop, but towards the end the climax is wrapped around a Gothic castle. On a whole it gives the atmosphere a raw, gritty and claustrophobic strangle hold.

The performances range from outrageously hammy to plain stiff. David Parry's enigmatic performance is perfectly understated as the vampire leader Jonathan Hancock, donning a civil war coat, hat and sword. A bland William Knight is lousy as David Hollander, and truly living his part with aplomb is Stephen Quadros' as a wild-solider boy Walker lifted off Bill Paxton's turn in "Near Dark (1987)". Roger Bayless' cheesy bad guy impression reeks of lethal politeness, and screwed-up facials. At his right hand is the seductive, but deadly Tara played with utter coldness by Michiko. The screenplay does have some glaring holes of bafflement and an obvious ideology undercurrent to the text, and the script is generically macho with many bad lines. The vampire folklore, has one exception that they aren't effected by the sunlight, but a wooden stake does go a long way here.

In the end it's the unique idea of this supernatural hybrid that holds the shoddy production together.

In 1991 in Nicaragua, an American reporter recognizes four soldiers he met in the World War II who have not aged. He realizes that the group is a vampire platoon. The premise of "The Lost Platoon" is very interesting, and there is a good camera work that recalls "Evil Dead". However, the screenplay is silly and direction and the performance of the cast is very weak. The ideology hidden in the plot, defending the intervention of the American government in the Civil War of Nicaragua is also a crap. The cover of the DVD is very attractive and probably is the best of this forgettable flick. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Pelotão Vampiro" ("Vampire 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.

The idea of immortal vampire soldiers is fascinating, and the mystery is quite well-kept for a while ; but once the idea is exposed, there's nothing left. A bit better than Prior's usual fare, this one keeps the militarism and racism ideology rampant in his "works" - it seems normal that American soldiers would feed on poor South Americans.

One day, a guy went to see his brother and said: "Hey'um bro! I just went and seen a motion picture film show called Near Dark." And his brother said: "Well, I jest saw me a movie called Platoon." Then the two brothers began describing their individual flimic experiences at the same time, talking over each other louder and louder until it seemed they were talking about the same film.

Then they wrote it all down on the back of a Piggy Wiggly bag and called it "The Lost Platoon." The Lost Platoon is proof positive that no matter where you go, everyplace looks pretty much the same as everyplace else. In this case, France and Nicaragua both look pretty much like Turkeycrap Alabama.

With great steaming hunks of inane right-wing dialog ripped bleeding from the pages of Soldier of Fortune magazine and salted with ill-remembered scenes ripped off from the poorer Schwartzenegger films, The Lost Platoon inches it's way through 86 minutes of alternating hilarious and tedious footage.

By all indications, the bring-your-own-fatigues invitational shoot was a huge success, judging from the number of obese loser militia types that showed up to be filmed firing off their M-16s with near orgasmic glee. Adding to the film's woody setting is the acting, which at least is semi-obscured by the amateur-nite direction.

But even more offensive to even the most brain-dead movie goer is the film's near incoherent grasp of history. Dates are bobbled. Uniforms glaringly inaccurate. At one point a picture supposedly taken during WW II clearly shows a WW I vintage tank.

Die-hard fans of both vampire flicks and '80 style action should avoid this film with extreme prejudice.

"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

"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.

The last time I watched a horror flick about undead soldiers, it was a no-budget indie production that was effectively filmed in the woods behind someone's house, standing in for another country, and for that matter, pretty much on video. Sights unseen that's what I expected of this, too - so imagine my surprise when I see 'The lost platoon' apparently benefited from actual resources and financial backing! Some, anyway! I'm not saying this 1990 release is any prime exemplar, but I recognize the (modest) time, money, and care that went into the suitably flavorful production design and art direction, the capably evocative costume design, hair, and makeup, and the gratifying, appreciable practical effects, stunts, and action sequences. Real thought went into the editing, the cinematography, and certainly the filming locations. And I really like the somber, moody energy of the music, too, arguably melodramatic though it may be.

