Blood Salvage

This is one of those obscure horror films made and forgotten. But this movie has all the parts of a classic. Smooth plot, understandable events, blood, it has it all. The interaction between Jake and his 2 sons works, and the way the victims are treated is expected. Watch this movie!

"Helping people is my business". Jake is completely… MAD! So are his two sons. The older son (whose animated facials and yokel dialogue delivery will always have you in stitches) drives a Torino with spikes at the front bumper. This is used to smash and knock off innocent people from the road, so his daddy Jake can turn up with his tow truck to help them out. However he is actually there to help himself to their fresh, healthy body organs, so he can sell them on the black market to a travelling salesman (a terrifically edgy Ray Walston). Yep this southern religious fanatic is just not a tow-trucker driver, but a surgeon at trade… a rough one too. But he has his eyes set on a beautiful young crippled teenager who he believes he can cure, as she and her family are returning home from a beauty pageant when they encounter vehicle trouble. Guess who is on the spot to help them out. "Mad Jake" aka "Blood Salvage" is a sickly twisted and insane backwoods horror outing with plenty of pitch-black tongue-in-cheek humour and the story/visuals really do wear its influences proudly. What came to mind are Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Eaten Alive", especially for the use of a hungry alligator roaming Jake's property. Also "Motel Hell" and "Slaughterhouse". Still this little on-the-cheap b-picture is a simple mish-mash, made much more the merrier for its wacky performances (great villain performances -- Danny Nelson), in-jokes (one regarding Elvis' whereabouts and cameo by Evander Holyfield), nasty surprises/images and of course a horror favourite the always commendable John Saxon. The suspense is certainly sustained in patches and a definite feel of helplessness feels the air when the young, if totally obnoxious handicapped girl (played with girt by Lori Birdsong) finds herself at the mercy of Jake and his sons (well not so the bulky, dim-witted one). It probably goes on for a little too long, but the encounters were certainly amusing (can't get enough of roof hitting with a broomstick) and the direction surefooted in installing a secluded atmosphere. The music score did become grating at times. One thing though don't you just hate it when the video / DVD synopsis spoils certain twists… even if it's typically foreseeable. Daft, but oddly fun.

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!

Blood Salvage is a one-of-a-kind in so far as it is the only horror film (to my knowledge) to be produced by a world heavyweight boxing champion: Evander Holyfield (who also has a cameo as himself, taking on opponents in the ring at a fairground). Thematically, however, the film is far less unique, using Tobe Hooper's oft-mimicked Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and his follow up Eaten Alive, for its template, with just a little bit of Motel Hell for good measure.

Lori Birdsong plays pretty teen April Evans, who doesn't let the fact that she is in a wheelchair stop her from entering beauty contests. Returning home from a pageant, the Evans family lose a wheel on their RV, unaware that it has been tampered with by reprehensible redneck Hiram, who forces vehicles off the road so that his father Jake can farm the organs of the injured occupants to sell on the black market (to the deviant Dr. Stone, played by My Favourite Martian star Ray Walston).

No sooner has the RV skidded to a halt, than Jake shows up to offer a helping hand, towing the family to his home where, one by one, he adds them to his organ farm—with the exception of April, who reminds Jake of his dead wife. By injecting April with spinal fluid taken from her younger brother Bobby (Andy Greenway), Jake hopes to make April walk once more, and then make her his wife. Of course, with April's legs functional, escape is possible, but the hicks' massive pet alligator makes matters more difficult…

Director Tucker Johnston wisely aims for a darkly comic tone, and occasionally hits the target—Jake's victims moaning 'help me' in unison as Mr. Evans (John Saxon) makes a bid for freedom is a wonderfully macabre moment—but with the general predictability of the script and not nearly enough in the way of graphic ghoulishness (despite the nature of the film, gore is kept to a minimum), Blood Salvage isn't quite as entertaining as its morbid premise promises.

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.