VFW / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JOE BEGOS / SCREENPLAY: MAX BRALLIER, MATTHEW MCARDLE / STARRING: STEPHEN LANG, WILLIAM SADLER, FRED WILLIAMSON, SIERRA MCCORMICK, TOM WILLIAMSON, TRAVIS HAMMER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
In a crime-riddled urban hellscape of the near future, a junkie steals the valuable drug stash of the crime lord who murdered her sister, and seeks sanctuary in a bar for combat veterans, who then defend their bastion from an endless assault of mindless psychopaths sent to kill them all.
Joe Begos has an eclectic body of work, from the Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Xtro stylings of Almost Human, the pseudo-Scanners body horror of The Mind’s Eye and the vampiric hedonism of Bliss. VFW, featuring a relentless onslaught of faceless maniacs determined to breach a building in which is holed up a small band of defenders, has an obvious comparison in Assault on Precinct 13, or that film’s less frequently referenced progenitor Rio Bravo. However, its combination riffing on past efforts results in a creation very much its own thing.
The straightforward premise allows everything you need to know to get set up swiftly and efficiently – the deteriorating city of the setting, the camaraderie of the old soldiers, the sadism of the villain – leaving the rest of the running time for barrelling through its ceaseless carnage. The film’s brutal violence is augmented by the practical effects that add to its ‘80s aesthetic, exploding heads and blasted torsos splattering gore across the claustrophobic set by improvised weaponry.
Setting the film apart from other efforts of reconstructed grindhouse sleaze is the efficiently and skilfully drawn interpersonal dynamics of its ensemble of aging badasses. The most notable of them are Stephen Lang, who seems to have spent that last decade cornering the market for non-Expendables grizzled old fighters, William Sadler, who gets the bulk of the best lines in an already tightly-written script, and Fred Williamson, who has played variations on such characters for decades. The camaraderie between the group is clear, even without tales of the wartime survival they endured together, and as you get to know them as people they become increasingly real.
In the moments the film allows you to come up for air it affords you just enough insight into everyone involved to recognisable them as a distinct individual rather than just making up the numbers of a generic ensemble. The personal affinity you begin to feel for them makes you concerned for their safety and hoping for the ultimate survival, even though knowing that in films such as this a steady body count among the featured cast is practically mandatory to maintain the tension.
VFW is fast, relentless and nasty, barely letting up from its opening burst to its final moments. It’s a gloriously retro throwback and heavily stylised mix of vicious carnage and fast-paced character beats, all lit in neon fire, cascading moonlight and blazing flame.
