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| Images courtesy of Arrow Films |
Like it or lump it, Arrow Video have made it readily
apparent they’ve an affinity for Greek B-movie exploitation auteur Nico
Mastorakis as evidenced by their recent boxed set consisting of six of his features. While Mastorakis isn’t necessarily my cup of
tea having seen several of his across the board with Ninja Academy and Hired
to Kill being notable action-comedy-thriller iterations, the director while
not necessarily my favorite “comedian” nevertheless does have a certain skills-set
when it comes to horror. Judging from
his debut exploitation shocker Island of Death which was a torrential
downpour of transgression, the Grecian auteur understood the subgenre and while
his more trying trademark characteristics present in his “comedy” films are
still around, they’re dialed down considerably in his 1986 American backwoods
slasher flick The Zero Boys.
A straight-to-video thriller featuring Night of the Comet
and Chopping Mall scream queen Kelli Maroney and an early
compositional effort by the great Hans Zimmer, the film is an ensemble teen
action thriller with traces of Cloak & Dagger, Red Dawn and The
Goonies involving a group of teenage paintballers who call themselves The
Zero Boys vacationing in a remote cabin in the woods who find themselves
under siege from unknown assailants. Echoing
aspects of Deliverance or Rituals as far as a subset of
characters being preyed upon by lord knows who, it functions as both a slasher
and an action thriller as the kids must use their knowledge of survival in the
wilderness and paintballing with real weapons instead of toys this time
around.
While the aforementioned tonal problems in Mastorakis’ work
are still present in this, The Zero Boys largely winds up succeeding as
a straight-laced genre thriller with elements of the Rambo or Commando
action adventure flick with a survivalist slasher horror show including
some gruesomely memorable deaths. Using
the same locations and sets as Friday the 13th: Part 3 and
shot over the course of only eighteen days, Mastorakis’ effort as a producer-writer-director
in this instance paid off swimmingly.
Lensed by Unmasking the Idol cinematographer Steven Shaw, the
film’s small backwoods cabin look has traces of The Evil Dead including
but not limited to some surprisingly resourceful supporting characters. The central trio of Daniel Hirsch, Jared
Moses and Tom Shell represent a strong and likable analogue to Joel Schumacher’s
The Lost Boys while Kelli Maroney’s spunky cool demeanor as an unlikely
heroine boosts the enjoyment factor of the picture considerably.
Released theatrically overseas while going straight-to-video
in the United States, the film languished in the B-movie Hell of Blockbuster
Video store shelves before Image Entertainment and Omega Entertainment struck a
deal in the early 2000s for a DVD release.
Circa 2016, Arrow Video have picked up the ball once again in one of
their very earliest collaborations with the cult Greek director in a new 2K
restoration overseen by Mastorakis. A
minor revelation for Mastorakis fans as well as naysayers (myself included), The
Zero Boys while imperfect represents one of the filmmaker’s better, more
taut offerings with likable young characters and a unique riff on the action
survival thriller. Sure its cheap and at
times a tonal jumper but the charm of Kelli Maroney is infectious and as a
standard genre teen slasher turned survivalist actioner it works pretty
well. One of the few Mastorakis films I’m
comfortable recommending to casual horror fans.
--Andrew Kotwicki
