Savage Weekend (1979) User Reviews

Incredibly Strange Early Slasher

[bettybenzone · 5/10 · 15 July 2019]

It's hard to call Savage Weekend a true slasher, because it was made before the big slasher glut of the early 80's, so it plays by its own bizarre rules and takes a left when you expect it to take a right. This can work at times, but its pacing is too snail-like and its characterizations are too one dimensional to stand out from the pack and make a name for itself.

There's a decently well developed and likable gay male character which is still rare these days, so Savage Weekend gets props for that, but things don't really heat up until the last 20 minutes and, by that point, the audience has been mostly bored to tears by almost inaudible dialogue about marriage, love, and sex. There's a germ of a great idea here. A mature, adult filled slasher film dealing with real adult problems sounds great on paper, but the writing never rises to the occasion.

There's an entertaining (and random) scene with a female character dressing up and doing a striptease for the gay male character that comes out of nowhere and is at least good for a few laughs and jolts us back to life in time for the finale.

Am I Demented for Actually Enjoying This?

[evanston_dad · 5/10 · 13 October 2012]

A group of well-to-do New Yorkers go on a weekend trip into the country and get picked off by a mask-wielding psycho.

There's a lot of plot exposition setting up one character in particular as the killer, so it's not much of a surprise that this person ends up not being the killer, and it's also not much of a surprise when we find out who the killer is, despite the moment being treated like a big reveal. The killings are far too tame to appease gore hounds, but there's plenty of nudity for those looking for it. The film's pretty entertaining, actually, the kind of bad movie that you can laugh at despite it's being so sleazy. There are numerous bizarre choices made throughout, like the inclusion of a snarky gay character who beats up two rednecks in a bar and has some sort of sexual dysfunction that's introduced but never developed, and a seduction scene that revolves around the milking of a cow.

No one in the film was recognizable, for obviously good reasons once you see them act, with the exception of the actor who went on to play Larry on the T.V. show "Newhart."

Grade: C+

Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat

[BaronBl00d · 4/10 · 29 August 2006]

Low budget "slasher" film of a very odd, sometimes interesting nature about a group of people going to upstate New York for the weekend only to find death. It seems that the man who owns the property there is building/restoring a boat - which otherwise does not figure prominently into the story. While some of the scenes are very tense and horrific, the film also has oodles of gratuitous nudity, a homosexual man flaunting it and sticking sharp objects into himself for no apparent reasons, and some really strange locals that make upstate New York look like Hillbilly land. The cast is made up of unknowns, but most of them are adequate in their limited roles. There is a bizarre sexual current throughout the film. The first "real" death doesn't come for almost an hour, so this isn't that fast-paced in any way. Yet, despite its inadequacies, Savage Weekend is not your average, run-of-the-mill slasher film. There are, as previously mentioned, some very shockingly filmed scenes. The basement scene with the saw being one EXCEPT for the resolution of that scene. The film has a hanging, a duel with a machete and a chainsaw, an impaling, and one individual is needled in the most extreme manner. What was that whole scene with the hook about?

A Great movie no matter how you look at it

[RoadDog-5 · 11 April 1999]

Savage Weekend is a very good film. Of course it does not have high production value, but as far as content and story-line are concerned it is awesome.

The film captivated me with its alluring plot and horror filled moments. Christopher Allport is wonderful in the role of 'Mother' Nicky, especially when he shows his true nature in the bar scene.

Unfortunately this film is very rare. I was lucky enough to find a copy at a local video store that was going out of business so I picked it up. If you ever find this film to buy or rent take advantage of it and you will not be sorry. It is a good film to watch with your friends, and like the last contributor mentioned, watching it with your girlfriend. She will be so scared that she won't want to let go of you.

I love this movie so much that my friends and I created our own sequel of sorts a few years ago via our camcorder. Granted we are not very good actors and we didn't take much time to plan anything, it is still fun to watch.

Long live Savage Weekend, it rocks!

Silly and sleazy, but nothing memorable.

[Nightman85 · 3/10 · 9 June 2008]

Urbanites spend weekend at a country house where they are menaced by some weird locals and one masked killer.

