261 Days of Horror, Day 16: Salvage
Jan. 22nd, 2007 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiSalvage. 2006. Written and directed by Jeff and Josh Crook. Distributed by Echo Bridge.
Every once in a while, I'm grabbed by a horror movie's concept before I've even seen it. That's not necessarily a good thing -- Saw glimmered like solid gold when I first saw the previews, but turned out to be the horror movie answer to pyrite when if finally landed on the big screen. But, like any Hollywood exec, give me a good, high-concept plot ("We've got Aliens! And they're fighting Predators!" or "It's a prequel to The Exorcist! And we'll release it twice! With two different, but equally lame, directors*! And a screenplay by Caleb Carr"), and I'm willing to hear more, no matter how many times I've been disappointed in the past. That's because every once in a while, I'm not disappointed.
Salvage completely and utterly failed to disappoint me. That's likely because it quickly shows that it's about more than its great high-concept plot ("It's Groundhog Day, only as a horror movie!"). In fact, just as Salvage stylishly shifts into a second high concept (one that many a movie has employed), it pulls a nice little twist out of its hat at the end. At 80 minutes, it's also one of the shortest horror movies I've seen since Chopping Mall, largely because the directors clearly realize that this is the sort of film that needs to hit quickly and powerfully, instead of dragging things out.
We start in a salvage yard (what a shock), where we get a first-person pov of someone stalking through the yard, interspersed with a few frames of (seemingly) random graphic images. Eventually the stalker comes upon a teenaged boy working on a car, who looks up just as something bad's likely about to happen to him. We don't find out what that is, however.
Cut to a convenience store, where young Claire is closing out her register after working the night shift. She walks a couple of blocks to the spot where she's expecting to be picked up by her boyfriend, Jimmy. Instead of Jimmy, however, a man named Duke drives up in Jimmy's truck (which is the same truck we saw being worked on in the opening scene). He claims to be a friend of Jimmy's, there to offer her a ride back home. If he's a little creepy**, he seems on the level, so Claire accepts.
During the ride home, Duke starts getting creepier, making comments about how beautiful Claire is, never really answering how he knows Jimmy, and eventually starting to caress Claire’s hair. As soon as they get to her house, she runs inside.
We get a drawn-out scene of tension, as Claire hears a knock on the door and does her best to hide from Duke (or whoever might be out there), but just as she see the truck drive away and assumes that she's safe, Duke appears behind her, and pummels her until she's nearly unconscious. He then drags her to the basement and goes to work on her with a small scythe. Claire is dead.
Until, that is, Claire wakes up, right in the middle of counting down her register. She assumes it was all a dream, especially when Jimmy shows up in the truck, just like he was supposed to. However, as she goes about her day (talking with Jimmy and her mom, attending a classics class, making out with Jimmy under the bleachers), she encounters strange images, hears odd noises, and has vivid, revelatory daydreams featuring Duke and various acts of violence. We get more attacks, more appearances of (and information about) Duke, and more scenes of Claire again waking up mid-count at the convenience store.
There are, in general, only two ways for the typical "strange events/unreliable narrator" horror movie to go. There's the "the protagonists are already dead/dying" way, as seen in everything from Jacob's Ladder and The Others (at the good end of the spectrum) to Dead End and Soul Survivors (at the ass end). There's the "the protagonist is really the killer" option, featured in High Tension*** and Ripper. Since the only person dying is Claire, it becomes pretty damned obvious where this one falls relatively early on (early enough that I'm not concerned about spoiling much here -- this is a movie that relies on an intelligent audience already familiar with the nature of this sort of plot).
As this is one of the few 2006 movies I've reviewed here, and the only good one (so far), I won't spoil the actual finale. Suffice to say, it more than satisfied me.
Salvage works largely because it recaptures the feeling of '70s era indie horror. The film doesn't have that overdone CGI, it stays away from MTV-style cuts, and the borderline-amateur cast (none of the stars have anything of a pedigree, but lead Lauren Currie Lewis will certainly go on to higher-profile roles) immerse themselves in the characters completely and believably. Throw in some superb music from Evan Wilson (nothing groundbreaking, but perfect for establishing mood), and it all comes together smoothly under the direction of brothers Jeff and Josh Crook, who also wrote the screenplay. Although there’s not a ton of one-screen gore, there’s enough (particularly in one mid-movie attack) to satisfy, and it’s all nicely put together.
Salvage is that rare hidden gem of a horror movie. It's a short, to-the-point slasher that plays to a smart, horror-savvy audience without ever slipping into the condescending postmodern morass that too many post-Scream movies have done. This isn’t going to change the face of horror, and at its length, Salvage is little more than an extended episode of Masters of Horror, but it's a perfectly fun movie, and one that bodes well for the future of the Crook brothers.
*Yes, I know some of you think that Paul Schrader is a good director. Personally, I think that as a director, he makes a great screenwriter. And he's not directing his own work here. And I'm assuming none of you think that Renny Harlin is a great director, although I'm the first to admit that I've liked my share of his movies.
