User Reviews

For about the first forty minutes or so, this wasn't a bad movie at all. Neve McIntosh plays the distraught mother convincingly and Shaun Dooley does a fine job as a one-night stand who winds up really regretting that impulse. Despite a few minor stumbles, the film develops an engrossingly claustrophobic atmosphere of terror and paranoia.

Which then crumbles under the weight of its muddled storyline and pedestrian plotting. For example, one particularly annoying "twist" occurs when they have Dooley attacked and pulled out of sight by the (still-unseen) monster while he's trying to climb into the attic, only to pop back up outside a few minutes later with no visible injuries and only a slight limp to show for the encounter.

I guess mutant hell-beasts are like bears: play dead and maybe they'll leave you alone.

The director was certainly smart not to show us much of the creature -- because what you do see isn't particularly frightening. (In fact, it reminded me of nothing so much as one of the boogeymen in the old Laurel and Hardy film, "March of the Wooden Soldiers".) But that's forgivable, so long as you don't climax your story by having your fearsome super-fast, super-strong monster -- which in the last hour and ten minutes has offed several of her neighbors and made mincemeat out of some heavily-armed special forces dunderheads -- summarily dispatched by a fireplace poker!

I get the "frantic mom protecting her cub" angle, but it has to make you wonder what all the fuss was about. Maybe they should have equipped those SAS guys with sticks with a nail in them instead of assault rifles.

And I know people don't always act reasonably when they're under extreme stress, but a daughter who looks her mother square in the face while deliberately locking her outside -- when she knows a savage, murderous creature is lurking about -- then just turns and walks away, all on account of some abandonment issues? That's cold. It completely destroyed any sympathy I might have had for the selfish, spiteful little drama queen.

This was a good try. I'd have no hesitation about checking out another film by this director. It's not so bad that I'd urge people to give it a miss entirely, but it's disappointing to see a movie which initially had so much going for it end up missing the mark so badly.

"Salvage" is an adequate enough horror flick, but it's unmemorable and you promptly get the impression there are easily thirteen of derivative movies like this in a dozen. It can depend on a fair share of goodwill and enthusiasm from the entire cast and crew, but there undeniably are more flaws than trumps, including an incoherent and clichéd script as well as bland character drawings. The latter element really bothered me, in fact, because it makes the whole (already grotesque) script become completely implausible. In the very beginning of the film, a teenage girl talks about her mother like she's a careless and irresponsible tramp that has forsaken her poor and helpless little daughter. That image appears to be confirmed when we first see the mother, banging a random guy whose name she can't even remember, but then immediately after – and for the rest of the film – it turns out she's actually a very intelligent and courageous woman that risks her life multiple times in order to rescue her estranged daughter. What? That doesn't make any sense at all, and then I haven't mentioned the loud-mouthed chauvinist one-night-stand guy yet, who actually turns out to be a remorseful family man. But anyways, in the middle of their dispute, their street and pretty much the whole sleepy little coastal town, is brutally disturbed by heavily armed soldiers on a violent manhunt for something (or someone) terrifying. That same morning, a container washed ashore nearby and whatever creature or force that escaped from it is out on a bloody rampage. "Salvage" is quite similar to George A. Romero's classic "The Crazies", except that it has camouflaged soldiers instead of eerie men in white laboratory coats and a whole lot of redundant talking going on. There is a small handful of decent gore and blood-splattering moments to detect, but definitely not enough to satisfy the true gorehounds. Some of the footage is obviously meant to shock, but doesn't manage to do so (like the intro sequence, for example). There are most definitely worse ways to spend 80 minutes of your life, but I wouldn't immediately recommend "Salvage", neither. Always be wary of DVD-covers that shout out words like "instant cult classic" etc.

Salvage is set in Liverpool in England & starts on Christmas Eve as the fourteen year old Jodie (Linzey Cocker) is dropped off at her mother Beth's (Neve McIntosh) place in a peaceful little cul-de-sac to spend Chritmas there with her. However after a big argument Jodie storms out & disappears insides a neighbors house, Beth is annoyed & things get even worse when fully armed special ops from the army surround the close & cut it off, they prevent any communications from getting in or out & warn the residents to stay inside or risk being shot. Scared & confused Beth just wants to get to her daughter Jodie but soon realises that something big is going on, something that the special ops will do anything to keep quiet...

