This very cheap, no frills action-horror hybrid is something in the vein of "Platoon (1986)" crossed "The Lost Boys (1987)". Also a touch of "Near Dark (1987)". Now that's got to be something… hey? Ah, no. It's inferior film-making, but despite its shortcomings (being plenty) on the technical side. The unusual concept (of vampiric soldiers moving from war to war) might be slight, but it's rather inventive, sincere and downright ambitious. I was only thinking about this film a couple weeks ago, and was hoping to come by it again. I've got fond memories of watching it when I was young. Lucky enough I found a shop selling their ex-rentals with it being one. Watching it again, it wasn't as fun (why did I have to spoil my memories), however it stays interesting and of course is unintentionally humorous. Not to say it doesn't chip in with its own sense of laconic humour.War correspondent David Hollander heads to Nicaragua to cover the Civil war, and while there encounters four soldiers who he has in photographs going back through the last century of warfare. The thing is they haven't aged, and he believes these immortals to be vampires.Sounds good, but it's limitations do hold it back. It opens up with kinetic camera-work straight out of "The Evil Dead (1981)", and sets the mood early on with a vivid music score and WW2 flashback sequence. Now here comes the good stuff. Director David Prior has his heart in it, despite the static and sloppy feel of his clammy direction. Action set- pieces are ridiculously goofy, as it's got that sense of; "You stand there, while you go over there. Now stop posing with the guns… shoot… and hide behind whatever is in front of you! When you are shot go out in a blaze of glory ". Well, it goes something like that, as he tries to do too much with very little. At least they're lively, and fruitful. Nearly everything takes place in a humid looking woodland backdrop, but towards the end the climax is wrapped around a Gothic castle. On a whole it gives the atmosphere a raw, gritty and claustrophobic strangle hold. The performances range from outrageously hammy to plain stiff. David Parry's enigmatic performance is perfectly understated as the vampire leader Jonathan Hancock, donning a civil war coat, hat and sword. A bland William Knight is lousy as David Hollander, and truly living his part with aplomb is Stephen Quadros' as a wild-solider boy Walker lifted off Bill Paxton's turn in "Near Dark (1987)". Roger Bayless' cheesy bad guy impression reeks of lethal politeness, and screwed-up facials. At his right hand is the seductive, but deadly Tara played with utter coldness by Michiko. The screenplay does have some glaring holes of bafflement and an obvious ideology undercurrent to the text, and the script is generically macho with many bad lines. The vampire folklore, has one exception that they aren't effected by the sunlight, but a wooden stake does go a long way here.In the end it's the unique idea of this supernatural hybrid that holds the shoddy production together.

One day, a guy went to see his brother and said: "Hey'um bro! I just went and seen a motion picture film show called Near Dark." And his brother said: "Well, I jest saw me a movie called Platoon." Then the two brothers began describing their individual flimic experiences at the same time, talking over each other louder and louder until it seemed they were talking about the same film.Then they wrote it all down on the back of a Piggy Wiggly bag and called it "The Lost Platoon." The Lost Platoon is proof positive that no matter where you go, everyplace looks pretty much the same as everyplace else. In this case, France and Nicaragua both look pretty much like Turkeycrap Alabama.With great steaming hunks of inane right-wing dialog ripped bleeding from the pages of Soldier of Fortune magazine and salted with ill-remembered scenes ripped off from the poorer Schwartzenegger films, The Lost Platoon inches it's way through 86 minutes of alternating hilarious and tedious footage.By all indications, the bring-your-own-fatigues invitational shoot was a huge success, judging from the number of obese loser militia types that showed up to be filmed firing off their M-16s with near orgasmic glee. Adding to the film's woody setting is the acting, which at least is semi-obscured by the amateur-nite direction.But even more offensive to even the most brain-dead movie goer is the film's near incoherent grasp of history. Dates are bobbled. Uniforms glaringly inaccurate. At one point a picture supposedly taken during WW II clearly shows a WW I vintage tank.Die-hard fans of both vampire flicks and '80 style action should avoid this film with extreme prejudice.

Low-budget production values and some ludicrously over-the-top acting, but there's still a good little vampire flick in here, The idea of an immortal platoon that has been following the course of human war for a century definitely gives it points, as does the showboat performance of Stephen Quadros as hotshot soldier Walker and the understated, authoritative calm of David Parry as the troop's Civil-War-veteran leader, But I especially like the casting of vampire soldiers as a tireless force *against* oppressive evil, the low-key humor, and the mythic air that the film gives "los mejores" as the spooked peasants call the lethal, fast-travelling revenants. A nice little surprise; I'm glad we saw it.

The idea of immortal vampire soldiers is fascinating, and the mystery is quite well-kept for a while ; but once the idea is exposed, there's nothing left. A bit better than Prior's usual fare, this one keeps the militarism and racism ideology rampant in his "works" - it seems normal that American soldiers would feed on poor South Americans.