Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Film / CombatShock

Go To

1[[quoteright:308:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/combat_shock_movie_poster_1986_1020413331_8.jpg]]
2
3->''"I go back there every night, without fail."''
4-->-- '''Frankie'''
5
6''Combat Shock'' is a 1986 action war drama released by [[Creator/{{Troma}} Troma Entertainment]].
7
8 The film follows a disturbed Vietnam veteran named Frankie Dunlan, whose sanity begins to slip from his life in the New York slums with depraved junkies, his naggy wife, and a baby that's severely deformed from his exposure to [[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange&ved=0ahUKEwjn-tmc2dPjAhXhN30KHe6PBxkQFghzMA4&usg=AOvVaw3WI46I17RBFBqkgIGQH9nL Agent Orange]] during the war; all while struggling to find work to support him and his family.
9
10The movie was released in 1986 to very mixed reviews, but has since gotten a bit of a cult status.
11----
12
13!! This film provides examples of the following tropes:
14
15* BMovie: It's a Troma film after all.
16* BodyHorror: The baby, who has birth defects from Agent Orange due to Frankie being exposed to it.
17* CreatorCameo: The voice of Frankie's deformed baby is provided by director Buddy Giovinazzo.
18* DarkerAndEdgier: Quite possibly Creator/{{Troma}}'s darkest production ever made, with virtually none of the self-aware humor that characterizes the company's other productions.
19* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: After failing to get any food or money, Frankie goes completely insane and kills his family, then commits suicide.]]
20* DroneOfDread: When the soundtrack isn't sounding like an upbeat synth-pop instrumental, it's this.
21* FromBadToWorse: [[spoiler:Frankie calls his dad up for money, turns out even he's broke and has a heart condition]]
22* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: One of Frankie's flashbacks sees a member of his squad being blasted in half by artillery fire.
23* HenpeckedHusband: One of the many torments Frankie must endure is his shrewish wife, with whom he frequently argues over his unemployment and their son's health.
24* IndustrialGhetto: The neighborhood where Frankie and his family live.
25* {{Jerkass}}: Frankie's wife Cathy can come off as this. She's constantly nagging him and is pretty insensitive to his trauma from Vietnam. Granted, [[JerkassHasaPoint she's not wrong about Frankie needing a job and how serious their situation is]], but her constant nagging and her disregard for her husband's serious personal issues still make her come off as an insensitive jerk.
26* ShellShockedVeteran: Frankie has flashbacks of being ambushed by an NVA squad and being tortured as a POW.
27* SoundtrackDissonance: At times, the soundtrack has the feel of a jaunty 1980s synth-pop number, in jarring contrast to the grim subject matter.
28* WarIsHell: Though what comes afterwards is arguably much, much worse for Frankie.
29* WretchedHive: 1980s New York. Unemployment is at an all-time high, criminals, drug dealers and hookers roam the streets, and the neighborhoods are badly run-down.
30

Top