Savage Vengeance

I would like to have given this "movie" a zero rating. We filmed better movies in high school!!

This is the worst thing I have seen. The acting is horrible. Scenes where there is blood look so fake.

The only thing that stands out is the very colorful background of trees.

They must have filmed this at a park when all the crowds went home.

The budget on this must have been under $100

I thought it was odd right from the start when 4 men "rape" a woman who has her pants on the whole time. (A theme repeated throughout the movie)

Make sure your fast forward button is working on your remote or better yet, forget this movie and enjoy a day outside!!

Part of the "I Will Dance On Your Grave" series of films, this manages to be the worst of the bunch. The others were entertaining in it is so bad, it is good way, but this entry fails to do the same. It is also a rip-off of Day of the Woman. In this entry, we find a woman being raped by four guys at the beginning who later on seeks vengeance against any male she runs across. Filled with terrible gore effects and some really obivious mistakes (the guys never have to unzip or take off there pants to rape the woman).

Unrated; Rape, Nudity, Sexual Situations, Graphic Violence.

Savage Vengeance, or whatever you want to call it (given the plethora of names designed to trap unwary B movie hounds into making a duplicate purchase), is a pretty awful film, but it's not entirely without entertainment value--that is, as long as you and your friends are prone to creating your own MST3K-styled sarcastic commentary.

Many people mistakenly call remakes and sequels "rip offs" of their predecessors. However, this is a case where "rip off" is probably the right term. Savage Vengeance is something of an "unofficial sequel" to I Spit on Your Grave (aka Day of the Woman) (1978). The only factor making it a gray issue is the fact that Camille Keaton plays the protagonist of both films--here under the pseudonym of "Vickie Kehl". Without Keaton's presence, there would be little doubt that this is strictly a rip off.

The film suffers from problems typical of microbudget horror. Jack-of-all-trades Donald Farmer hardly bothered to write a script. There's not much of a story here. The cinematography is horrible. The lighting is worse. The editing could just as well have been randomly determined. The effects are pitiful. No one turns in a performance worthy of even a Razzie. The film is full of padding, and even with that, it still barely clocks in at 65 minutes.

Yet . . . yet, I found Savage Vengeance somewhat entertaining on my second viewing. This is more likely to happen on a second viewing than a first, because during the first you're more likely to feel annoyed at rapidly disappearing hopes of a decent film, and perhaps even anger at wasting time or money on this turkey. On a second viewing (I know the prospect is maybe inherently masochistic, but I wouldn't deny being something of a nutball), you have zero expectations about seeing a quality film, and you can focus on the absurdities and shoddiness. Some of these features have been pointed out already in other reviews, but they're worth noting again. Here's a list of some of the amusing content to be on the lookout for:

* In the opening rape scene, all parties keep their pants on and secure. I guess this is a non-consensual dry hump. Still prosecutable, but it doesn't say much for the depravity and/or intelligence of the perpetrators.

* One of the initial rapists looks remarkably like Robert Plant. Given the setting, I was expecting him to break into "The Rain Song".

* Don't we all usually take long drives to head out to hiking trails in street clothes just to read a newspaper or magazine?

* There's a throat-slashing scene that Farmer lingers on way too long. It's obvious that he was thrilled with finally getting the blood-spurting effect to work, so he milks it for as long as he can, completely ruining the pacing of the film. Alright, I agree that "pacing" is a joke when talking about this film.

* In the convenience store, it takes Jennifer's (Keaton) friend only about two minutes to invite a sleazy redneck to their cabin later.

* The whole "pork-belly pie" bit was ridiculous enough to be hilarious.

* There are two scenes of bands playing that are more tortuous to sit through than the film overall. How quickly would you be out of either one of those bars?

* Note the carefully arranged shirt (without sufficient dramatic justification), planned so that just enough of Keaton will fall out of it periodically to keep us looking at the screen.

* A character suffers a serious knife wound that mysteriously disappears in the next scene.