This British production was directed by Lawrence Gough & was produced to celebrate Liverpool's title as EU City of Culture in 2008 which just sounds bizarre to me, anyway what we have here is a horror thriller that tries to pile on the tension & suspense but never ends up being anything particularly special. The script starts off like a typical thriller as everyone thinks terrorists are on the loose & the events seen are very vague with no explanation behind them other than guesswork from the character's but then it shifts into monster film mode for the final twenty minutes or so. Salvage has quite a few similarities with Aliens (1986) actually, the base under siege setting, the mother daughter relationship that drives the character's & the presence of a slimy monster who wants to kill everyone as well as the special ops army unit sent there to kill it. The first hour or so is fairly forgettable actually, I mean the script does an effective enough job of building tension & suspicion & keeping you guessing but it never really goes anywhere & I personally didn't like the character's or the setting that much which obviously didn't help. There are a few problems with the script, it's never explained why these heavily armed special ops unit couldn't kill one single mutant monster when a badly injured woman with a poker can or why Sharma was covered in blood when threatening the army unit with that meat cleaver & I just felt there wasn't enough explanation behind what was going on. The script manages to capture the character's quite well & they end up feeling like proper people & the downbeat ending (taken from The Night of the Living Dead (1968)) may not satisfy everyone. The script was partly inspired by an actual real life incident when the container ship MSC Napoli was beached on Branscombe Beach in Devon during 2007 & local residents flocked to the scene to steal whatever they could find! I remember it being widely reported back then in the media although having said that the actual container on the beach has little relevance in Salvage & doesn't play a great part in proceedings.

Salvage was filmed on the disused sets from the old soap opera Brookside (1982-2003) which finished a few years ago but is still well remembered over here. The setting was instantly recognisable even though much of the film takes place in a house which to be honest could have been anywhere. There's a bit of gore but not too much, there's a slashed throat & some blood splatter but not much else. The monster looks alright even if it's only seen very briefly. The film is well made with quite frantic camera movement when needed & there are a couple of nice jump scenes here especially the first time you see the monster as someone unexpectedly shines a torch in it's face.

Filmed on Merseyside in Liverpool here in the UK this obviously had a low budget but it doesn't really show expect for the intimacy & claustrophobic nature which both work in the films favour to be honest. The acting is good, there aren't many people in it but the performances are good.

Salvage is a watchable British horror thriller that tries to keep you guessing & tries to crank up the tension but with little in the way of a pay-off expect standard monster film clichés it perhaps doesn't make the most of the careful build-up. Not a bad film I suppose but I wouldn't call it a great one either, worth a watch but don't expect a classic.

The easiest way to explain this movie is you know that film The Crazies? Yeah well it's that with a shipping container instead of a crashed plane. That's not a terrible thing though, I liked the original The Crazies but the remake was pretty poor and so is this.

Lost your secret evil experiment? Bad luck! What you want to do is send in half the army to cordon the area off, extract the survivors and determine which of them is infected. What you don't want to do, as shown in this movie, is send five guys in with flashlights in the pitch dark so they can scamper around the set of Brookside aimlessly shooting at the four people who live there and getting killed.

The action kicks off at about the 70 minute mark which is unfortunate as the film is 75 minutes long. There's a few good bits and the acting is quite good but there is very little actual story. The worst bit of the film is the explanation they give you for the container which is just outright ridiculous. The message you are supposed to get from it is "hey you think terrorists are bad just because they blew up a bunch of people and would like to see you enslaved? Well surprise - the government/you are the bad guys!" Yeah good one, really deep. Your film studies teacher gives you a gold star but I give you 5/10 and that's probably a bit generous.

In short I wasn't that impressed even for a low budget effort.

I have to disagree with some other reviewers about the low-budget look of this film. In my opinion, the budget was more than adequate for the story and I gave the film at least one additional star because they did so well on a small budget. I think it looks great.

On the other hand, I had some issues with certain aspects of the finished film. One of the most frustrating is that the director, in an attempt to capture maximum realism, often permits the dialogue to drop to very low levels or has the actors speak the lines in a frenzied/excited state. I'm a Yank and, between the sound levels and the accents (to me), it can be difficult for me to hear and understand some of the best and most critical dialogue. Since the DVD version has no subtitles, I had to stop and replay scenes several times to appreciate what was being said. And replaying scenes two or three times is not a good way to get the feel of a movie.

Every single plot element in this film has been seen before, too. But I don't think that this is necessarily fatal, since the same thing can be said about virtually every other horror film.

Another problem I had with the film was the behavior and composition of the military force addressing the "problem." I've worked a lot with the military and with law enforcement and I am constantly amazed at how often screenwriters write in scenes in which soldiers or officers operate independently. You know...one soldier is sent here to check a house, a single detective is sent to arrest someone dangerous, and so forth. I can tell you with certainty that one thing the military and law enforcement do NOT do is send single people here and there, especially with nobody overlooking the situation or backing them up. Overwhelming force is the rule, especially when the operation is not intended to be covert, as is the case in this movie. (Oh, it IS intended to be covert? Well then, why are the soldiers going door to door giving instructions to the residents? And why are they engaging in free-fire with unsuppressed weapons in the middle of a town?)

