Mar 26, 2020
DEFCON-4 (1985)
"You know, I was kind of surprised when I found out that you people were up there. I never suspected we had a secret line of space defence."
"You weren't supposed to suspect."
#execution tw#Defcon 4#canadian cinema#science fiction film#films i done watched#Tim Choate#lenore zann#Maury Chaykin#Kate Lynch#kevin king#John Walsch#Jeff Pustil#Donna King#Alan MacGillivray#Florence Paterson#Paul Donovan#new world pictures#Post apocalyptic film#Part of the last gasp era of NWP as a viable cinematic distribution company after founder Roger Corman moved on a year or two earlier#Well known to Sci fi and horror film fans mostly for that pretty iconic poster and the similar video art neither of which really reflect#Anything that happens in the film. Ho hum such is the way with bargain basement schlock cinema. What is less usual is just how good this#Film almost is: it begins very strongly and quite unlike the usual NWP fare. Taking time to set the scene and introduce our protagonists#(Or some of them anyway) on a spaceship in orbit around the earth as nuclear war slowly (and then very very quickly) develops underneath#Them. This idea of apocalypse at an enforced distance is actually kind of brilliant and handled with surprising maturity and depth. There#Are still some bright ideas going on as the team crashland back on earth; slowly however these fade into the background and the film#Becomes just another post apocalyptic action nonsense. Borrowing heavily from recent antecedents like Mad Max and particularly King's#The Stand novel the rest of the film just isn't as interesting as what the first act promises. Still it's decent enough altho the budget#Constraints become increasingly obvious and some allegiances are a little difficult to fathom. The despotic ruler of the dregs of#Civilisation being a smarmy private school teen tho? That's a neat touch and utterly horribly believable