Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam is a horror comedy set around the Fourth of July in a small American town. Master Sergeant Sam Harper is killed during a military operation and his body is sent home for burial. His young nephew Jody is the only one who truly grieves, since the rest of the family remembers Sam as a cruel man. During the Independence Day celebrations, Sam returns from the dead, puts on an Uncle Sam costume and begins killing people he considers unpatriotic.

William Lustig directed the film, working from a screenplay by Larry Cohen. It followed a run of features that included Maniac, Vigilante, the Maniac Cop trilogy and Relentless, and it was Lustig's seventh film as director. David 'Shark' Fralick plays Sam Harper, with Christopher Ogden as Jody, Leslie Neale as Sally Baker, William Smith as the Major, Bo Hopkins as Sgt. Twining and Matthew Flint as Deputy Phil Burke. Twenty-four cast members are credited. The production had a budget of two million dollars.

The film runs 90 minutes and was released in November 1996. Reception was muted: it holds a rating of 4.7 out of 10 on IMDb from around 4,200 votes, and 4.9 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller sample of 74 votes. A critics' rating of 5.1 out of 10 from 10 reviews places it close to the audience scores, with neither group regarding it as more than a minor entry in Lustig's filmography.