Leofwine_draca

SAVAGE SALVATION is a disappointing slice of rednecksploitation let down by poor direction and weak scripting, which is content to package up and present an age-old story as if it's somehow fresh and exciting again. The story has a depressing background of drug addiction and small town resentment, with Jack Huston and his girlfriend addicts striving to make a future for themselves. By the end all the gritty realism has vanished in favour of some boy's own-style heroics. John Malkovich has a predictable supporting role, while Robert De Niro plays the world's oldest sheriff.

A scuzzy little women-in-prison film from Ted Nicolaou, the director best known for his work with Charles Band for the latter's Full Moon Pictures productions, the SUBSPECIES series being the most famous. SAVAGE ISLAND begins with a machine-gun toting Linda Blair but don't let such moments fool you; Blair's role is little more than an extended cameo. The main plot of the film is about women being abused while working at a gem mine in the Amazon, and of course there's lots of sleaze and nudity thrown in along the way. This is an entirely predictable and scuzzy B-movie which builds to a climax that nobody will have trouble guessing. There are roles thanfor Italian stars like Anthony Steffen and Luciano Paluzzi, and Ajita Wilson of course appears too, as she did with most other WIP films of the 1980s, but don't get excited as their appearances come courtesy of stock footage, which explains this film's disjointed feel.

DIRTY O'NEIL is a rare little film from AIP, made as a softcore sex picture but with the kind of added grit that you'd expect from an early 1970s production. The protagonist is a cop who spends the running time bedding a string of impossibly beautiful young woman, all of whom seem especially eager to fall into bed with him. The wall-to-wall nudity sustains the running time for the first half hour, but then the film takes a darker turn. There are scenes of abuse and some extra character depth as various folk struggle with almost existential dilemmas, and all of this leads to a violent climax. The acting is nothing to write home about, but the film is better plotted than I'd expected, and the darker tone suits it well.