Enemy Territory isn't available on DVD even and to find it, you have to look on YouTube. And you know, I think it's worth tracking down. It's such a strange film, directed by Peter Manoogian. He also made parts of The Dungeonmaster, Demonic Toys, The Eliminators and Arena, which I would say is a pretty great run of films. It was written by Stuart Kaminsky and Bobby Lindell, who don't have all that many credits.
It's the kind of movie that John Carpenter really likes to make, you know, a siege of a building or a film about escaping one of those places whole being surrounded by superior forces. Or even Roberta Findlay, who made Tenement or Maura O'Connell and Paul Donovan's Canadian urban invasion movie Siege. Or Walter Hill's Trespass or the Stephen Hopkins movie Judgement Night.
Barry Rapchick (Gary Frank, who mainly has worked in TV) was once a successful insurance execution, but now he's more interested in drinking. To save what's left of his career, he has to go to Lincoln Towers, perhaps the most frightening place in New York City, to complete the life insurance policy of Elva (Frances Foster). At the same time, Will Jackson (Ray Parker Jr.) comes to repair the phone lines and see his girlfriend.
Barry doesn't understand the many rules that comes with living in Lincoln Towers, like how the Vampires see it as their castle. They're a cult, more than a gang, led by the Count (an absolutely deranged Tony Todd who as always is the best thing in this movie), who mark Barry for death just for touching one of their young members, Decon (Theo Caesar).
As they try and stop him from leaving, the building's security guard and Decon are both killed. He's soon trapped in Elva's apartment along with Will as his reluctant partner, as he wants to get out just as bad. Elva sends them to find her granddaughter Toni (Stacey Dash) and they all go to find Mr. Parker (Jan-Michael Vincent), who is pretty much the only person the Vampires fear. He's a disabled Vietnam vet who hates just about every race and who has armed himself with an arsenal including a weapon-launching wheelchair.
The Vampires have taken Elva and Toni and want to exchange them for Barry, but Mr. Parker goes wild, shooting everyone he can before taking one to the chest and dying himself. The trio of Barry, Will and Toni learn that a young kid named Chet Cole (Deon Richmond) knows of a way out that no one else does. The little guy sneaks out of bed and takes them there. You may wonder if a kid being in danger is too much. Well, that kid has a baseball bat that he uses to knock one of the Vampires, Psycho (Robert Lee Rush), down an elevator shaft.
Can they make it the rest of the way out? Is the Count unkillable? Will the cops come even after refusing to get near a place where so many of their number have been killed?
Enemy Territory has the budget of a TV movie, but has a great idea that getting rid of the money that is weighing you down is the only thing that can save your life. Ernest Dickerson replaced the other DP when he was let go and as always he knows how to get so much out of so little. He shot this the same year he did Eddie Murphy Raw and would go on to direct some great movies of his own like Juice, Surviving the Game (another movie I need to see), Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight and Bones.
It also has Ray Parker Jr. Not singing the theme but in the movie. He's also in Disorderlies and seeing as how I've written about that movie twice today, I should probably get to that soon.
Tony Todd is the heart of this movie. I could say that for nearly everything he's done, but he takes this from a simple trapped in a building movie to outright audacity. He deserves all the credit he gets.
It's the kind of movie that John Carpenter really likes to make, you know, a siege of a building or a film about escaping one of those places whole being surrounded by superior forces. Or even Roberta Findlay, who made Tenement or Maura O'Connell and Paul Donovan's Canadian urban invasion movie Siege. Or Walter Hill's Trespass or the Stephen Hopkins movie Judgement Night.
Barry Rapchick (Gary Frank, who mainly has worked in TV) was once a successful insurance execution, but now he's more interested in drinking. To save what's left of his career, he has to go to Lincoln Towers, perhaps the most frightening place in New York City, to complete the life insurance policy of Elva (Frances Foster). At the same time, Will Jackson (Ray Parker Jr.) comes to repair the phone lines and see his girlfriend.
Barry doesn't understand the many rules that comes with living in Lincoln Towers, like how the Vampires see it as their castle. They're a cult, more than a gang, led by the Count (an absolutely deranged Tony Todd who as always is the best thing in this movie), who mark Barry for death just for touching one of their young members, Decon (Theo Caesar).
As they try and stop him from leaving, the building's security guard and Decon are both killed. He's soon trapped in Elva's apartment along with Will as his reluctant partner, as he wants to get out just as bad. Elva sends them to find her granddaughter Toni (Stacey Dash) and they all go to find Mr. Parker (Jan-Michael Vincent), who is pretty much the only person the Vampires fear. He's a disabled Vietnam vet who hates just about every race and who has armed himself with an arsenal including a weapon-launching wheelchair.
The Vampires have taken Elva and Toni and want to exchange them for Barry, but Mr. Parker goes wild, shooting everyone he can before taking one to the chest and dying himself. The trio of Barry, Will and Toni learn that a young kid named Chet Cole (Deon Richmond) knows of a way out that no one else does. The little guy sneaks out of bed and takes them there. You may wonder if a kid being in danger is too much. Well, that kid has a baseball bat that he uses to knock one of the Vampires, Psycho (Robert Lee Rush), down an elevator shaft.
Can they make it the rest of the way out? Is the Count unkillable? Will the cops come even after refusing to get near a place where so many of their number have been killed?
Enemy Territory has the budget of a TV movie, but has a great idea that getting rid of the money that is weighing you down is the only thing that can save your life. Ernest Dickerson replaced the other DP when he was let go and as always he knows how to get so much out of so little. He shot this the same year he did Eddie Murphy Raw and would go on to direct some great movies of his own like Juice, Surviving the Game (another movie I need to see), Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight and Bones.
It also has Ray Parker Jr. Not singing the theme but in the movie. He's also in Disorderlies and seeing as how I've written about that movie twice today, I should probably get to that soon.
Tony Todd is the heart of this movie. I could say that for nearly everything he's done, but he takes this from a simple trapped in a building movie to outright audacity. He deserves all the credit he gets.