Blood Salvage

Well, In the B movie sense anyway. It is greatly entertaining. If Hiram doesn't keep you laughing throughout this movie then you are living a sad life. It even has John Saxon in it, which some will recognize as the father in "A Nightmare on Elm Street" It has some decent acting (although The main character's (April) voice is a little annoying.) Ok effects, and a whole lotta laughs. If you are on a B movie hunt. Pick this one up!

I'd never heard of this movie, so I wasn't expecting much, but I found it to be very entertaining.

A muscle car with a spike-plate on the front of it runs down a just-married couple in their car. They're picked up by a tow truck, and taken to a salvage yard that is more interested in them than their car.

The hick family of three behind the salvage yard takes an interest in a young woman in a wheelchair who is taking part in a beauty pageant. She's traveling with her parents and younger brother in an RV. Their RV gets sabotaged so that a wheel comes off, and a tow truck is ready to pick them up....

The young woman is a bit hard to take, but when she's yelling at her family not to do things, she's invariably right. She's a strong character. John Saxon does a good job as the father. The mother and brother don't have much to do.

The hick family is more interesting than I expected. The father is a Christian fanatic who has made up his own code of morality. Upset at the death of his wife at some point in the past for lack of a heart donor, he's recognized a niche that can be filled. Though a hick, he is a mad genius. He's also largely polite and smiling, like Farmer Vincent in Motel Hell.

There's an odd cameo by boxer Evander Holyfield at a carnival where people can try to beat him in the ring while he's blindfolded. Ray Walston (My Favorite Martian, Mr. Hand in Fast TImes at Ridgmont High) also has a small role, but his serves the plot more.

This movie is one of the best horror's I've seen in awhile. It rips off the texas chainsaw massacre and motel hell all throughout the movie. But it takes the same material and puts it in to something way better. The acting is good and the bad guys actually have a motive for doing what their doing. It's very logical too. It makes you think. If you see this somewhere do rent it.

Crazy & obscure little early 90's horror gem, this "Mad Jake" (a.k.a. "Blood Salvage). It's definitely better than I expected although severely lacking originality and a little too long for its own good. Tucker Johnston's script almost seems to be a tribute to Tobe Hooper's earliest horror classics, with a family of demented rednecks terrorizing innocent road travelers ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre") whilst their pet-alligator (remember "Death Trap"?) carelessly wanders around the estate for no real reason. Father Jake is a genius yet totally deranged surgeon/religion freak who, with the help of his two sons Hiram and Roy, removes the healthy organs of innocent people and sells them to a sleazy elderly guy on the black market. Pretending to own a towing-service, Jake picks up the happy Evans family on their way home from a beauty contest where the gorgeous but crippled daughter April *almost* won. He takes an interest in April, as he thinks he can cure her damaged spine, but the young girl is tougher than she looks and fights back. "Mad Jake" contains quite a lot of grisly images, as these weirdos keep all their victims hanging more dead then alive in a barn, and April's desperate attempts to escape result in the occasional flashes of sheer suspense. The villain-characters are rather interesting, especially the oldest son Hiram who wears shirts of Lynyrd Skynyrd and claims all women are dirty whores. He also drives a truck with nasty spikes attached to the front and spontaneously starts fights with heavyweight boxing champions (a cameo by Evander Holyfield). So, you see, there's even a fair share of effective humor in this sadly forgotten horror movie! The acting performances are more than adequate with enthusiast lead players and respectable names in the supportive cast. John Saxon, a personal favorite of mine, stars as April's loving father and Ray Walston briefly appears as the organ dealer, eerily dressed in black. Highly recommended to fans of solid B-horror, if you can find it somewhere.

This is an entertaining film. It's kind of like a cross between Deliverance and Nightmare on Elm Street. It's hard to find but if you're a "B" horror fan you'll dig it. The real treat is the barn and the gadgets that the film makers came up with to illustrate the "salvage" operation. I wish we could see more of that. There's a surprising cameo by Evander Hollyfield (with ear complete - a little ironic given the subject of the film).