VHS Visions: Enemy Territory (1987)

By Brad Henderson

Peter Manoogian is a director that should be on everyone’s radar. He has blessed us with so many great films: Ragewar (The Dungeonmaster), Seedpeople, Arena, Demonic Toys, Eliminators, and one of the greatest gang films ever made, Enemy Territory.

I came across Enemy Territory when watching a slasher film from the UK called Tony. In Tony, the title character is a serial killer who enjoys watching VHS tapes. Throughout the film he speaks about the films he loves and watches in his small VHS collection. One of the films that Tony speaks of in detail was Enemy Territory and just the small synopsis he gave made me want to track down the film immediately.

Yes, there is a bunch of cornball shit in Enemy Territory but it is legitimately a good film. I know it has Ray Parker, Jr. in it but he is actually pretty fantastic in it and also comical. If you are wondering if I’m speaking about the same Ray Parker, Jr. who did the theme to Ghostbusters, than you are right and he is freaking fantastic.

I’m a huge fan of films that take place in apartment buildings. There is just something about the camaraderie and people banding together to overcome an obstacle without using outside sources that gets my blood pumping. From films like Demons 2 to Lady In The Water they all get to me; I just love the sense of isolation and dependability when it comes to these films. So when I head the synopsis of Enemy Territory—“an insurance salesman that gets trapped inside an apartment complex overnight with a ferocious gang called The Vampires that want him dead”—I was in as soon as I heard the words “apartment complex.”

I first saw this movie a couple of years ago and right after I watched it I spread it like wildfire across Facebook and Twitter and got many people to track it down. Each and every person that viewed it personally thanked me. It felt good knowing that I kind of discovered this film on my own and got my friends to watch it.

Now it is time to spread the word again and get some new people on board to watch this hidden urban gem. I even got my buddy Dale Lloyd to watch it and he screened it at a theatre right after he saw it. If there is any movie that you should track down from these VHS Visions segments, it would be this one. I would hope you track them all down but if there is one film that could give me any credibility, it would be this one.