On the other hand, whether it was a matter of skill, experience, limitations of the production, or creative choices, other facets of the picture don't come off quite so well. Take for one example - and hardly the only one - an early scene where a group of extras seemingly had difficulty following rudimentary instructions, and it comes across that either director David A. Prior lacked the know-how to try another take, and/or the production lacked the film stock. The acting is highly variable, such that while some select individuals give fairly good or at least earnest performances (I'd argue William Frederick Knight, David Parry, and Michiko), others (Stephen Quadros, Tim Lutz, Roger Bayliss) come off a lot more poorly, and even those trying their hardest have notable weak spots.

In fairness, it's not necessarily their fault. In general the direction is soft and unpracticed, distinctly dampening what vitality the proceedings might have carried; sometimes the execution is gawkily forthright. Just as troublesome, the dialogue tends to be oafish, blunt, and hokey, if not downright awful; the scene writing commonly bears good ideas but is fleshed out much more questionably. The concept of the feature is rather fantastic as an aging war correspondent discovers that four young soldiers have fought in numerous conflicts spanning several decades and haven't aged one bit - a swell blend of the horror and war genres, with the core narrative set in Nicaragua against a foe of a similar dark nature. Yet 'The lost platoon' is a straightforward action piece, and doesn't delve as much into the horror that would help the movie to stand out, and the writing isn't smart enough to tackle the themes, ideas, and questions that would make such characters especially interesting.

It's not that this title is bad. It's somewhat enjoyable, if ultimately middling and less than particularly memorable. It's surprisingly firm with regards to the craftsmanship of the contributions from behind the scenes; again, the effects and action scenes are unexpectedly sharp, and I really do like the music of Tim James, Mark Mancini, and Steve McClintock. The problem is that the sum total feels too much like a rendition of the concept that has been reduced and simplified - the most ordinary and unremarkable iteration of an idea that begins with "these soldiers are extraordinary and remarkable." At its worst the writing is all but boneheaded, and the direction has points that are sadly unconvincing, or gauche. No, 'The lost platoon' isn't bad, but it's a so-so representation of splendid notions, and maybe it never had much of a chance of being any better than that. It's duly entertaining if you happen to come across it on a quiet night. Just don't go out of your way for it, and keep your expectations in check, and maybe that's the best way to get the most out of this.

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".

I have seen this film but it was many years ago, when myself and a friend used to rent videos from the local store and there were certain ones we would rent again and again.

This film (Along with "Trick or Treat" & "Killer Clowns from Outer Space") was one of the few that we could watch umpteen times without getting sick of it.

It may have been the "implied" vampirism, as we were big horror fans, or just that at the time we were into war films ("Platoon", "Jacob's Ladder", "Full Metal Jacket", that sort of thing)

I have been wondering if I could get a copy of it from somewhere. I loved it, and would love to know if it has ever been released on DVD.

Would anyone with information about it being released on DVD please contact me. Thanks.

Movie exudes testosterone at every turn, featuring soldiers from different wars in time who may or may not be immortal vampires. Not your typical Gothic vampire fantasy, although fangs are beared. The only woman included in the movie is a beautiful but vicious killer, so the focus is on wartime combat and militaristic posturing and posing. Dozens of extras are machine gunned down, EACH one dying with a loud post-production shout of pain. The mustached actor playing an evil general is so over-the-top you'd think he stepped out of "Airplane -- the Movie."

There's much to recommend here, too. The guy who plays a WWII grunt looks like he was transported from a 1942 Warner Brothers war movie. Especially effective is lead performance by stoic David Parry as a soldier from the Civil War. Parry remains calmly understated as the leader of the lost platoon, and demonstrates how intelligent acting and good looks can make movies like this endurable, and even entertaining.

Set during the Vietnam War, but with a twist-after a platoon gets ambushed in the jungle, they stumble upon a hidden vampire tribe. Suddenly, the soldiers are not only fighting for their lives against the enemy but also battling vampires who pick them off one by one.

The movie blends war action with supernatural horror, and while it doesn't do anything particularly groundbreaking, there's something fun about it. The war scenes are gritty, showing the horrors of battle, and then throw in a vampire threat, which amps up the tension in an unexpected way. The jungle setting makes everything feel even more intense-both the real danger of the war and the spooky, supernatural danger lurking in the shadows.

The acting is decent and the practical effects are definitely a highlight.

A quirky film that surprises.

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.