Bill Lustig’s Blue Underground has already set the benchmark for HD renderings of exploitation film and now Lustig has brought one of his own directorial efforts to DVD: the patriotic slasher UNCLE SAM! When teens burn an American flag over the grave of a Desert Storm veteran Sam Harper (David Fralick), he rises from the grave as a zombie to kill unpatriotic citizens of his home town on the 4th of July. Draft dodgers, a peeping tom in an Uncle Sam costume (soon donned by zombie Sam), crooked politicians, and the like are the targets of much gory mayhem including impalings, dismemberments, and skull-splitting. Can Sam’s nephew Jody (Christopher Ogden) and his war buddy turned school janitor Jed (SHAFT’s Isaac Hayes) save the day? JACKIE BROWN’s Robert Forster, everyone’s favorite Southern sheriff Bo Hopkins, HALLOWEEN’s bubbly P.J. Soles, and a pot-smoking Timothy Bottoms co-star.
UNCLE SAM gets the HD overhaul with a 2.35:1 16:9 anamorphic picture with 7.1 DTS-HD and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks (and English, French, and Spanish subtitles). There are two audio commentaries with 1) director Lustig and actor Hayes and 2) Lustig, writer Larry Cohen (Q, THE WINGED SERPENT), and producer George Braunstein. There’s an interview with stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos, a trailer, deleted scene, gag reel, and stills gallery. It’s highly doubtful anyone will better a release of this film from the director’s own company.