**Partially because actor Chris Ferry looks like a younger, more psychotic version of Neil Flynn.
***So named because you have to be high to think there's any tension.
Every once in a while, I'm grabbed by a horror movie's concept before I've even seen it. That's not necessarily a good thing -- Saw glimmered like solid gold when I first saw the previews, but turned out to be the horror movie answer to pyrite when if finally landed on the big screen. But, like any Hollywood exec, give me a good, high-concept plot ("We've got Aliens! And they're fighting Predators!" or "It's a prequel to The Exorcist! And we'll release it twice! With two different, but equally lame, directors*! And a screenplay by Caleb Carr"), and I'm willing to hear more, no matter how many times I've been disappointed in the past. That's because every once in a while, I'm not disappointed.
Salvage completely and utterly failed to disappoint me. That's likely because it quickly shows that it's about more than its great high-concept plot ("It's Groundhog Day, only as a horror movie!"). In fact, just as Salvage stylishly shifts into a second high concept (one that many a movie has employed), it pulls a nice little twist out of its hat at the end. At 80 minutes, it's also one of the shortest horror movies I've seen since Chopping Mall, largely because the directors clearly realize that this is the sort of film that needs to hit quickly and powerfully, instead of dragging things out.
We start in a salvage yard (what a shock), where we get a first-person pov of someone stalking through the yard, interspersed with a few frames of (seemingly) random graphic images. Eventually the stalker comes upon a teenaged boy working on a car, who looks up just as something bad's likely about to happen to him. We don't find out what that is, however.
Cut to a convenience store, where young Claire is closing out her register after working the night shift. She walks a couple of blocks to the spot where she's expecting to be picked up by her boyfriend, Jimmy. Instead of Jimmy, however, a man named Duke drives up in Jimmy's truck (which is the same truck we saw being worked on in the opening scene). He claims to be a friend of Jimmy's, there to offer her a ride back home. If he's a little creepy**, he seems on the level, so Claire accepts.
During the ride home, Duke starts getting creepier, making comments about how beautiful Claire is, never really answering how he knows Jimmy, and eventually starting to caress Claire’s hair. As soon as they get to her house, she runs inside.
We get a drawn-out scene of tension, as Claire hears a knock on the door and does her best to hide from Duke (or whoever might be out there), but just as she see the truck drive away and assumes that she's safe, Duke appears behind her, and pummels her until she's nearly unconscious. He then drags her to the basement and goes to work on her with a small scythe. Claire is dead.
Until, that is, Claire wakes up, right in the middle of counting down her register. She assumes it was all a dream, especially when Jimmy shows up in the truck, just like he was supposed to. However, as she goes about her day (talking with Jimmy and her mom, attending a classics class, making out with Jimmy under the bleachers), she encounters strange images, hears odd noises, and has vivid, revelatory daydreams featuring Duke and various acts of violence. We get more attacks, more appearances of (and information about) Duke, and more scenes of Claire again waking up mid-count at the convenience store.
There are, in general, only two ways for the typical "strange events/unreliable narrator" horror movie to go. There's the "the protagonists are already dead/dying" way, as seen in everything from Jacob's Ladder and The Others (at the good end of the spectrum) to Dead End and Soul Survivors (at the ass end). There's the "the protagonist is really the killer" option, featured in High Tension*** and Ripper. Since the only person dying is Claire, it becomes pretty damned obvious where this one falls relatively early on (early enough that I'm not concerned about spoiling much here -- this is a movie that relies on an intelligent audience already familiar with the nature of this sort of plot).
As this is one of the few 2006 movies I've reviewed here, and the only good one (so far), I won't spoil the actual finale. Suffice to say, it more than satisfied me.
Salvage works largely because it recaptures the feeling of '70s era indie horror. The film doesn't have that overdone CGI, it stays away from MTV-style cuts, and the borderline-amateur cast (none of the stars have anything of a pedigree, but lead Lauren Currie Lewis will certainly go on to higher-profile roles) immerse themselves in the characters completely and believably. Throw in some superb music from Evan Wilson (nothing groundbreaking, but perfect for establishing mood), and it all comes together smoothly under the direction of brothers Jeff and Josh Crook, who also wrote the screenplay. Although there’s not a ton of one-screen gore, there’s enough (particularly in one mid-movie attack) to satisfy, and it’s all nicely put together.
Salvage is that rare hidden gem of a horror movie. It's a short, to-the-point slasher that plays to a smart, horror-savvy audience without ever slipping into the condescending postmodern morass that too many post-Scream movies have done. This isn’t going to change the face of horror, and at its length, Salvage is little more than an extended episode of Masters of Horror, but it's a perfectly fun movie, and one that bodes well for the future of the Crook brothers.
*Yes, I know some of you think that Paul Schrader is a good director. Personally, I think that as a director, he makes a great screenwriter. And he's not directing his own work here. And I'm assuming none of you think that Renny Harlin is a great director, although I'm the first to admit that I've liked my share of his movies.
**Partially because actor Chris Ferry looks like a younger, more psychotic version of Neil Flynn.
***So named because you have to be high to think there's any tension.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-22 09:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-23 12:16 am (UTC)How do you want to kill the cheerleader?
>with knife
You are not holding the knife.
>pick up knife
You are now holding the knife. See how the blade gleams?
>kill cheerleader with knife
Blood gushes all over you as you stab the cheerleader over and over again.
You are now wearing the bloody clothes. You are now holding the bloody knife.
You have scored 21 points (out of 69).
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-23 03:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-23 04:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-23 03:53 pm (UTC)