He vocalizes this to his wife, asking why Andy is so different, not able to understand why he won’t talk to them or eat with them. At first, his initial happiness turns to frustration at Andy’s withdrawn nature and strange behavior. The performances by the actors have to really count in order to sell the message, and by every measure they do.Īs the patriarch of the family, JOHN MARLEY as Charlie crafts an incredible portrait of a father inextricably torn between joy at having his son back and guilt about having to accept what his son has ultimately become. Though this is a horror film, it is first and foremost a portrait of a family dealing with the after effects of war. It’s an extremely disturbing and upsetting scene, and it’s really then that we start to realize that Andy is definitely not okay. Andy proceeds to pick the dog up in the air with one hand and choke the life out of him, all while the neighborhood kids watch in horror. When one obnoxious little boy tries to show off his karate skills on Andy, Andy grabs the kid’s wrist, kicking in the family dog’s protective instinct, and the dog immediately starts barking at Andy. The day after his return, the family is enjoying a cookout at the house when some neighborhood kids drop by. When Andy returns home, the family dog immediately starts barking at him and acting afraid of him (once again, animals in horror films always know what’s up before humans do). Perhaps the film’s most unsettling and brutal kill not even directed towards a human being. Knowing the staggering statistics of drug and alcohol abuse that plagued Vietnam vets even years after the war ended, it is downright chilling to see that reflected in this scene, where, instead of heroin, blood is Andy’s drug of choice to help sustain his decaying body. The US Department of Defense even reported that by 1971, 51% of soldiers had smoked marijuana, 28% had consumed heroin or cocaine, and 31% had used psychedelics such as LSD or mushrooms. The blood injection scene is also worth noting because it acts as a sort of allegory to how many vets returned home from Vietnam with crippling drug addictions. When the doctor asks what he’s doing there, Andy replies, “you invited me, remember?” Adding to the partial vampire theory, when Andy stabs and kills the doctor with a syringe, he then uses it to inject the doctor’s blood into his arm. Andy tracks the doctor down to his office. In one scene, a doctor who Andy’s dad entreated to help out his troubled son is targeted by Andy as the doctor informs the dad that he has to turn Andy into the police as a suspect in the killing of a trucker. Though his human body is rotting like a zombie's would be, Andy seems to only need human blood instead of human flesh or brains to survive. What makes DEATHDREAM so interesting is that Andy appears to be some kind of zombie/vampire hybrid. When Andy is shot in Vietnam, he returns home with a bloodlust that must be satisfied.
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