It’s almost one of those “so bad it’s good” horror movies, except it never really succeeds at anything.

After being killed in action in Kuwait, Sam Harper’s body is returned to his family, only to wake up on 4th of July as an undead, crispy critter that wants to kill a few people who aren’t being good ‘Muricans. He slays a pervy dude first and takes his mask and patriotic costume, which was perfectly unsettling much like the Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees costumes.

It took almost 40 minutes of the 90-minute run time before the real fun began and the lead-up was not suspenseful. It was kind of like watching paint dry for 40 minutes.

It definitely nailed the B-grade, schlocky slasher horror once it actually got around to it, but much of the action seemed to be going in slow motion.

The only character worth a damn was this stupid kid who happened to be the nephew of zombie Sam. This was no doubt done to allow for the kid, named Jody, to call him “Uncle Sam” whenever referring to him.

The final climax involves blowing Sam up with a giant cannon. It was pretty awesome until you realize how easy it would be to just get out of the way of a giant cannon before it goes off.

The jury is still out on whether I want to add this one to my list of yearly 4th of July films. It’s mostly not good, but there are a couple of fun moments that make it at least marginally watchable.

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