With slickly produced bloated garbage (”See No Evil” Read Our “Class of 2006″ to See What Gary. G. thought of “See No Evil”, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning”) and lame duck Japanese remakes (”Pulse, The Grudge 2″) clogging the intestines of horror fans this year, “Salvage” comes along and cleans up 2006 like a much-needed cinematic enema. Using a budget under $25,000, the “Salvage” writing and directing team of Joshua and Jeffery Cook do something filmmakers with a hundred times their budget seem incapable of: They made a creepy, atmospheric, and all-around great fright flick, which may just end up being the best American horror film you’ll see this year.
The basic plot of “Salvage” is fairly simple, but it’s the complexities unveiled by the Crook brothers throughout this eighty-minute independent masterpiece that raise it out of the murky waters filled with endless “Hostel” and “Saw” clones. Claire (Lauren Currie Lewis), an employee at a gas station in Nowhere, Middle America, gets picked up after her graveyard shift ends by a stranger driving her boyfriend’s truck. He introduces himself as Duke Desmond (Chris Ferry), and he claims to be pals with her boyfriend Jimmy (Cody Darbe). During the early morning ride to her home, Duke begins to behave so strangely that by the time they arrive at her mother’s house, both Claire and the audience know something’s not right. After Claire flees the truck and barricades herself in the house, Duke manages to break in and, following a vicious attack, drags Claire kicking and screaming into her own basement for a torture-filled death. Then Claire wakes up, still at work, and the day begins to unfold just as it had in her “dream,” up until Duke’s post-work arrival, for this time Jimmy shows up right on schedule and Claire writes it off as a nightmare. But, slowly, instances from her “dream” begin appearing, punctuated with “shaky cam” flashback footage of Duke being chased by the police. Until every time she drifts off to sleep she finds herself waking up, back at work and back in the nightmare she can’t escape.
While the premise may sound like a horror twist on the Bill Murray classic “Groundhog’s Day,” the Crook brothers are both kind and smart enough not to force you to relive the same scenes with the alarming repetition “Groundhog Day” showcased. Under the watchful eyes of the Crooks, “Salvage” is more similar to being trapped in a never-ending nightmare of helpless isolation. Filmed in 2005, featuring a tone admittedly inspired by the recent wave of Japanese horror and their remakes, “Salvage” works about as half as hard as its inspirers and still manages to run “rings” around them all. Relying on simple yet generally underused camera tricks to create an eerie and extremely atmospheric reality, “Salvage” breaks the CGI bonds forced upon most horror films. This creates a far more visceral fear, and on the rare occasion the Crooks do use a digital effect, it makes it special and far more inspired.
As a connoisseur of low-budget, independent horror films, I was surprised not only by the intelligence of the filmmakers but also by the surprising quality of acting, particularly that of the two leads. Lauren Currie Lewis, who resembles an attractive Alicia Silverstone, is captivating as a young woman on the edge of sanity; with her large, doe-like eyes and expressive mouth, she has a face perfect for horror films. Meanwhile, as her demented tormenter, Chris Ferry takes the character of serial killer Duke Desmond and makes it his own. It’s been a long time since an actor could make me tremble in my seat merely by appearing on screen, but Ferry does a masterful job of it and deserves more roles in this genre.
While an incredible film, like most independent features “Salvage” isn’t without its share of inherit problems. It’s low budget and amateurish in almost every respect, but rarely does its unrefined nature distract from the excellent story. In fact, the raw feel of the film in many instances makes the terror far more cerebral. The biggest fault of “Salvage” would be a soundtrack overflowing with songs by the band Devola, a group of which both brothers are fans. While the Crooks profess that Devola’s songs are critical to setting the tone of the film, in reality the songs are incredibly distracting. Devola sounds like a poor man’s Evanescence, who are pretty generic and awful in their own right. Silence or even the violin music that is already sprinkled throughout would have been a better choice.
Featuring very little gore and bath and shower scenes devoid of nudity, “Salvage” may not be the best film for the average horror fan. Using a decent script that creates a cleverly crafted ambience, at times it might be too smart for its own good. Rather than holding the viewer’s hand and stopping to point out every meaningful moment, the Crooks rely heavily on the audience to be intelligent enough to figure some things out for themselves. Which in this world filled with insipid films made for a vapid audience bred on video games and YouTube footage might be its biggest stumbling block.
Presented in a widescreen format, “Salvage” looks far better than one might expect from a $25k budget film shot entirely on video. Even though the picture was cleaned up significantly during post production, it still looks a bit washed out at times and has inconstant moments of quality. While its look my be too amateurish for some, in the end it helps set the tone, and those unable to cope probably don’t deserve this film in the first place.
Featuring a basic stereo presentation, the dialogue can occasionally get a bit low, especially during the final twenty minutes; but for a film that rests on the shoulders of well-crafted sound effects and visual tricks, the sound quality rarely causes any problems
Along with the now government-required trailer, the folks at Echo Bridge were kind enough to give fans an extremely informative commentary, featuring both Joshua and Jeffrey Cook. The brothers offer up a candid look behind the scenes of their movie and divulge what went into almost every aspect of their film. This gives the audience a real insight into the independent feature process, which is genuinely appreciated after hearing commentary after commentary for projects featuring cast and crew members so distant from the actual process that they play as little more than sleep-inducing lullabies.
As an official selection for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, expect to hear much more from the writing /directing team of the Cook brothers, as well as from both Lauren Currie Lewis and the extremely creepy Chris Ferry. If we’re lucky, we won’t ever have to hear anything more from Devola. From the very effective opening credits to the well-crafted surprise ending (that for once actually delivers on its surprise), “Salvage” is the most entertaining horror film I’ve seen since “High Tension.” For further proof of its genius, once the final credits rolled, I watched the whole movie again and now I can’t wait to view it for a third time.
9/10 Stars
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