Killzone (1985) User Reviews

KILL!

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 27 June 2023]

Colonel Crawford (David Campbell, Killer Workout) is the sadistic commander of Scare Camp, which shows civilians the survivalist skills they need. He's made it as rough as the real thing, which is the worst thing that can happen to veteran Jason McKenna (Fritz Matthews, Deadly Prey) who has a flashback and sees everything happening as if he were back in Vietnam.

And now he's broken out of Scare Camp and started killing people in the neighboring town.

Directed by David A. Prior, who co-wrote the movie with Jack Marino, this film makes you wonder why a camp like this would exist and why it would push people into feeling like a POW. Now that his friend has lost his mind, can Mitchell (Ted Prior) get him back to sanity?

If you've seen Deadly Prey, you've seen a similar story. Yet this is worth watching as well, as the Priors were able to get so much out of their small budgets and make rental choices for when Rambo was out of stock. This is a movie from a universe where a shotgun can knock a helicopter out of the sky and isn't that the kind of place where we all wish that we could be from time to time?

Epitaph for My Journey

[Zantara Xenophobe · 7/10 · 31 July 2004]

About ten years ago I saw my first two David A. Prior films. They were `Mankillers' and `The Lost Platoon,' and I didn't like them at all. Seven years later I would find myself on a strange quest: to see all of the films of this writer/director. With the viewing of `Killzone,' that quest is now complete. I have seen every movie David Prior has made except one. At the time of this writing, his last film, `Hostile Environment,' is only available in Germany. It's been six years since that movie was made, and I have to assume that it will not be released in the United States and that Prior will not make any more films. It's been a rocky road, but I have made it. I survived the bad times and cherished the good. Now that it is done, I don't know what else to do but write just one more comment.

The reason I was able to see the majority of Prior's films is because a local station always aired AIP movies, and most of Prior's movies were shown. The first one, aside from the aforementioned films a few years before, that I would see would be `The Final Sanction.' It was a terrible excursion. Then came `Hell on the Battleground,' and `Killer Workout,' which I also hated. Thinking I had found some nugget to vent my frustrations on, I kept watching. But most of the bad stuff had passed and I saw things that I really liked. They were always small in budget, but many times very entertaining and fun. I watched all that aired, including `That's Action,' a poor montage of AIP films hosted by actor Robert Culp, who obviously hadn't bothered to actually watch any of the films he was talking about. I tracked down non-AIP films, like `The P.A.C.K.' and even his first film, the shot-on-video horror movie `Sledgehammer' (quite a strange experience). Finally came `Killzone.' After watching it, it seems appropriate that this was the last one. The reason for that is because it foreshadows his future projects and was a source of inspiration for him.

The story of `Killzone' starts out at a Vietnam P.O.W. camp, where the Vietcong are brutally keeping American soldiers at bay. Two of them are McKenna (Fritz Matthews) and Mitchell (Ted Prior, David's brother and frequent star). McKenna's abuse has sent him over the edge, making him a loose cannon that even makes the other American soldiers nervous, except for faithful Mitchell. The brutality continues for twenty minutes until McKenna escapes custody. That's when the big plot twist is revealed. I hesitate spoiling this for anyone, so don't read on if you plan on seeing this. Okay, it is revealed that this is not Vietnam. The war has been over for years. Actually, this is some sort of military training camp or war games for vets, run by the overly brutal Colonel Crawford (David Campbell). When McKenna escapes, he thinks he is back in Vietnam and kills some of the men portraying the Vietcong and is thus a major danger to anyone he crosses. Crawford and all his men need to hunt down McKenna before he hurts someone else. But Crawford also doesn't want to get in trouble, so he intends to kill McKenna and cover up the misdeeds. So begins the chase as a wigged-out McKenna fights for his life against his own brothers-in-arms, with only sympathetic Mitchell on his side.

When Prior started working for AIP, he used this story and some techniques as a backdrop for other projects. I suspect it probably impressed the AIP heads, too, and they wanted more like it. Unfortunately, the films that would be resulting from it would be `Hell on the Battleground,' Deadly Prey,' and `Operation Warzone .' Particularly, `Deadly Prey' would almost mimic it, having a vet (Ted Prior) being hunted by a survivalist camp led by Colonel Hogan (David Campbell) and only one man (Fritz Matthews) on his side. None of Prior's other war movies would come close in action or style to `Killzone.' Part of this was AIP's limited budget, but another part is that `Killzone' feels like more people cared. The action work is great and the camerawork superb (see the truck and helicopter scenes). The acting is better by the same people that would be in the same future pictures. Best of all, I cared about what was going on. I wanted to know what would happen next. That is what filmmaking is all about. Though flawed (the first twenty minutes are boring) the film is satisfying. Zantara's score: 7 out of 10.

For the record, here are what I think of all Prior's films, sans his last one:

PRIOR FILMS TO CHECK OUT: Night Wars, White Fury, Lock ‘n' Load, Killzone, Double Threat, Invasion Force, Born Killer, Future Zone, Raw Nerve, Mutant Species, Center of the Web.

TWEENERS: Rapid Fire, Jungle Assault, Felony, Raw Justice, Mardi Gras for the Devil, Death Chase, Body Count, Sledgehammer, The P.A.C.K.