If it were not for the dragging pace of this B horror flick, it would have actually been a much more entertaining movie. As it is, there's about 50 minutes of set up but little pay off for this talky low-budgeter. The best thing about this early slasher is its gritty country atmosphere, but the creeping pace and tacky characters weaken this movie (seriously, what was with the ridiculous tango/striptease dance?). There's little blood and the murder sequences are poorly edited, censors to blame perhaps? The lousy music score doesn't help matters either.

Still there's an enjoyable performance by William Sanderson as a strange handyman and an amusing scene involving a victim tied to a table saw. Plus, it's hard to stifle a laugh as our masked killer paces around outside for five minutes as he awaits to whack someone. Should I count that as a positive thing?

A complete BOMB perhaps? Nah, there's much worse out there, but it's still pretty flawed. Definitely not the 'lost classic' that some folks build it up to be.

* 1/2 out of ****

The Decline of the American Empire with a chainsaw thrown in!

[Maciste_Brother · 3/10 · 13 March 2007]

I just watched the uncut Paragon video of SAVAGE WEEKEND (great title but misleading here) and I have to say that as slasher films go, this is one is slightly different but like so many of them, it's still a near complete failure. How does SAVAGE WEEKEND differ from other films like Friday the 13th or HALLOWEEN? Well, the script tries hard to be a bit more dramatic, have more intricate dialogue, or, in the end, it's simply more pretentious.

Speaking of pretentious, while I was watching SAVAGE WEEKEND, I couldn't help but to remember that pretentious French-Canadian flick, "The Decline of the American Empire": a bunch of men and women spend time in the country and talk endlessly about sex. SAVAGE WEEKEND is almost exactly like "The Decline of the American Empire": a bunch of uppity New Yorkers go to the country, and talk endlessly about sex (and are often nude or doing it).

Seriously, the whole thing was like watching a Bizarro version of "The Decline of the American Empire": both films have a gay man as a main character and they are the ones who cook the supper for their straight friends. This aspect is one of the few original points of SAVAGE WEEKEND that sets it apart from other slashers: when was the last time you saw an openly (but nonetheless stereotypical) gay man in a slasher?

Another so-called original aspect is the nudity. I almost thought the story took place in a nudist camp. Much more nudity then your average slasher (and they usually have a lot to begin with). And the last original aspect of SAVAGE WEEKEND is the cast, which is made of actual adult actors playing adult characters and not adult actors trying to play horny, stupid teens. What a novelty!

Anyway, once the film finally became a slasher, when someone picked up a mask and started killing the whole pretentious bunch, I didn't care for anything. It was too little too late. And the killing scenes are not very interesting (except for the long needle in the ear bit).

Aside from William Sanderson, whom I believe cannot give a bad performance, the rest of the actors are average to just plain awful. The story makes little sense when you think about it (too many crazy killers) and the direction even less sense. For example, SAVAGE WEEKEND starts with the ending, and when we finally arrive at the end, we still don't know who survived the whole thing. But I have to say that I got a kick out of watching something with aspirations of being an artsy John Sayles type of flick turn into a rather routine horror film.

Proto-Slasher Surprises

[jimmyhoover-55861 · 5/10 · 1 November 2020]

Some friends take in a weekend at a secluded country house and are put in harm's way by a mask wearing psychopath.

Savage Weekend has the distinction of being a slasher film before many were being made and that's neat and all, but it's clear that the formula hadn't been perfected yet. It's nice to see characters who are a little more mature than usual in one of these movies. That's one of the fun parts about watching these pre-Halloween slashers. The rules hadn't been fully established and it feels like anything can happen. The horror scenes aren't very scary, but there's a fun DIY aspect to it that keeps you engaged and I don't think there's ever been another murder by hat pin on screen.

Very mad, and quite bad, but very enjoyable. It demands reverence

[Coffee_in_the_Clink · 5/10 · 9 March 2020]

"Makes 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' look like kids stuff", the back of the VHS box boldly proclaims. It can dream. "Savage Weekend", made in 1976 as "The Killer Behind the Mask" but not securing a release until '79, is completely lacking in a lot of things - competent editing and storytelling being the major things - but it is one mad film and is very enjoyable. Also, it predates "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th", making it a serious contender for being the granddaddy of the slasher sub-genre, thus demanding of attention. There is quite a lot of good beneath the madness and rough edges here. Inspired by Giallo and working in elements of the splatter sub-genre - I can only presume that writer/director David Paulsen had seen the infamous and genre flag-carrier "Blood Feast" - Paulsen aimed for something original and frightening with his meagre budget, and although it is far from a graceful or even coherent picture at times, Paulsen did just enough here to get his name in the books.

