Thou Shall Not Kill...Except follows Jack Stryker who after being shot
twice in Vietnam is sent home to get back to his life in the states.
Shortly after getting back into town he discovers that his ex-girlfriend
has been kidnapped by a group of thugs that are lead by a manson-esque
psychopath. Stryker teams up with a few of his other former Vietnam Vet
friends to make a squad to take down the gang of killers one by one!
Review: Sadly the film I here today to review is one that went under my nose for far too long, but luckily my first time viewing it was in HD and looking great.
Like most would expect this film was done on a low budget which does show, but the acting and writing of the film makes up for it. Not saying low budget is bad because it's not, to me alot of low budget films have a certain charm to them. One thing to me that automatically made me interested in this film was because it was shot in Michigan and being born and raised in Michigan that makes it a little special to me. One thing in the film that I thought was in ways cool is that it looks like they used corn stalks to make the huts that were in the scenes of them in Vietnam. Originally Stryker was played by Bruce Campbell in the Super 8 short "Stryker's War" which is included in this set. Now I would of liked to see him in that role for the full length film, but I am still pleased with the great performance from Brian Schulz as Jack Stryker.
One of the more obvious great characters of this film was the Cult Leader played by none other than Sam Raimi. He was very much like Charles Manson, but at the same time he took on his own personality. I must not forget to mention that his brother Ted Raimi also plays as one of the gang members named Chain Man. Now to be honest when I went into this film I really was expecting something maybe a little more comedic, but instead it seemed a little more on the serious side. Now don't let that scare you away from picking this one up because it is a seriously enjoyable film that is very entertaining. As much as I like it I would love to see a MST3K commentary over this film, I think they could have fun with this one.
The picture on this film looks gritty and low budget, but I think that works great for the film and suits it. It still looks awesome in HD. Keep in mind when I say gritty I mean that in the sense of it being quite grainy. Along with the original super 8 version and the feature length film you get a boat load of special features. Overall I highly recommend this to fans of offbeat exploitation films.
-Daniel "Damnation" Lee
Director: Josh Becker
Genre: Action/Horror/Comedy
Blu-ray & DVD Release Year: 2012
Theatrical Release Year: 1985
Time Length: 83 mins.
Company: Synapse Films
