These days, most audiences are aware that the law of diminishing returns also applies to movie franchises. That’s why numbered sequels are usually frowned upon when it comes to new releases in established IPs, with producers preferring it when moviegoers forget exactly how many of these rehashed films they’ve seen before. And as a series goes on, it becomes increasingly more difficult for franchises to experiment with their source material, leading to stale experiences and disappointed fans.
Thankfully, there are a handful of exceptions to this rule, and I’d argue that the most surprising of all would be the Universal Soldier franchise. In all honesty, I don’t even think the original 1992 film is all that great, benefiting from the natural charisma of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren while riding on the coat-tails of an intriguing premise (where deceased soldiers are revived as cybernetic zombies with enhanced combat abilities). Its immediate successors didn’t fair all that well either, with both an ill-advised duo of straight-to-video bombs and a theatrical sequel completely missing the point about what makes undead super-soldiers such an interesting concept. However, this would miraculously change with the advent of the final two sequels in the franchise.
John Hyams’ Universal Soldier: Regeneration would be a masterclass in low-budget action filmmaking, but its 2012 follow-up ended up taking an unexpected detour in regards to genre. While Hyams returned to the director’s chair and the film still acknowledged the events of the previous entry, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning ended up feeling more like a brooding psychological thriller along the lines of The Jacket and even Jacob’s Ladder rather than a low-brow action flick.
In the finished film, we follow Scott Adkins as John, an amnesiac survivor of a home invasion that resulted in the death of his wife and daughter. The strange part is that this seemingly random act of violence appears to have been carried out by none other than Van Damme’s Luc Deveraux, the undead protagonist of the previous films. Motivated by his need for revenge, John dives down a mind-bending rabbit hole of false memories and government conspiracies in order to track down the revolutionary monster that Luc has become.
Despite this novel setup, the film was only released theatrically in a handful of international territories, raking in a pitiful $1.4 million on an $8 million budget and ending up lost in the early days of VOD. That being said, Day of Reckoning actually boasts the best critical reception in the entire series, garnering a 57% score on Rotten Tomatoes and earning praise for its originality.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
If a genre-bending reinvention of the Universal Soldier films isn’t enough to hook you, Day of Reckoning also works on its own as a surprisingly solid mystery movie. The multi-layered conspiracy behind both John’s revenge and Deveraux’s transformation into a messianic figure for his fellow UniSol survivors is darkly compelling, with the film only offering you brief glimpses of the overarching narrative in between violent confrontations with near-immortal super-soldiers and government agents.
And like the previous entry, the 2012 film once again benefits from Van Damme and Lundgren’s inimitable onscreen presence – even if it’s at a disappointingly reduced capacity. While I don’t think either actor even accidentally bumped into each other during filming, these action veterans still add plenty of flavor to this underrated thriller even if most of the runtime is dedicated to Adkins’ new protagonist (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the actor/martial artist brings plenty of much-needed gravitas to his role as a confused and broken man searching for answers).
Of course, Van Damme’s Brando-inspired take on a morally questionable incarnation of Deveraux really steals the show here, with this once-beloved hero becoming a brooding leader who aims to overthrow the United States government due to its misuse of the UniSol program. Sure, he doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but what other action franchise has the guts to allow its most recognizable character to suddenly become the main antagonist in the final entry?
WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
From undead cyborgs to brainwashed clones and existential mind-games – it can be argued that Day of Reckoning is only a handful of jump-scares away from being an actual scary movie. In fact, Hyams’ film finally makes an effort to dive into the existential terror that was only hinted at in previous entries, with John unraveling an MK-ultra-inspired web of human experimentation that retroactively makes the original film much darker and makes you feel sorry for the new antagonists.
And despite a handful of admittedly impressive action scenes (at least when you consider the low budget when compared to the film’s predecessors), the violence is almost never fun here. Bones splinter and blood sprays out of every gnarly wound in what many critics described as an unnecessarily brutal bloodbath, something that I think only helps to hammer home the point about how horrific the UniSol program really is.
Hell, the movie even begins with a legitimately creepy POV home invasion sequence that places you in John’s shoes as his life is utterly destroyed, with the entire scene playing out like a particularly violent exploitation flick from the ’70s crossed with a disturbing Found Footage flick along the lines of James Cullen Bressack’s Hate Crime. And don’t even get me started on that gruesome finale that recontextualizes everything we’ve seen up until that point.
While I’m still partial to Regeneration’s janky set-pieces and Metal-Gear-Solid-esque take on political intrigue, Day of Reckoning is a refreshingly unique take on a premise that has been begging for a more horror-slanted approach since 1992. The film may have its issues, mostly due to a woefully inadequate budget (not to mention a slightly bloated runtime), but I honestly wish more action franchises were willing to take the same creative risks as this underrated thriller.
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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