A Hora do Calafrio

Savage Weekend is a very good film. Of course it does not have high production value, but as far as content and story-line are concerned it is awesome.

The film captivated me with its alluring plot and horror filled moments. Christopher Allport is wonderful in the role of 'Mother' Nicky, especially when he shows his true nature in the bar scene.

Unfortunately this film is very rare. I was lucky enough to find a copy at a local video store that was going out of business so I picked it up. If you ever find this film to buy or rent take advantage of it and you will not be sorry. It is a good film to watch with your friends, and like the last contributor mentioned, watching it with your girlfriend. She will be so scared that she won't want to let go of you.

I love this movie so much that my friends and I created our own sequel of sorts a few years ago via our camcorder. Granted we are not very good actors and we didn't take much time to plan anything, it is still fun to watch.

Long live Savage Weekend, it rocks!

Writer / director David Paulsen ("Schizoid") got something of a head start on the slasher craze with this offering. It predates Carpenters' "Halloween" by two years; it was filmed in 1976, but not released until 1980. It's just weird enough - and kinky enough - to be watchable, although it may not appeal to some hardcore devotees of the genre as it takes a long time to begin its murder spree, and even at that point there's really no gore to speak of. Instead, what we get is a lot of odd touches and interesting character details, not to mention a fair bit of humour.

Marie (Marilyn Hamlin) goes on a weekend excursion to the country with her new husband Robert (Jim Doerr), her younger sister Shirley (Caitlin O'Heaney, "He Knows You're Alone"), and their openly gay friend Nicky (Christopher Allport, "Dead & Buried"). Soon, their good time is ruined by a psychopath wearing a goofy Halloween mask.

While there are no real A-list stars here, there are certainly some very recognizable faces. O'Heaney has some seriously sexy moments (viewers will definitely appreciate the doses of nudity in this film). Allport is amusing, even if his character is somewhat stereotypical. It's great fun to see David Gale of future "Re-Animator" fame as a lumber man providing wood for a boat that Robert is building with some associates. Top notch character actor William Sanderson is a vivid, unkempt redneck / red herring. A very young Yancy Butler makes her film debut. It's not surprising that Hamlin never got much acting work, because she's simply atrocious here.

There might not be enough here to completely satisfy some slasher fans, but it remains rather offbeat for its 88 minute time and it is worth a look.

Six out of 10.

There is just something compelling about this little known slasher/mystery, produced in the late 70's. The acting is solid, the characters seem realistic, and even though not much happens in the first 40 or so minutes, the trashy sex scenes and slow character development keep you hooked, until the murders start. The murders are seriously not the most memorable, (except for maybe the needle in the head) but Savage Weekend keeps the viewer watching, with a lurid story filled with sex and climaxing with violent murders. The revealing of the killer is not exactly shocking, if you pay attention either. Consider it a slasher with some melodrama.

Five people take a trip to a backwoods community where one of them is restoring a large boat, the ownership of which is a matter of considerable anger on behalf of local yokel Otis (Sanderson) whose father, and the original owner of the boat, has recently died. Otis is "none too pleased" that city folk are taking away his blood, sweat and tears and he plans to get even. Meanwhile, promiscuous Shirley (O'Heaney) sunbathes naked, has random sexual encounters with Jay (Goldenberg) while the new boat owner (Doerr) and his girlfriend Marie (Hamilin, essentially the central character) are also indulging their carnal desires at every given opportunity. Flamboyant queen Chris Allport minces about, making salads and peeping lustfully as the two couples cavort, all the while Otis is plotting his revenge by his late-father's grave-stone.

It reminds me of a poor man's "Deliverance" in some respects and while at first glance, the cast may be unfamiliar, many of the faces are recognisable. Sanderson, Allport and Pomerantz have become better known actors, while Gale (pre "Re-Animator") appears in an early role as the sinister-looking Mac, all-purpose local man who could be a hero or a villain. Despite these names, it's Caitlin O'Heaney's presence that really emboldens this low-budget slasher flick. Light years before "Tales of the Gold Monkey", the brassy brunette is like a divine nymph and between Allport's colourful peacock like performance, the two make an odd yet engaging pair.

If you can overlook the moments of despair (Hamlin's cow-milking scene or the irritating banjo music spring to mind), there's enough material in this low-budget shocker to make it worthwhile. And while the climax descends into little more than a killing spree, it's energetic, gruesome and the plot twists satisfying. I watched this film many years ago and found it underwhelming, but on second more recent viewing, there's more depth in the cast and sub-text than perhaps initially meets the eye.

A group of well-to-do New Yorkers go on a weekend trip into the country and get picked off by a mask-wielding psycho.

There's a lot of plot exposition setting up one character in particular as the killer, so it's not much of a surprise that this person ends up not being the killer, and it's also not much of a surprise when we find out who the killer is, despite the moment being treated like a big reveal. The killings are far too tame to appease gore hounds, but there's plenty of nudity for those looking for it. The film's pretty entertaining, actually, the kind of bad movie that you can laugh at despite it's being so sleazy. There are numerous bizarre choices made throughout, like the inclusion of a snarky gay character who beats up two rednecks in a bar and has some sort of sexual dysfunction that's introduced but never developed, and a seduction scene that revolves around the milking of a cow.

No one in the film was recognizable, for obviously good reasons once you see them act, with the exception of the actor who went on to play Larry on the T.V. show "Newhart."

Grade: C+