Savage Weekend
Director: David Paulsen
Writer: David Paulsen
Starring: David Gale and Marilyn Hamlin
Body Count: 7
Review: Made in 1976, in the beautiful tradition of sleazy grindhouse 70s horror like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this film sat on a shelf going nowhere until 1979. No doubt the success of Halloween had something to do with this.
A few couples spend the weekend at an upstate cottage/resort, where a boat is being constructed, and where a killer is on the loose. While they're there, sexual tensions abound and the killing takes a backseat to the melodrama. Indeed, though this is probably the film's one original contribution to the genre, it's also the film's undoing. Hours seem to go by before the killer shows up again. Once he does, the characters are dispatched one after another, but until he finally puts that godawful mask on, you think you're watching a really bad soap opera.
The blood is minimal in Savage Weekend, but thanks to all of those sexually oriented subplots, the nudity is prolific. On the positive side of things, there are some very original characters in the film--no stereotyped teenagers (although it could be argued that the presentation of one of the characters, a gay man, could be deemed stereotypical--I, however, would disagree), but rather a totally adult-oriented slasher drama. Oh, and then there's Otis, this weirdo guy running around the woods...interesting.
I can't give the film a whole-hearted review, because it is pretty boring at times. Nevertheless, if sleazy 70s movies are your things, you might want to give it a try.br>
Oh yeah, and what's with that last shot of the guy on the bike? What the hell?
Trivia: filmed under the title The Killer Behind the Mask and also known as The Upstate Murders.
