That co-writer Matthew McArdle remains shocked even after seeing the film he and Max Brallier wrote on the big screen shows how tough the accomplishment proves. Best friends since childhood, the two began their script for Vfw with transparent intentions as far as harkening back to the no-holds-barred VHS gems they’d scour video store shelves to find. Using John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 as inspiration, they created a group of aging vets decades-removed from service yet still thick as thieves with a drug-fueled, zombie-esque horde threatening to attack their Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in waves. It took seven years, but Dallas Sonnier finally called to say he’d finance it before director Joe Begos, a stellar cast of character actors, and the rejuvenated Fangoria label came aboard.

You can’t blame McArdle for being in awe as the names kept coming: Stephen Lang, William Sadler, David Patrick Kelly,...