The first 10 minutes of this movie are okay. The last minute of this film is very good. I'm not sure that's enough, however, to redeem the middle 69 minutes that monotonously meander across the screen.
Claire (Lauren Carrie Lewis) is having one hell of day and she's having it over and over and over. No matter what she does, she keeps getting brutally murdered by a man named Duke Desmond (Christopher Ferry). Her boyfriend Jimmy (Cody Darbe) can't help her. Her mom (Maureen Olander) can't help her. Even the local sheriff (John Miller) can't help her. No matter where Claire goes or what she does, it's the same pattern. She leaves her job at a convenience store, goes home and gets her face cut off. Why it's happening to her and what, if anything, Claire can do about it
you'll have to watch Salvage to find that out.
Before I get into the more substantive issues of the film, I should acknowledge that this is one of those really low budget flicks. I mean, REALLY low budget. This looks like one of those movies that gets filmed completely on weekends because the producers can't afford to pay anyone to take time off from their regular jobs. It has all the hallmarks of the cheapo movie. It not only reuses the same sets and locations again and again, it uses the exact same shots. They can't afford to take the time to move the camera or any of the equipment so multiple scenes at the same location are filmed from the same angle with the same lighting and same everything else. Just about everyone in the cast and crew also ends up doing double, triple and even quadruple duty. One of the lead actors was the production accountant and another was in charge of catering. The filmmakers also fall back on the old crutch of getting one deservedly obscure band to contribute a bunch of crappy songs to the soundtrack. I'd bet the band got paid in Cheez Whiz for their efforts.
Having mentioned all that, Salvage is about as visually appealing and well put together as anything this cheaply made ever is. Even when the film-making is forced down to rudimentary levels by budget constraints, it's pulled off with professional grace. You'll never stop noticing this is a very low budget movie, but you'll never be bothered or distracted by it.
As well made as it is, this would have been an outstanding 25 minute short film. By stretching it out for another 55 minutes, writer/directors Joshua and Jeffrey Crook create two significant problems for themselves.
Firstly, they establish early on that what's happening to Claire isn't reality. She's dead, then she's alive. She's one place and then suddenly another. Things happen, unhappen and happen again. What is happening might be magic, parallel dimensions or all in Claire's head, but it isn't real. After making that clear, though, the Crooks then spend over an hour hitting the audience with standard horror movie clichés. Claire's hiding from the killer, she's running from the killer, the killer is suddenly behind her, that sort of thing. But there's no dramatic tension, suspense or importance to any of it. Whether Claire gets caught, gets away or gets killed, none of it matters because the audience knows none of it is real. A good filmmaker can get away with that for 10 or 15 minutes. Nobody can get away with that for 80 minutes.
Secondly, while the Crooks have a superb ending, even the best conclusion needs a good build up. The body of the story has to set up and justify why the ending occurs when it does. With Salvage, this ending could have occurred after the first 24 minutes of the movie and it would have been just as good and made just as much sense. So in addition to the middle 69 minutes of this film not meaning anything to the audience, it also doesn't mean anything to the ending. That's what I mean by monotonously meandering across the screen. If the Crooks had explored or developed earlier in the movie any of the implications that flow out of their great ending, this might have been a tremendous film. For example, and without trying to give anything away, the ending to Salvage makes it the equivalent of a "suff film" for evangelical Christians. There's a lot the Crooks could have done with that instead of just relying on tired horror movie shtick to get from their beginning to their finish.
Salvage isn't a good film, but it is the work of good filmmakers. Joshua and Jeffrey Crook didn't succeed with this movie, but their failure is interesting enough that I'd like to see them try again.
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