Review by: Eric R. Lowther
Posted by: Root Rot
Salvage (2006)
Written and Directed by: Jeff & Josh Crook
Hey kids! It’s your old pal Eric R Lowther aka biguglyhairyscary sitting down with you once more on the Witch’s Hat to talk about 2006’s “Salvage”, written and directed by the brother team of Jeff and Josh Crook. So let’s take a look at this “Groundhog Day” on acid and see what we can see, eh?
Synopsis;
Claire Parker (Lauren Currie Lewis) can’t seem to get out of her rut; literally. While many of us have a hard time distinguishing what day of the week it is because so many of our days mirror so many other of our days, she seems literally stuck in the same day. Unfortunately for her, the day she keeps reliving is the day she dies. A strange man keeps showing up, sometimes masquerading as a friend of her boyfriend’s, sometimes as a straight-up homicidal maniac and sometimes just as a lurking menace. No matter how he shows up, the end result is always her gruesome death at his hands. Each time she relives her death-day, she learns a little more about her mystery stalker, and each time she finds herself starting over she edges just a little closer to madness. No matter how she alters the day each time she revisits he manages to find her. Who is he? Why is he stalking her? How does he have the power to turn her into Bill Murray with a nice ass and make her relive the day over and over again? Since the nature of this movie would force me to throw spoilers at you if I went more in-depth, you’ll have to check it out for yourself for those answers.
So, how about the nuts and bolts? The movie is low budget but well put-together. It’s clear the Brothers Crook know a thing or two about making movies and they’re not afraid to flaunt that knowledge with great lighting and camera angle choices and a pretty solid grip on the production as a whole. The set direction and use is also good, especially when we find ourselves at our killer maniac’s hovel. The acting from our leads, especially from the resident homicidal nut-job (Chris Ferry) is better than one would expect for the budget. The effects are minimal but are done well when needed, and our menacing maniac seems to really enjoy his work. However, while the script starts out fairly tight it starts to unravel just a bit as we near the end. I’m not sure exactly why since it gave no intention through the first two-thirds that it would peter out, but it’s there all the same. Perhaps they went to the well too many times and maybe should’ve cut one of the less productive do-overs to tighten things up. We do have a few plot holes, which you almost expect in any paradox-based movie, but these and the issues with the later part of the script can be forgiven when viewing the overall package.
Hey Kids! Fun Fact; the movie uses her boyfriend’s beat-up old pick-up truck and its inability to start without coast-starting as both a humor point and late in the story as a plot point. As most of you should know, you can often start an older-model, standard-shift equipped vehicle by coasting and “popping” the clutch. Unfortunately, it’s obvious the truck used has an automatic transmission…
And now we get to the real question; is it any good? Well, I will give that question a conditional answer of “yes”. You have to be willing to sit through all the restarts of the day, and you need to be able to pay attention so you don’t miss anything. This isn’t one of those flicks you can put on in the background while you’re doing housework or skinning badgers. A healthy respect for indie-styled tension building would also help, meaning you have to allow a little leeway for the director(s) and the actors to try and impress you with how edgy and tense they can be on purpose. The ending is a decent piece of work, but unfortunately it happens at the end and suffers from the script degradation previously mentioned. It’s not bad, but you’ll likely figure it out before you get there. All in all, if you like tense pix that try to play with your brain you could do worse than this one, just be warned that it bogs down a bit in the middle and you may need to take a break to keep your interest up. If this sounds like your cup o tea you can find this 2006 Sundance Festival Selection at Amazon or your usual online sources for anywhere from $2-$8, and I’d say it’s worth at least that much. It’s also available for rent through Netflix, though not available on instant.
Well, that’s enough from me for now. Make sure you’re keeping in touch with your inner child by following all the other blog and podcast goodness the ‘Hat has to offer, and for God’s sakes jump on in here with me and throw some reviews, articles or other gory, bloody content to Mr. Rot for inclusion on one of the many Witch’s Hat incarnations. Come on… you know you wanna…
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I bought this movie in a 2 pack a while ago. One of the things that stuck out to me was the music selection in certain scenes did not fit at all. But all in all I would agree with you on this one. Don’t know if it has a lot of rewatch value but I cant say it was terrible.