Combat Shock (1984)

A slow chip away at humanity

By: JWBM

Some years ago I took a chance on this film when searching out Troma movies to add to the collection that would hopefully be rewatchable like "The Toxic Avenger," "Dead Dudes in the House" and "Class of Nuke 'Em High." All I had to go on was the cover box—which looked like an excessively violent action/war film. As it played out, I realized it stood apart from the typical Troma fare. Yes, the film-making process was just as rough-around-the-edges and still fits in with their line of button-pressing films, though this attempted to take on a somber, psychological approach rather than relying just on dark humor and outlandish characters and situations to guide the way. When something extreme happens, its effectiveness is amplified over just pure shock value going for "Ohs!" and beers-in-the-belly entertainment. This is rather a film that could kill a pleasant Saturday evening—and quite possibly the next days to follow.

If you're one of the lucky ones to have seen the brighter side of life, this film—or rather this shoulders-slumped, head-down experience—is going to seem like a Sunday stroll through Hell. Have you ever walked by something so pitiful and so far gone that it can't help but leave an impact? Something that makes you wonder how it got to be that way in the first place? "Combat Shock" is going to be a point blank, down-and-dirty tour of all the demons that still haunt a soldier of the Vietnam War now back home in the slums of New York. Some folks have an adjustment period, though with Frankie's situation there's nothing in particular to adjust: just a nearly barren, hopeless existence held on by mere threads.

"I can no longer tell where one torture ends and the next begins."

As it plays out, this is on the verge of being horror without outright placing both feet in the muck. It mainly focuses on the drama to get inside your head, collect under your nails and grow on your skin; then manages to crawl on the back of your eyelids and replay nightmarish dream sequences to show where Frankie has been and where he's going to based on his present, deteriorating situation. To give a little tension and release, there is some light humor in a few places. Since the movie is also minimalistic at times and moves at a slower pacing, some catchy keyboard music—also composed by main star Rick Giovinazzo, who's now an orchestrator for well-known Hollywood films—pumps over top like a recurring '80s theme song not far removed from others in the decade. Ambient or inharmonious sounds would have been possibly more naturally flowing, though since the film doesn't have something heart-racing happening every second I can imagine it was on purpose to have a contrasting element to the flow.

Another component of the story that feels just as much a character as our unlucky soldier, are the locations in Staten Island where he's attempting to return to normal life. The apartment where his wife and infant son live at is in such disrepair that I can imagine the roaches have moved on from it; its faucets drip like a deafening pulse to scare anything and anyone away. The bickering arguments they have over their hopeless situation are compounded by the smeared walls lingering in every shot. The surrounding neighborhood looks as if it came back from a war itself with the amount of collapsing and abandoned structures shown. Its scum has grime. If Mr. Clean stumbled through, you can imagine he'd grow his hair out and take on an alter ego of a post-apocalyptic anti-hero to tidy things up.

This is not a polished movie, though where it shines so to speak is it's not afraid to travel to territories others shy away from. It's frankly undershot, underbudgeted, and overacted; this isn't going to be "The Deer Hunter," "Taxi Driver" or even "Jacob's Ladder" that came after concerning a traumatized Vietnam War veteran. Though from what it lacks it makes up for in plenty of atmosphere and raw emotion concerning desperation and someone wasting away from a bad luck of the draw. It's raw storytelling that leaves real scars over just superficial wounds. Walking by a person on the downtown streets slumped in a corner might make you wonder to a degree, though watching a person wasting away fraction by fraction where you can't look away is another.

Maybe with a little more money they could have shown more of his past before the war, or hired method actors to round out the characters more, though if you can get past its hiccups one can still get the idea with what tools they had at the time. Some of its flaws have a certain charm, such as the prosthetics of Frankie's strangely shaped son, to its guerrilla type of cinematography in real locations, and other effects layered together to create ambiance and personality. The film isn't necessarily a piece to show every economic hardship of vets, or to display every side of what this city has gone through up till 1984. Though it puts you in the shoes of this particular situation with enough to go on to feel like you're watching and experiencing a potentially hopeful home movie turned tragic documentary.

Rating: 7.5/10

Director: Buddy Giovinazzo
Starring: Rick Giovinazzo
Site: IMDB
Trailer: Youtube link