Deathdream Reviews

Bob Clark's first collaboration with screenwriter Alan Ormsby is this grisly, psychologically trenchant low-budget horror film. Released in 1972 Deathdream has the distinction of being one of the first American films to deal, in its own effective way, with the trauma caused by the conflict in Vietnam. Deathdream is crude and schlocky, like a lot of great 1970s horror films. Clark knew as well as any of the great horror directors of that era how to wring the most from his meager resources, and he's helped in that regard by makeup artist Tom Savini, who made his feature debut with this creepy film. The cast is also strong, including John Marley (The Godfather) and Lynn Carlin (who had starred together in John Cassavettes' Faces) as the distraught parents of Vietnam casualty Andy (Richard Backus), who's returned home as a blood-drinking ghoul. For his part, Backus may at first come off a bit too cartoonishly creepy, but there's an underlying sadness to his role that lends the movie real emotional weight. The film doesn't purport to be a definitive statement about Vietnam. There are few details about Andy's combat experience, but there is an overriding sense that this war is not like any other that's come before. Like the best genre films, Deathdream offers an interesting glimpse of the American psyche during the time it was made.