PRIOR FILMS TO AVOID: Future Force, That's Action, The Lost Platoon, Mankillers, Deadly Prey, Killer Workout, The Final Sanction, Hell on the Battleground, Operation Warzone.

I sometimes wonder what David Prior would think if he stumbled upon my various reviews (but if I was e-mailed by someone claiming to be him, I wouldn't believe it to be real). While I scorned some of his movies, I also praised what I thought was great. Would he be upset that I insulted something as bad as `The Final Sanction' and `Operation Warzone?' Would he be happy that I had good things to say about `Lock n Load,' White Fury,' and `Night Wars?' I'm not really sure, but I like to believe that he would just be happy that someone tried to watch every film he ever made.

So long, David A. Prior! Thanks for all the good times and bad!

Killzone pointed the way forward for AIP so even as simply a historical lesson, it's worth seeing!

[tarbosh22000 · 6/10 · 2 April 2012]

Welcome to "Scare Camp", a military training area designed in every detail to resemble the horrors of Vietnam-era POW camps. It even includes torture. All this to prepare the minds and bodies of soldiers for potential capture. The camp is run by Col. Crawford (Campbell), but Crawford gets a bit over-zealous, and one of the soldiers, McKenna (Matthews), finally snaps and totally flips out. He now thinks he's actually back in 'Nam and begins killing everyone in sight. Now Campbell has a big mess on his hands and he feels the best way to deal with it is to have McKenna eliminated. But one of McKenna's buddies, Sgt. Mitchell (Prior) believes in him, and wants to bring him back to reality safely and not kill him. So now it's a race against time between the two buddies and the people that want to destroy them. THIS military training exercise just got real.

This effort was only the second movie from the Prior brothers, and the first in a long line of jungle war tales. While resembling the same year's Missing In Action II: The Beginning (1985), it couldn't possibly be a knockoff, though Killzone has a much lower-budget feel to it because it didn't have Cannon money financing it. Even AIP had technically yet to be born. But besides the Priors, it has other mainstays of their movies such as Fritz Matthews (who would really come into his own with Hell On The Battleground, 1989), William Zipp, and David Campbell. Even Simon Rhee is credited as being one of "Crawford's Men".

Combine the aforementioned MIA II with later Prior movie Deadly Prey (1987), and you have some idea of what's going on here. Killzone is most definitely a dry run for the wonderful Deadly Prey, seeing as it has a similar cast, a similar plot, and some of the same silly violence. But DP is probably the pinnacle of the AIP/Prior canon, so it's hard to compare anything to it, really. The first half-hour of Killzone is the Prerequisite Torture we've seen many times before, but here they get it all out of the way right off the bat. It makes sense, because we need to see what would make McKenna go nuts. Thanks to the way it was shot, Killzone has a more professional look than some of the later AIP output. And considering they were just starting out, this is a really great effort. Looking back today, you can see the direction they would later take, and that's quite interesting.

Just check out that great cover art for the VHS release. How could you not want to rent that? And the icing on the cake is that it was released on one of our favorite labels, Vestron. To date it has not been released on DVD so if you see it anywhere, definitely pick it up. AIP fans or fans of low-budget action/war cinema also take note.

Killzone pointed the way forward for AIP so even as simply a historical lesson, it's worth seeing. But put Ted Prior and Fritz Matthews in the woods with some machine guns, and there's your movie right there.

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Another survival gem from David A. Prior

[Deliberate_Stranger · 7 October 2010]

'Killzone' is precursor of legendary 'Deadly Prey' directed by David A. Prior for AIP two years later. Plot is very similar. Col Crawford runs a training camp for soldiers where they are working hard to be fit and ready to next missions. One of the soldiers named McKenna depressed after Vietnam war starts loosing his mind and he thinks he is in nam again. Brutally tortured by Crawford he manages to escape from the camp thinking everyone around is his enemy. He kills several soldiers during his escape which causes problems for Crawford who knows he crossed the line torturing McKenna and he can loose his position if anyone will find out about his methods of training so Crawford with his men goes after his prey with only one thing in mind - killing McKenna. Hoever he doesn't know there is a traitor in his squad... 'Killzone' is a beautiful and brutal movie about real friendship (McKenna- Mitchell) and hate(Crawford). Acting from main characters is very good. Ted Prior and David Campbell did amazing job as usual. Larry Udy was great as Crawford's main henchman too. Fritz Matthews is not the best actor in the world but he did great too and as usual shown some great hand to hand fights. Colonel Crawford is one of the best villains in the movie history. I wasn't expecting his character will be more vicious than his later part as Col. Hogan in Deadly Prey but he was and his fight with Mitchell is pure masterpiece. Killzone is not so gory like 'Deadly Prey' but it certainly offers some goods like decapitation and usual 'jungle traps'. Finally like in 'Deadly Prey' we have great ending and psychedelic sounds(seagulls!). If you enjoyed DP you should fall in love with Killzone too. To be honest 'Killzone' is much deeper and intelligent movie where you can see like a man destroyed by the war slowly becomes dangerous even for his best friend. 'Killzone' was never released on DVD and It's extremely rare on VHS so if you will have a chance to buy it - don't hesitate for a second.