#401. Uncle Sam (1997)

Directed By: William Lustig

Starring: William Smith, David 'Shark' Fralick, Christopher Ogden




Tag line: "Uncle Sam wants you... DEAD!"

Trivia:  A lenticular 3-D poster was produced for Uncle Sam. Reportedly, only 10 of the 3-D posters were issued

Soldier Sam Harper (David Shark Fralick) is killed in action when his helicopter is shot down during Operation Desert Storm, and the only person who seems to care about his passing is his young nephew, Jody (Christopher Pgden). 

But then Jody never knew him; prior to enlisting, Sam wasn't a very good person. He was a drunk who abused his wife, Louise (Anne Tremko) and spent the majority of his adolescence molesting his younger sister, Sally (Leslie Neale), Jody's mother. 

Jody, however, refuses to believe such stories, keeping alive the memory of his beloved Uncle Sam, an American Hero who died for his country. 

What Jody doesn't know is that Uncle Sam isn't completely dead, and on the 4th of July he will rise again to put the unpatriotic citizens of his home town out of their misery. 

I was impressed with the cast that director William Lustig assembled for Uncle Sam, many playing characters not particularly proud to be Americans. Timothy Bottoms is Jody's teacher, Mr. Crandall, who years earlier headed north to avoid serving in Vietnam. Bo Hopkins, on the other hand, is Sgt. Twining, a man quite happy to be in the military. After delivering the sad news of her husband's passing, Sgt. Twining immediately puts the moves on Louise, later bragging that he's “batting .750” when it comes to scoring with bereaved widows. 

Congressman Cummings (Robert Forster) views the town's 4th of July celebration as little more than a way to schmooze voters, while Mrs. Cronin (P.J. Soles) has hated the holiday ever since her only son, Barry (Zachary McLemore), was badly injured by a faulty fireworks display. 

Even Jed Crowley (Isaac Hayes), a veteran who lost his leg fighting in the Korean War, tries to convince young Jody not to enlist in the military, claiming modern warfare doesn't have much of a purpose. Many of them will pay the ultimate price for their "disloyalty" once Sam returns from the grave. 

That's because Sam can't abide a lack of patriotism, and ensures that anyone he catches disrespecting their country will never do so again. His first victim, a peeping tom in an Uncle Sam costume, learns the hard way that he shouldn't have tarnished the reputation of an American icon, and a few teens who burn the flag don't live long enough to brag about it (one is strung up by the neck...on a flagpole). Throughout Uncle Sam, the killer stalks the "Un-American" at the town's 4th of July picnic, culminating in a fireworks display you won't soon forget. 

After Halloween, Black Christmas, even Mother's Day, it was only a matter of time before the slasher subgenre got around to the glorious 4th, and Uncle Sam does not disappoint. Bringing gore to the birthday of the good 'ole USA, Uncle Sam is an all-American blood bath, not to mention a flag-waving good time.