* A character who is supposed to be dead keeps very conspicuously blinking and flinching. I guess it had something to do with the fact that the character didn't bleed at all, despite being killed by knife wounds.

* A chainsaw used as a weapon is completely unsynced to the chainsaw on the soundtrack.

* Doesn't every small town have police that do suspicious, random spot checks on residents going about their business just to make sure that "they're not getting into any trouble"?

* And this is my favorite--the incidental score. It's difficult to tell if Perry Monroe sincerely believed that he and his buddies were channeling Pink Floyd, but the results are more often unintentionally hilarious than not. The music is really just overbearing noodling (on a synthesizer, bass and drums), seemingly made up on the fly. I've actually produced stuff like that with friends during long overnight sessions when we were really wasted and goofing around, I'm embarrassed to say. The difference is that I wouldn't release it as a soundtrack to a film.

I found "Savage Vengeance" after sifting through several thousand DVDs at a nearby second-hand electronics store--with a cover baring the badly pixelated image of a chick with a chainsaw, and the title "I Will Dance on Your Grave," I imagined the millionth "Last House on the Left"/"I Spit on Your Grave" variation...and, at $1.99, picked it up without a second thought. I made it through about 40 minutes before my computer locked up, left with a pervasive sense of familiarity with the lead female (who gets raped at least 6 times during the film's 65 minutes)--dyed red hair, and the facial features of Camille Keaton, who played Jennifer Hills in Meir Zarchi's seminal feminist revenge film, "I Spit on Your Grave" (aka "Day of the Woman"). After perusing the IMDb comments, I was shocked to find out that this was no mere doppleganger, but the long-dormant actress herself. Part of me was happy just to see her in something after all this time, but felt sorry at the overall quality of the product. "Savage Vengeance" is a savage rip-off of "I Spit," though by comparison, actually puts Zarchi's film on a much higher plane (I've always had a respect for the film, even if the screenplay is severely flawed)--the writing, direction, acting, editing, lighting, and pacing were much better in that 1978 film than this 1993 shot-on-video effort. The blame for this zero-budget schlock-fest falls on writer-director-actor Donald Farmer's shoulders--apparently filmed on a VHS camcorder, the image has the quality of a second-generation bootleg, the musical score is terrible (and relentless, even when nothing is happening), and the performances are laughably amateur (even Keaton, who at least had something of a career prior to this, is stuck in a mis-directed role). Under the dubious distributor name 'Eden Entertainment,' I was at least thinking some soft-core porn would be thrown into the mix (what often sells low-budget stuff like this), but was sorely mistaken--while Keaton once again bares her chest to the world (one tasteless touch has her running around the woods with her shirt unbuttoned), the rapes themselves are implausible, fully-clothed acts carried out by guys who make the original "I Spit" gang look Oscar-worthy. But what can I say? At 65 minutes, "Savage Vengeance" kept my not-so-easy-to-keep interest, and made good use of authentic locations (even though the supporting cast of non-actors proves that even something like this needs at least a LITTLE professionalism)...and hell, it's a chance to see the rarely-seen Camille Keaton again!

Let me start by saying that this movie was HIDEOUSLY awful! Everything about it was terrible! Recently, I attended a horror movie convention and Camille Keaton, star of the original "I Spit on Your Grave" was in attendance. I asked Miss Keaton a direct question about whether or not she truly was in this film and her response was "I'm very sorry but I can't talk about that!". She then went on to tell me about another sequel that was written by Meir Zarchi (director of the original)which she was supposed to also star in but never came to fruition. There was also a recent interview with Miss Keaton published in "Ultra Violent" magazine which makes mention of the fact that there is one film that Miss Keaton "is believed to have appeared in under an alias but cannot speak about". I can't say that I blame Miss Keaton for not wanting to discuss this film or for using another name while appearing in this film, I would never admit to such a thing either! The writers, directors, and producers of this film should truly be ashamed of themselves for making such a piece of worthless garbage. A kindergärtner with a camcorder could make more compelling cinema!