Savage Weekend

Director - David Paulsen (Schizoid)
Starring - Christopher Allport (Jack Frost, The X-Files), Jim Doerr (The Journey of the Fifth Horse), and David Gale (Creepshow, Re-Animator)
Release Date - 1979
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "You have been chosen. You are doomed. Prepare for.... SAVAGE WEEKEND"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Drive-In Movie Classics 50 Movie Pack)

Rating (out of 5):

      Sometime over the summer I decided that I wanted to slowly start collecting slasher films.  As I have mentioned before, I collect all horror flicks but zombie and slasher films are by far my favorite horror sub-genres.  Anyway, I did a little wiki digging and came across a list of slasher flicks.  This little diddy here caught my eye.  The title for this one is the perfect for a slasher flick. I had to have it but most copies I found were used and not that cheap.  Being the cheap fuck I am I did a little digging and came across the Drive-In Movie Classic 50 film set for around $15.  The set had some other films I wanted to see so I threw it on the amazon.com wishlist.  After a few months I decided it was time to order the set and check this slasher out with a few others one night...
     The film follows a group of city slickers as they head out in to the country to check on a boat that is being built while spending some time with each other, as well as, nature.  When the group arrive they meet the local that is building the floating vessel, Otis (William Sanderson, True Blood).  Otis is pissed that the city slickers came to visit and is very hostile toward them.  The owner of the boat tells the group about Otis and his temper and how he caught his wife cheating and burnt an "H" in to her chest for whore (Otis isn't the smartest man in the world).  As members of the group turn up dead they assume it is Otis behind the murders.  However, they are dead wrong as the killer is revealed to be one of the young lady's ex-husband wearing a mask.

     I judge slashers by the year they were made.  I often meet slashers made before 1980 with skepticism.  That does not include John Carpenter's classic, Halloween.  Anyway, slashers before 1980 were still trying to find that perfect formula and the right amount of cheese and cliche that most of the classics from the later years followed.  This movie is a shining example of why I often meet those films with skepticism.  This movie has a hard time deciding if it wants to be a straight forward slasher or a slow running mystery.  The film would have been a lot better if the direction of the film would have followed the solid horror path instead of trying to be original.  I know most people bitch because a movie is not original, however, in some cases the film just does not pan out well when trying something new.  The story is your standard slasher storyline.  A group dying in the wood.  Basic as that, however, the film does offer a great twist for the revealing of the killer that caught me off guard in true slasher style.  The acting is decent by most of the cast, however, Sanderson and Allport really stand out in their roles.  I spent most of the film waiting for one of them to come back in to the scene.  Finally, the special effects are nothing special and the same can be said for the kills.  We get very few on camera and they lack blood and gore.  Overall, this is a weak film and an even weaker slasher.  I can recommend so many other slashers that are a lot better.  Watch at your own risk.