Ruas Selvagens

Definitely the highlight of Linda Blair's post-Exorcist career, this sleezy tale of high school revenge is a must for bad film fans everywhere.

This touching tale tells the story of Brenda (Blair), a tough high school gal who spends her nights drinking peach brandy on the streets of LA with her equally tough friends. One night, they make the mistake of messing with a gang called the Scars ("careful Brenda, these dudes look dangerous"), and before you know it, the Scars have raped and beaten Brenda's deaf, mute sister. Once Brenda learns the truth of what happened, she vows revenge on those responsible.

Directed by Daniel Steinman (Friday the 13th Pt 5), this film has some of the best (and worst) dialogue ever to grace the screen. Blair is fantastic, a hilarious mix of flared nostrils and foul language. Even better is John Vernon,as the principal, in his second film with Blair (Chained Heat is another must see). Vernon steals every scene he's in, whether he's telling Brenda she has "a great body" (!) or telling the Scars to "go f**k an iceberg"!

This is the ultimate 80s high school movie - terrible music, awful acting, questionable violence and gratuitous nudity. Seek it out if you haven't seen it. It's best seen in it's uncut form, as here in the UK twelve minutes were censored!

This one pretty much has it all. It wears 1980s on its forehead. Linda Blair gets star billing in a role that was a far departure from her usual victim parts. Age 24 when this was filmed, she really seems to revel in this new role. Linnea Quigley gives one of the best performances of her career as a deaf-mute. One year older than Blair, the implication is that she is Blair's younger sister.

Linda (wisely) avoids nudity during the shower scene. She did that the year before in CHAINED HEAT. But she does have an artsy candlelit bathtub scene where she is nude displaying her ample assets.

Also, you know this is an eighties film when the shower scene features an abundance of pubic hair. You wouldn't see that today.

SAVAGE STREETS has nudity, violence, rape, murder, revenge, 80s music, and good locations.

But is also has something else....

Homo hijinks. There's a guy gang called the Scars. They kiss on the lips. One guy sucks another thumb. One wears more makeup than Boy George. And they are CONSTANTLY touching one another. WTF? Did I miss something in the 80s? Oh, yeah...and they have to assert their masculinity through rape. Right.

Sal Landi, as one of the gang members, gives an outstanding performance. Blair is in top form. Check it out!

I don't regard myself fan of exploitation films. Haven't seen many. But his one has got everything! Fights, nasty faces of the mean guys, violence, immorality, bad attitude, hilarious dialogue, a rape scene, lots of full nudity and the so called (nah, these Americans!) 'cat fight', and ALL these while film is flowing in a non-stop, not-at-all-boring without letting the pace down to slow down at all.

Music is nice with an uplifting 80's feel - the film doen't fall flat until the very end, typically disappointing as a standard American picure, even though it delivers the goods, so no big complaints here.

OK, to sum up: this is probably one of the best-known exploitation pictures and I think it deserves the hype, for what it's woth. Do not watch this if you're expecting a 'good' film, because it's no 'good' film - still it justifies its supporters and fans of exploitation just by being what it was meant to be. Very funny indeed, I recommend watching with some friend(s) (but no politically correct female, as the film is quite sexist) along with beers or other kind of booze.

EXPLOITATION FANS: A MUST!!!!! all other weirdos & perverts, this is good entertainment and a nice surprise!

Sexploitation film with the unmistakable mark of the 80's. There are many ups and downs. Some action scenes are nice but thwre is also bad overacting. You can see lots of naked women, often suffering sexual harassment. The leading character seeks revenge against a clockwork-orange-like gang.

Savage Streets (1984) is directed by Danny Steinmann and this belongs to the better achievements of the vigilante genre. Brenda's (Linda Blair) deaf little sister Heather (Linnea Quickley) is abused by a brutal street gang and left to her agony on the school floor. Her sister is very tough and powerful (both physically and mentally) and soon she begins her own war against those b****rds that raped and killed innocent people.

There are no morals in this films, but as far as one is interested in vigilante movies (which may include some morals, too) this is very pleasant classic from the 1980's as these films are not made anymore. The rape scene is pretty disturbing as the girl cannot even scream. The violence is not too heavy but heavy enough to shock the mainstream audience, and this would probably not get an R rating nowadays in its full form, but then, it didn't get it back then, either. Linnea is very beautiful and acts her silent role convincingly, and her sister's actress Linda Blair is also fantastic and should scare all the males with her crossbow and killer expression on her face..

I liked this flick, because I love these nostalgic (just listen to the marvelous soundtrack!!!) street films from the 80's. Others of its kind are for example Lustig's Vigilante, Winner's Death Wish (from the 70's but still) and Ferrara's Ms. 45. Savage Streets is not too intelligent movie but as a trash exploitation this is very important piece of genre's history, in my opinion! And of course there is a shower scene without any other purpose than to show us naked women. And also a fight scene in the shower! And also.. Well, fans of the genre know exactly what to expect from this kind of film: great dialogue and characters, nudity, gratuitous violence, rock and disco music and so on, and Savage Streets delivers it all and so is recommended for fans of this kind of low budget exploitation.

7/10