No Surrender Cinema: Enemy Territory
When you’re trapped in the projects after dark and a psychotic gang is trying to kill you, who you gonna call? In this edition of No Surrender we’ll see how things turned out for Ray Parker Jr. when he took a break from singing catchy theme songs and tried his hand at being an action hero in 1987’s Enemy Territory!
Down on his luck insurance salesman Barry Rapchick (Gary Frank) just can’t catch a break lately, so when his boss throws him a bone regarding a policy, he heads out to the Lincoln Towers to complete the deal. Unfortunately for Barry, the Lincoln Towers are located on the wrong side of town, the type of place where it’s better to stay inside once the street lights come on. Barry makes it to his destination, but in his search for the apartment of Elva Briggs, he runs afoul of a young gangbanger who belongs to The Vampires, the gang who have laid claim to the Towers and the surrounding area. Barry wants nothing more than to finalize the deal with Mrs. Briggs and be on his merry way, but the little thug ratted him out to The Count (Tony Todd, several years before he terrorized housing projects as Candyman), the maniacal leader of The Vampires. Not only is The Count more sadistic than your standard, run of the mill ghetto gang leader; he’s got his crew wrapped around his finger, totally falling for his tall tales that he’s some type of immortal monster. Feeling disrespected, the wild-eyed psycho wants blood from the “ghost” (Barry) for daring to lay a hand on a Vampire (he tapped the kid on the shoulder in their first encounter), and a scary situation escalates even further when both the young man and the Lincoln Towers security guard wind up dead.
Barry doesn’t seem like he’s the type of guy who’s used to seeing people murdered in front of him, nor is he giving off any type of vibe that might help him make it out of Lincoln Towers alive. Lucky for Barry, Will Jackson (Parker) is visiting his girlfriend and hears the commotion, and he becomes Barry’s new best friend. Knowing that it won’t be long before The Count assembles the rest of his gang and overruns the building, Will and Barry attempt to seek refuge anywhere they can find it, but run into residents who are hesitant to do anything to upset The Vampires. With advice from Mrs. Briggs’ granddaughter (Stacey Dash), the duo find out that there’s a crazed Vietnam vet (Jan-Michael Vincent) living in the basement, and he might be the one person in the building that can provide the type of support Barry and Will will need to strike back at the hoods who are trying to kill them both.
Will and Barry make it to the basement and meet Parker, who has modified the lower level apartment into a survival bunker, and has even modified his wheelchair with weaponry. After a confrontation that has Will stand up to Parker’s bigotry and dismissiveness towards the meek Barry, they’re found out by The Count, who has both the elder and younger Briggs women hostage. Looking to trade their safety for the “ghost” and the “blood traitor” (Will), The Count calls on Parker to release the men to his custody, but Parker gets a chance to relive his glory days in The ‘Nam by mowing down an undetermined number of Vampires with his arsenal. Next thing you know the surviving Vampires are scattering, Barry and Will are hiding out in a hooker’s apartment, and Parker succumbs to a bullet wound despite Mrs. Briggs’ best efforts to save his life.
With their chances of making it out alive getting slimmer by the minute, Will and Barry find out from Toni that a young boy named Chet (Deon Richmond) knows of a “secret” way out of the building. The cat and mouse chase throughout the dilapidated high-rise continues on. Will, Barry, Toni, and Chet make their way back to the basement, and after a close call where Count’s second-in-command, the aptly named Psycho, winds up dead, Toni slips out of Chet’s secret exit and scurries off to get the boys in blue. Will gets another wild idea that could help get he and Barry out of this mess, and they use some of the money Barry’s got as a distraction to enable their escape as well. It’s a solid plan, but timing is of the essence, and unfortunately for our heroes The Count catches them in the act and puts a bullet in Barry’s leg, halting their departure from the Lincoln Towers. With the dawn of a new day upon the city, The Count confronts Will and Barry on the grounds outside of the apartment complex, and we get the final showdown between the two everymen and the guy who believes himself to be an unkillable madman.
For a film featuring a cast with such notable names as Parker, Todd, and Dash, as well as other recognizable stars like Richmond and Kadeem Hardison, it does surprise me that Enemy Territory seems to have slipped past my fellow cult film fanatics. It’s a shame, too, because this is a really fun movie, and having the two protagonists consistently on the run throughout doesn’t give the pace any time to pause. Whether the film is focusing on Will and Barry’s bond due to the spot they’ve found themselves in, or on the gang trying to appease The Count and do his bidding, Enemy Territory never feels dull. Sure, there’s plenty of drama to be found (Barry’s struggle to find the confidence to fight back, several assaults on the Briggs family by The Count and his crew, and a slightly cringeworthy scene where Barry breaks into an apartment to hide from The Vampires and is thought to be a rapist by the kids living there), but everything has a pay off. We get to see if The Count was all talk, we get to see if Barry can grow a set of balls, and we even get to see Mrs. Briggs show The Vampires that she’s one bad mother that they shouldn’t have messed with.
The biggest takeaway after watching Enemy Territory again for the sake of this review is that Ray Parker Jr. could have easily had a career in action movies had he stuck around Hollywood, but alas this would be his only leading role. It’s too bad, because Parker played Will Jackson with the type of cool, untouchable swagger and confidence that you’d expect from someone like Billy Dee Williams or Carl Weathers. Even if he wasn’t being offered Hollywood A-List roles, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to say that he’d have excelled working with an outfit like PM Entertainment in the years to follow. Instead, Parker continued to focus on his music career, though he did have a handful of guest spots and cameos after this, like an appearance on 21 Jump Street and a cameo in The Fat Boys comedy Disorderlies. It’s easy to see why his heart belonged to the music industry, being that he was so successful there, but I have faith that if he continued to branch out, he would have certainly gotten love for his work in action. Instead, Enemy Territory is merely a footnote in his career; a one-off that should have led to a second life that allowed him to be the badass that this film showed us he was capable of being.
Enemy Territory is a fun urban thriller that reminded me of a favorite of mine from the 90’s, Judgment Night, with our heroes simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, forced to make their way through an urban wasteland just to stay alive. While the storyline is fairly common for action fare, Enemy Territory itself is a rarity in every sense of the word; most people (including some of you currently reading this column) probably had no clue it existed, and it’s not a film that pops up on cable or streaming often at all. Fortunately, those of you that want to check this one out can find it right now on YouTube, but that’s it. This is a film that hasn’t even gotten an official DVD release, although now that Amazon owns MGM (who had the rights to this via Empire Pictures), maybe we’ll get some sort of physical media release or an upgraded version streaming on Prime. Ray Parker Jr. might just be the Ghostbusters guy to millions of people around the world, but anyone who checks out Enemy Territory will get to see a different side of him, one that could have made him an integral part of the late 80’s action scene had he chosen to stick around.
