Today is Independence Day in the United States, so I feel obligated to present a movie related to the subject. Thankfully, I have one that I really enjoy. Take a look, and stick around for daily trivia and some sad news.
Movie of the Day
Today’s movie is the 4th of July slasher Uncle Sam. The movie came out in the summer of 1996, about six months before the release of Scream that December. Maybe its proximity to the genre-changing tidal wave of Scream caused it to be seen as a minor curiosity of its era, but Uncle Sam is a pretty darn good movie.
The story focuses primarily on Jody, a young boy who idolizes his uncle Sam who is a soldier in the United States military. What Jody’s mother and aunt don’t tell him is that his uncle is an angry and abusive man who joined the military because he enjoys violence. Sam is killed by friendly fire while in Kuwait, and he rises from the dead after his body is shipped back to the USA. Donning an Uncle Sam mask and costume, the undead soldier murders people while Jody is forced to come to the realization that his beloved uncle is not the person he thought he was.
Uncle Sam was directed by William Lustig who also directed Maniac Cop (1998) and the disturbing serial killer film Maniac (1980). Uncle Sam probably isn’t as good as either of those, but its sarcastic skewering of military fetishism and absurd exaggeration of blindly-patriotic fantasies are a lot of fun to watch. Plus, there’s a bit of gore, and the Uncle Sam killer is definitely memorable.
If you’ve never sat down and watched Uncle Sam, give it a shot today. You can stream it on Tubi.
Related Movie Recommendation
If you like Uncle Sam, you should also check out The Tripper. It’s a slasher of a similar variety. Released in 2007, The Tripper features a killer in a Ronald Reagan mask stalking hippies at a festival in the woods. It’s a stoner-comedy-slasher with a great cast, and it’s directed by David Arquette. I don’t see it streaming anywhere, but you should be able to find The Tripper on DVD.
Birthdays
Today’s birthdays begin with Melissa Barrera, born July 4th, 1990. Melissa’s first horror movie was Scream (2022), and she followed that up with Bed Rest (2022), Scream VI (2023), Your Monster (2024), and Abigail (2024).
Also born on July 4th, in 1987, is Jason Liles who played The Chatterer in the 2022 Hellraiser remake. In 1891, Josephine Joseph was born on this day. She played the Half-Woman-Half-Man character in Freaks (1932).
Born on this day in 1935 was Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, the director of the film Who Can Kill a Child? (1976).
Events on This Day
It’s probably no surprise that the 4th of July is a popular day for new movies. While looking it up, I found a bunch of movies released on this day over the years. Here’s a quick (but not definitive) list of horror movies released on July 4th:
- Tales of Terror – 1962
- The Lift – Theatrical premiere in the United States in 1985.
- Howling II – Wide theatrical in the United States in 1986.
- Komodo – Limited theatrical release in the US in 1999.
- Scary Movie 2 – North American theatrical release in 2001.
- Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust – 2008
- The First Purge – Theatrical release in 2018.
- Culture Shock – On Hulu in 2019.
In the News
Michael Madsen passed away on July 3rd at the age of 67. He had hundreds of acting roles throughout his career, though he is probably most famous for his parts in Quentin Tarantino movies including Reservoir Dogs (1992), both Kill Bill movies, The Hateful Eight (2015), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).
For me, Michael Madsen’s most memorable role in a horror movie was in Species (1995) in which he was part of a team tracking down the amorous human/alien hybrid Sil. Michael appeared in many low-budget movies over the past few decades, and among those are quite a lot of horror movies. There are too many to list here, but it was always fun watching a movie seeing Michael Madsen pop up partway through. That happened for me just last month in the new movie Resurrection Road in which Michael plays the main vampire antagonist in a Civil-War era horror Western. He was always fun to watch.
In other news, IndieWire reports that fans of David Lynch will have a unique opportunity in New York City. The Metrograph Theater in Lower Manhattan will screen the entire series Twin Peaks: The Return in a two-day marathon on July 5th and 6th. Even better, the theatrical experience will be exactly what Lynch intended for the show’s audio to sound like before it was mixed down for broadcast on television. You can read more about the differences on IndieWire.
I think tonight I might try to find a Michael Madsen movie I haven’t seen before and watch that. Or maybe I’ll just re-watch Species. That’s probably what’s going to happen.
