Savage Weekend/Review

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< Savage Weekend
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Newly divorced, Marie (Marilyn Hamlin) is invited by her current boyfriend, Robert (Jim Doerr) for a weekend vacation to what's believed to be upstate New York, even though the locals all speak with Southern accents. More on them later. Joining Marie on this trip are two of Marie's friends, Shirley (Caitlin O'Heaney) and a flamboyantly gay nanny named Nicky (Christopher Allport) but don't be fooled by Nicky. He gets a big scene to show off that he's capable of kicking redneck ass! Also going for the ride is Robert's friend, Jay (Devin Goldenberg), a stockbroker. For some reason the word "Stockbroker" seems to get mentioned quite a bit in this movie. Perhaps some anti-yuppie establishment is prevalent in this flick? Who knows. Anyway, the entire group is out in the woods to participate in help building a boat for Robert. Prior to their arrival, the boat was being worked on by the dimwitted yokel, Otis (William Sanderson) and his friend Clarence. Unfortunately, Clarence died during the construction and Otis isn't considered to be stable enough to supervise the rest of the work. Feeling ostracized and made a mockery by these new "City folks", the audience gets the impression that Otis will soon snap and embark on a slasher spree of these invading snobs. Afterall, the movie begins with Marie, bloodied and shaken, fleeing from what's believed to be a chainsaw-wielding Otis.

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Although a bit disjointed and suffering from a few distracting "Boom-mic visible" shots, Savage Weekend is a slight departure from the norm of the slasher film. For starters, the first kill-scene doesn't even occur untill the 50-minute mark. So some serious patience is required from gorehounds. But prior to that, there's the standard nude-filled love scenes between the couples (But teenagers these folks aren't) and there's also some interesting little gross-out moments prior to the slashing which involve a flashback being told by local, Mac (Re-Animator's David Gale, sporting a worn-out porn 'stache) which demonstrated how nutty Otis is capable of being when he caught his girlfriend making out with another man. It's a slow process to get through. Plus there's a twist in the end which viewers will love or hate (Probably the latter) but to tell you the truth, I no longer didn't mind the twist because the last shot of the movie reminded to me that I had just absorbed a decent story out of all this. Far from spectacular, but also far from terrible. This is a masked-maniac-slasher-flick to check out if you want to see things handled a bit differently. It doesn't hurt that good ol' William Sanderson delivers another notable, good performance for this grindhouse installment.

Reviewed by Laydback

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