rrcharpe As a Nam vet who served proudly with the Big Red One in South Vietnam from December of 1966 to early February of 1969 I have always resented the depiction of Vietnam vets as crazed, undisciplined scum. This movie is a rancid repeat of that genre and is absolutely not worth watching. In addition to the unbelievable low budget, actors no one has ever heard of and the depiction of the Nam vet as a deviant who, like Hannibal Lector removes the skin and eyeballs of his victims I have only one question. Why didn't the writers of this trash present a scenario where an aging Nam vet would be the good guy and save the girl and use his U.S. Army skills that he used in the jungles of Nam to defeat the enemy, which in this case were a bunch of no good bank robbers. It would have made the movie so much more enjoyable and believable. I recently looked up the actual crime rates for various veterans of WWI, WWII, the Korean War and Nam,and guess what? The lowest number of felonies committed by veterans from all those wars were the Vietnam vets, who routinely returned home, got jobs or went to college and then got a job, and generally believed in the American dream. Don't watch this absolute piece of gory, unbelievable junk. The lead character, a supposed Nam combat veteran, would never have made it in any of the units I was around as discipline and the ability to be loyal to our country was an absolute necessity. Don't believe it when you hear people say that in Nam people committed endless atrocities. That is propaganda by people who weren't there. Remember this, My Lai, the biggest killing of civilians by American soldiers in Nam was ORDERED by a U.S. Army OFFICER, Captain William Calley, and we were not allowed to disobey orders. The average soldier was heroic and patriotic in Nam beyond belief. StocktonRob

Theo Robertson A desperate gang of violent criminals rob a bank . Escaping they lie low in a wooded rural backwaters . Preparing to leave they find themselves being stalked by an unseen foe and fighting for their livesThere's something rather confused about this film at a production level . It does confound expectations and I immediately thought I might be watching a Tarantino wannabe where some desperate criminals falling out amongst themselves then having to pool their resources against a supernatural foe . It does have a RESERVOIR DOGS feel to it for about five minutes then turns in to something along the lines of PREDATOR or SOUTHERN COMFORT . The problem is the plot turn of the villains being hunted down by a deranged Vietnam veteran is played far too soon so any potential surprise or suspense is soon lost . The idea of men being hunted in an unfamiliar hinterland seems to have bored the production team and therefore need to bring in a different element - one of torture porn with a scene stolen from THE DEER HUNTER I don't want to totally condemn the film out of hand . It's a Canadian low budget get feature ( The Canadians accents are noticeable when characters say " About " ) but it's far from the worst film broadcast on The Horror Channel . The technical aspects such as cinematography and editing is more than competent but does show a rather clumsy approach to the storytelling almost as though the production team are very unsure what type of film they're making and has an underdeveloped feel . It's probably summed up by the title of the film which according to some sources is either celled BATTLEGROUND or SKELTON LAKE

Kyle James-Patrick I'm going to keep this very simple. Imagine you have never had a creative idea in your life, so you watch Predator and decide it's so awesome you're going to remake it, except you don't have a monster, a jungle, special effects, actors, soldiers or talent. This is what Battleground is, a poorly hacked together rip off of Predator (with a bit of Hobo with a Shotgun). Scene for scene, line for line, Battleground tries to wear Predator's shoes and what is baffling to me is how so many people involved in the making of this film could have gone along with it. Was this really how the director wanted it? And they actually spent money to make this? Congratualtions, you've made it that much harder for real film makers to get funding.

judyweise I'm giving this a positive review because I think that for the most part the film serves itself with everything any low-budget action film has to offer. It has many elements of other well known action / thriller movies but this is not a bad thing - the film executes them with all the flare and gusto. Nobody cares if it's former title 'Skeleton Lake' didn't have lakes or Skeletons, it is called Battleground. Six ruthless criminals lay low in the forest after a failed bank heist(HEAT)and it turns into a surivalist horror (PREDATOR)I thought that the acting was strong from the main cast. Bryan Larkin is superb as Mitch and Tex who is essentially the strong quiet bad ass. Mitch is a great lead and perfectly matched for the Hunter. The action sequences like when they lose the loot is very well choreographed. The ending did disappoint but all in all it was a great watch and I would highly recommend it to any action horror fans. Not the best but definitely worth a watch.