Salvage

A great addition to the flavour-du-jour domestic danger sub-genre (cf. Right At Your Door, The Strangers, Ils) as a small Scouse (that's Liverpool, non-UKers) neighbourhood finds themselves besieged by a mysterious murderous malcontent.

This features all one could hope for from such a movie - flawed (jut like us) yet likable (er, just like us) characters (take note Eli Roth), suburban slaughter, a threat more hinted at than seen, with a side-order of allusions to domestic terrorism and sinister soldiers skulking to add some spice.

I caught this flick a sweltering screening at the Edinburgh International Film Fest but if there's any justice in this bad old world then it'll be at a cinema near you in the not too distant!

When a container washes ashore the residents of a sleepy cul-de-sac are plunged into violence, terror and paranoia. Fenced in by the military, a single mother must overcome all the odds to save her daughter.

I really have little to say about this film. From the description on Netflix, I figured it would be something like "The Host". Maybe I should be glad it was not (unlike many horror fans, I was not a big fan of that Korean attempt at monster movie fun). But this was no prize, either.

While I did not find the story all that interesting, and really not even worth commenting on, I will make one observation: it looks good. Knowing what I know about how the film was shot and edited, I am impressed with just how professional it looks. Sure, I have seen other films look great, too (John Pata's "Dead Weight"), but I hardly expected it here.

Let me say how desperate, I've been searching for a good movie lately. I've been keeping my hopes up and I thought Salvage, due to it's pretty interesting plot summary, could do the trick. I was halfway right.

First off I'll start with the pros about Salvage. The opening 20 minutes was very well done. It was interesting and by the time the carnage started it was very suspenseful. The actors were all average at the very worst a little over the top sometimes (Especially the lead) but nonetheless they were good at what they do. The creature effects were great, as were the gore effects.

Now here are the cons. Nothing really interesting happens during the next hour of the movie. Other than 2 Extremely well done scenes that were actually scary and suspenseful (An attic scene and a tense shootout), the rest just was there. I couldn't follow what was going on because I was drifting in and out of consciousness during the whole movie. It never really felt like anyone was in any real danger; and it tried to be several different movies at once. (Think 28 Days Later, The Descent, and any creature feature, and you pretty much have Salvage, of course you can do this with most movies but Salvage didn't really try anything differently). I'm not saying that the over the top gore was comical it just felt really out of place at times and kinda took any realism this could have had to build suspense (By this point I had stopped caring).

I really don't want to give it a 6 or give it a 5 because it was pretty much dead center to me. But, I'll be generous and give it a 6 for trying. The effort put into it alone made it a 5/10 but as for the script it just didn't do it for me.

And by the way I really love British Cinema... I'd recommend to those who liked Salvage to check out The Descent and 28 Days Later if they want other good British horror flicks (Odds are if you have seen Salvage you've seen the other two)

SALVAGE comes across as an ultra-low budget variant on the whole 28 DAYS LATER theme, with terrified residents struggling to protect themselves from a rampaging killer whose identity is only revealed in snippets. Sadly, though, it's not much of a film at all, and certainly nothing we haven't already seen time and again, plot-wise. The whole 'container on the beach' aspect of the storyline (and title) is ridiculous and unconnected with the central story, which I imagined would be about thieving residents finding themselves affected by pollution.

Instead, it's the usual home invasion style antics, with a little excitement raised through some shenanigans in the loft, but not a lot. Inevitably, given the lack of money behind the production, much of the (short) running time is spent on people sitting around and chatting despite the air of pervading menace. A shame, then, that the characters are so lacklustre and unbelievable, particularly Neve McIntosh's ridiculous lead, Beth, who spends her entire time running around after an obnoxious daughter who clearly hates her guts.

Shaun Dooley, as McIntosh's comedic love interest, is better, but his character is purely there to give the lead somebody to talk to, so he doesn't get much to work with. The film squanders its money on some cheaply-staged gore effects (already done so many times, would have been better utilised if put towards more scenes of menace) while the regional accents of the Liverpudlian cast members render dialogue completely incomprehensible.

Part of the fun from watching comes from the realisation that this was filmed on the left-over sets from TV's BROOKSIDE, although the film's in serious trouble when the most interest it can muster involves recognising the bloody buildings it takes place in! Throw in a few silly plot twists and you have an entirely superfluous fluff piece that's surely going to be forgotten by all but the most ardent fans of modern British horror. If you want a decent film in this sub-genre, you could do worse than check out Isolation, about genetic experiments on cows at a remote farm.

I'm rather perplexed by the fact most of the reviews on here go on about the lack of budget, albeit in a positive way. Yes it's not exactly Avatar in terms of spending on effects etc but the cost isn't something that's terribly relevant with this movie. The limited setting - most of the action takes place in a cul de sac - adds to the claustrophobic feeling. And the gore when it comes has the claret flowing with gusto and looks pretty convincing.

I did struggle a couple of times to understand the dialogue - a combination of muffled voices and regional accents - and although on one occasion this seemed to be a pretty key piece of information, in all it was fine.

Definitely worth checking out and I shall be following the director's work with interest