Kill Zone Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.0

Kill Zone Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 12, 2023

Kill Zone and/or Killzone may spark visions of videogames rather than films for some fans, but quite a while before the Sony game franchise was launched this low budget film was released in 1985. The back cover of this release engages in what might be thought of as a bit of press agent hyperbole, claiming Kill Zone offers "the savagery of The Deer Hunter, the brutality of First Blood and the unbridled power of Rambo", which, despite using a certain Sylvester Stallone franchise for two out of its three comparison slots might still be grasping at veritable straws. As is discussed in some of the fun background information MVD has aggregated as supplemental material for this release, Kill Zone was a pretty typical lo-fi straight to video effort that even producer and co-writer Jack Marino evidently never thought would have much of a shelf life, let alone one that stretched on for decades into the high definition era. Like a lot of less fulsomely budgeted independent fare, Kill Zone is kind of a scrappy underdog of a "Vietnam film", though the whole "Vietnam" aspect actually comes into play as part of some post traumatic stress disorder being suffered by veteran Jason McKenna (Fritz Matthews).

There are any number of war or action related films that seem to begin with some kind of skirmish which then actually turns out to be part of a training exercise, and that whole idea might be expanded to provide a more or less complete summary of the underpinning of Kill Zone's plot mechanics. A martinet colonel named Crawford (David Campbell), whom you know has to be a quasi-bad guy because he's always chomping on a cigar, operates a so-called Scare Camp to give soldiers a "first hand" (first blood?) idea of what being a prisoner of war can be like. Unfortunately for Crawford and some of the folks "cos playing" being Vietnamese, McKenna's own emotional instability starts unraveling, and McKenna starts thinking he's actually back in Vietnam, needing to, well, go all Rambo on people in order to gain his freedom.

As McKenna starts to lose it, he attracts the attention of fellow "P.O.W." Mitchell (Ted Prior, brother of co-writer and director David Prior), and the two form an unlikely alliance, one that seems positively gonzo considering the fact that McKenna is, not to mix metaphors and/or plot points, not taking any prisoners, so to speak. There are some curious elisions at play in this screenplay, which wants to toy with the idea that McKenna is never quite sure what's "real" and what isn't, but unfortunately that very ambiguity may be confounding to viewers, as there are some "flashbacks" that seem like they're at the very least questionable, if not springing from the addled mind of an "unreliable narrator".

The chief allure here is the dynamic between McKenna, Mitchell and Crawford, with a number of relatively graphic kill scenes taking place in a forested setting. The film obviously was shot on a shoestring (or, as I sometimes joke, maybe only an aglet), and that means there's really not any "epic" feel to anything, despite some fleeting attempts to inject some production finesse, especially in an over the top climax. Matthews and Prior both bring a certain stolid quality and obviously bulging biceps to the project, but none of the acting in Kill Zone is exactly Oscar material.

Kill Zone Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kill Zone is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the MVD Rewind Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The back cover of this release states that this was "scanned and restored in 4K in 2023 from 35mm interpositive", but even a 4K scan can only do so much with whatever element is being utilized, and so I'd caution a bit of appropriate expectation setting when approaching viewing this film. Probably the best overall thing about the transfer is the relative vividness of the palette. The opening optically printed credits sequence is pretty rough looking, including with a splotchy, somewhat degraded looking, palette, but once that has ended, things improve measurably and a lot of the film offers some decently saturated hues, especially in some of the jungle greens. Detail levels are a bit variable, and can actually vary within the same shot, which may hint at some curation issues for the interpositive. That hunch is probably bolstered by some clear variances in contrast, clarity and saturation that can attend certain scenes (compare screenshots 18 and 19, which were captured only a second or so apart from each other). There's quite a bit of recurrent age related wear and tear on display, but nothing I'd personally term overly distracting. As with some of the other aspects of this transfer, grain resolution shows some clear variations, but on the whole looks organic and natural.

Kill Zone Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kill Zone features LPCM 2.0 Mono audio, and the film's low budget sound design frankly doesn't present any undue hurdles for the mono track to overcome. Dialogue (such as it is) and probably more importantly in this particular case sound effects all are presented with good fidelity and no real issues, other than a bit of thinness that actually may be more noticeable in the midrange than on the high end. Optional English subtitles are available.

Kill Zone Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Kill Zone (HD; 37:52) offers a pretty comprehensive overview, with Steve Ladshaw hosting Jack Marino in a somewhat awkwardly staged but informative interview.


• Kill Zone VHS Version SD; 1:29:39) has pretty expectedly poor video quality, but audio also has a persistent hum/buzz.


• Video Commentary (HD*; 1:28:56) is the latest in what seems to be a new tradition of sorts from MVD, with a video (i.e., Zoom-like) version of the audio commentary (see below), featuring Heath Holland and Jack Marino.


• Photo Gallery (HD; 1:41)


• Trailers include Kill Zone (HD; 3:04), along with trailers for other releases from MVD.


• Commentary with Jack Marino and Heath Holland can be accessed under the Setup Menu.

Additionally, the keepcase houses a folded miniposter and features reversible artwork. Finally, packaging features a slipcover.

Kill Zone Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In the supplemental features offering interviews or analysis with him, Jack Marino seems positively surprised that Kill Zone is getting a Blu- ray release. This is the sort of cult fare that the MVD Rewind Collection has become an expert in releasing, and while the film itself is kind of hit and miss, and the video transfer has some inherent limitations, audio and supplements are both engaging, for those who may be considering making a purchase.