We are introduced to the motliest of motley crews. Marie is recently separated from her husband. She leaves her kid with him for the weekend as she sets off into the countryside with her new lover, who is taking her and her sister with the man she is currently seeing, and a gay best friend, out to his cabin for the weekend as he inspects the progress being made on the reconstruction of a boat he has bought. It's being done by a local lunatic of a redneck, who may or may not want to kill them all when they get down there. David Gale of talking-head "Re-Animator" fame plays another hostile local in a very early leading role. I confess that I didn't even recognise him!

So what happens? A lot or very little depending on your view. There's a lot of messing about but the characters are so fun and interesting that this is the strongest point of the film. Christopher Allport as the gay man Nicky is brilliant. And I have to say that his character was really ahead of it's time. A flamboyant, but strong, homosexual man, who easily dispatches two braindead rednecks who give him hassle in a bar. I don't think too many filmmakers were doing such portrayals in the early 70s. The other actors provide surprisingly good performances, also. I loved Jim Doerr's acting in the scenes where he finds the victims of the mysterious killer - "Marie! ... Oh My God!" From one scene to another, it's surprisingly very natural and realistic! Usually you have actors going over-the-top but something about Doerr in these scenes stood out to me from the thousands of other horror films I've seen. "Savage Weekend" is of serious cult status and I actually found it difficult to rate. On one hand it is absolutely terrible. The editing is very bad at times - especially at the end with the saw scene. The music and sound effects are horrendous. But the performances, the grainy, trashy 1970s colour and look - the only similarity that this has with the great "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", I might add, despite the marketing's bold claims - along with the sheer undeniable originality that this had at the time in terms of a killer stalker a group of people and dispatching them one by one - junior films of a similar vintage such as "Halloween" would do it better, but anyway - make this something of an ugly gem. I feel compelled to watch it again. Maybe it will become a Halloween season favourite of mine? Maybe it will earn a higher rating from me in the future? "Savage Weekend" definitely sails in 'so bad it's good' waters, but it sails stronger than others.

One of the first classic-style American slashers

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 22 July 2015]

Savage Weekend is quite an interesting movie. It's intriguing because, while it looks like many of the countless slice and dice flicks that made up the slasher cycle, it was in fact made some time before these films became popularised and clichéd. It displays some facets that would go on to constitute the classic style slasher film, yet it was made in 1976 and only released three years later in the wake of the huge success of Halloween (1978). It seems to clearly have been a movie somewhat ahead of its time in this respect. Its story is one that would go on to become fairly standard in this sub-genre. A group of rich urban friends travel to a remote location for some R&R, before long a masked psychopath begins picking them off.

Notably, the characters here are adults, in this respect it deviates from the later slasher template which focused almost exclusively on teenagers. One thing these adults do have in common with their teenage descendants, however, is that they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time having sex. In fact Savage Weekend is pretty ram packed with abundant nudity. On the other hand, it also spends an unusually long time on the plot set-up, with a reasonable amount of character development before the killer finally kicks into action. Maybe it spends a little too long on the build-up in fairness, as it does feel at times that the movie could do with a little more thrills and suspense but in the final half hour, the bloody action is certainly ramped up.

The cast was also quite notable for featuring a couple of actors who would go on to star in two 80's cult classics - William (Blade Runner) Sanderson and David (Re-Animator) Gale play a couple of the local hicks. The other most prominent presence in the film was unquestionably the boom mic, which popped up so often and in such hilariously prominent ways that I felt that it should really have been given a special mention in the end credits.

About As Mature Of a Horror Film as They Come

[t1480 · 9/10 · 10 March 2008]

I threw this on one night when I still wasn't tired, thinking it would be total schlock and I would just get a quick sense of it before falling asleep. What a surprise, then, when it turned out to be creepy and artistic and deeply disturbing; just the way I like it; and I knew that I would have to devote a second viewing just to examine it in greater detail. Savage Weekend is one of the most innovative horror films ever made as far as I'm concerned. It might come across as a bit uneven to some viewers, but really it's better than average in many ways. Although filmed in America with an American cast and crew, one might assume this was a European film if you watched it without the sound. This was deliberate on the directors part. He gives his movie a European style, and it only makes the film seem more artistic and potent.