I also believe that the director showed the "creature" too often. In fact, this would have been a lot better film if they hadn't shown it at all. There still would have been lots of gore and action, but it would have maintained the mystery.

So, what's the final verdict? Pretty good acting, good script (in general), not too long, lots of action, and a bit of mystery. I say it's worth your while.

Salvage is low budget, but watchable. It doesn't scale any heights as movie-making, but there's enough drama (and blood) at all points of the compass to keep you motivated. Technically there are problems. Some people like the hand held camera technique, and there would be a case that this 'ordinary homesteads under attack' scenario would suit. The Director has the actors over-reacting quite a lot, including excessive panting from shots of adrenaline and terror. Again, to taste. The story is another one of those where you have to concede that everyone around the heroine is going to be very unlucky, but her luck will hold, again and again. OK, it is the heroine though, and we have to root for her. Can you see where I'm going? The story has a few hiccups too, if you stop to think about it. The heroine does, however, put in a fine performance, as do her immediate partners. Alas, my main problem with Salvage is to do with the portrait arriving from the mystery itself, and that's why it's only a 6 for me.

For a modern horror this film is the pits. Poor acting, poor script, poor plot and little suspense. The ending is especially golden. The film presents a modified human on the rampage that takes out well armed soldiers and civilians alike with single blow. A whole attachment of special soldiers who have to kill it (oh, they also have to kill the civilians who are witnesses) cannot kill this fast killing beastie. They hunt the beastie for several days with no success (although their success would have been better if they were equipped with night vision goggles but perhaps they weren't special enough for such hardware). This beastie knocks off soldiers and civilians with quick ease yet in the finale it seems unable to instantly kill a 14 year old girl who fends it off with her bare hands for several seconds until her mother is able to kill it with a mere fire poker. As if..... I give it 2 stars for the fact this movie was apparently done on a low budget but have to admit the results reflect the budget.

I found this by accident. I was actually trying for another movie of the same name and got this by mistake. So you can imagine how confused I was for the first half hour or so. Eventually I realised it was a completely different flick but I didn't mind at all.

This movie was well paced and suspenseful - keeping my interest all the way through, with the exception of some rather redundant and pointless chatting between the two main leads about family life (it was a shame they put that in because it killed a very good suspense session just when it needed to be amped up). The acting is mostly very good and I had no problem understanding what people were saying (and I'm not British) so I'm not sure why others did. I thought the Director did a great job of capturing that sense of panic & bewilderment in the main characters as their neighbourhood suddenly transforms into something completely alien and terrifying for no apparent reason. There were some great scares, some nice action pieces (tho probably not enough) and a some slightly gory bits.

The ending was a bit odd to me and I hated the very final scene - it was too over the top and came across as a bit silly. This unfortunately brought the whole movie down a bit. But in general I think this is a decent little thriller and well worth watching despite some flaws in it's execution.

Don't be put off by it's low rating on IMDb. This isn't a "classic" or the best horror/thriller movie around but it's one of the better low budget ones and has a lot going for it.

For a movie just over an hour long, with some clear budget restraints, this is one of the better horror shorts I've seen. It's fairly solidly acted and, where makeup and other effects were limited, this was compensated for with camera-work that left people guessing, adding to the overall atmosphere. Highly suspenseful at times and with an appropriately minimalist approach to incidental noise and music, the overall film is well-made.

My main issues are more character-related, particularly with regard to the the daughter - to me she came out as a thoroughly dis-likable character and I didn't actually care about whether she survived or not by the end. The soldiers' abilities also seemed questionable, one moment ambushing anything that moves even slightly and, next minute, incapable of spotting a woman staggering none-too-stealthily all over the street whilst sobbing, calling people, rattling doors and so on. However, if you are able to overlook these odd character traits, this is well worth a watch.

Low, low budget but some good things here. Shaun Dooley and Miss Ahmed are just terrific in a film that they must have understood would get next to no distribution and/or attention. Dooley's had some fine roles to date and I look forward to him becoming an actor of Bob Hoskins or Ray Winstone's stature. Ahmed is both attractive and talented, though her resume looks like acting isn't even her day job. The other three or four speaking parts are also very convincing. The problem is that the "bogey man" monster is given very short rift as far as imagination, depiction and on-screen time. Slowly, we see that the real storyline is the character development of Dooley and Ahmed's respective characters. By then its too late. The ending gives the word "abrupt" new definition.