Nine-year-old Jody Baker can’t wait until he can enlist in the armed services to fight for his country just like his uncle Sam. He loves looking through Sam’s service memorabilia and sees him as a hero. He wants nothing more than to grow up and be just like him. But as he spends his days fantasizing about made-up tales of bravery and courage, his mother and aunt hide the truth. Sam was not a good man; he was a monster. His reasons for enlisting were not to serve his country, but for the freedom to kill. His comrades feared him, which is why they shot his chopper out of the sky. But his rage was undying, and when his body is sent back to his family for burial, his murderous spirit returns with him to punish anyone who disrespects their country.

Is the Plot as Ridiculous as it Sounds?

There was an era in horror where holidays and holiday icons were themed in slasher films, mainly for the sake of money. The 4th of July was no exception. Uncle Sam is about a bloodthirsty soldier returning from the dead to slaughter anyone who did not live and die by the flag, and he does so while dressed in a creepy Uncle Sam costume. Just by reading that description, it’s not hard to place this film within the decade it was made, and with that, it’s also easy to determine its quality. First off, there’s no explanation for why or how Sam was able to come back as a revenant, save for the sake of toxic patriotism. It also doesn’t happen for a while. It takes nearly 40 minutes for him to rise from the dead and kill anyone, and by that point, it wouldn’t be surprising for viewers to have lost interest. Things pick up when he does get to work, but it’s no excuse for the poor pacing. Sam’s zombification isn’t the only thing that goes unexplained. Sam also connects with a child telekinetically in one scene, but it never comes back into play. Said child is presented as being important to the plot, but nothing would have been different if he were excluded from the film.

Is the Acting Good?

Uncle Sam may have the worst acting in any horror film from this era, and considering who’s in it, that says a lot. The film surprisingly features two Oscar-nominated actor’s Isaac Hayes and Robert Forster. Isaac Hayes gives the best out of anyone in this picture as the war veteran Jed Crowley, although he didn’t need to try hard at all as everyone around him gives incredibly stiff performances. Robert Forester, on the other hand, is criminally underutilized and only has around three minutes of screen time before being murdered in what is arguably the most nonsensical way in the entire film. Horror icon P.J. Soles (Carrie, Halloween) is also in this film, but like everyone else, her acting screams that she is only in it for the paycheck. Then there are the villains of Uncle Sam, and yes, ‘villains’ plural was intentional. David Fralick does about as well as expected as the zombified Sam Harper. His performance is not anything memorable, but his character was never going to be anyway.