The story of Savage Weekend is inspired and suspenseful. Rich New York City businessman Robert decides to take his fiancée Marie and three of their friends upstate to his vacation home to relax. Everyone seems to be enjoying their time resting, drinking and enjoying each other's company. This good time is spoiled by the appearance of a masked killer who begins stalking and then bothering the vacationers one by one.

First-time writer-director David Paulsen spends nearly a full hour on set-up, a risky proposition that might have grown tedious if it weren't for the unhurried care and mounting intrigue he brings to this elongated opening act. By concentrating on the charms and realism of his characters and their naturalistic, laid-back relationships with each other, the crucial turn toward mortal danger means a great deal more to the viewer. And, when one of them meets an abrupt, premature end, you feel their loss after wards. Once Savage Weekend makes a sudden turn toward sheer panic and terror, director David Paulsen aims squarely for the jugular. As deliberately paced as the first hour is—essential to making the visceral impact Paulsen wants to in the last third—the last thirty minutes are tightly edited, graphically violent in rattlingly unexpected ways, and breathlessly intense. In a change of events for the genre, the four protagonists do the smart thing at all times, their minds always working in logical ways that fit their horrific situation. In turn, their deaths do not arise out of their own stupidity, but because their dire circumstances prove impossible to overcome.

The direction in this movie is never anything but innovative and exciting. Take the scenes with the local psycho Otis, played by none other than William Sanderson. I was shocked at how vividly Paulsen captures Otis' insanity in the scenes where he is seen talking to himself. They might seem annoying to some, but those scenes were the most memorable for me, as they actually brought back memories. I spent 3 fun-filled years back in college working in a State Mental Hospital while going to school full-time. A lot of the folks I was dealing with, and I normally dealt with the "cream of the crop", often mumbled - a lot. It was like they were really not having a conversation with anyone that "we" could see, so they did not care if "we" could hear them. Paulsen also shows some amazing skill dispaying sexual tension in the scene in which Marie is sunbathing on a boat with two male companions. The two men are engaging in a coversation when we are suddenly shown a closeup of Marie's inner thighs. The camera then zooms slowly over her body to great effect.

I have never read a review of Savage Weekend that didn't mention the film's graphic sexuality. Here we have Marie having sex with Jay twice, Shirley having sex with Robert, Marie having sex with Greg, Shirley sunbathing nude, Marie making out with Mac, Marie rubbing herself in front of Mac and Jay, and Robert tearing Shirley's bikini off. Many reviews have stated that Savage Weekend's frequent sexual distractions were unnecessary and childish. I see it differently. We actually have significant character development taking place during the numerous sex scenes. For example, Marie can't have sex with Jay without fantasizing about being with her estranged husband, Greg. This obsession with Greg causes her to later turn down a sexual encounter with Mac. Shirley is shown to be a particularly reckless woman through her sexual behavior in this film. She thinks nothing of having sex with Robert in the middle of a field during broad daylight.

I was completely gripped by this movie while watching it. The combination of total weirdness, striking photography, constant scary tension based around what the killer is going to do next, and the vague off-kilter nature of it due to its subject matter made this one unforgettable film. It's a shame that the director never went on to direct anymore films following this. He spent the rest of his career in television, where his considerable talents were put to somewhat lesser use. Now that it has finally been released on DVD, I see the audience for this film to grow exponentially. See it and be prepared to carry images from this movie around for a long time.

Sex, boats and duct tape

[Chase_Witherspoon · 6/10 · 24 March 2012]

Five people take a trip to a backwoods community where one of them is restoring a large boat, the ownership of which is a matter of considerable anger on behalf of local yokel Otis (Sanderson) whose father, and the original owner of the boat, has recently died. Otis is "none too pleased" that city folk are taking away his blood, sweat and tears and he plans to get even. Meanwhile, promiscuous Shirley (O'Heaney) sunbathes naked, has random sexual encounters with Jay (Goldenberg) while the new boat owner (Doerr) and his girlfriend Marie (Hamilin, essentially the central character) are also indulging their carnal desires at every given opportunity. Flamboyant queen Chris Allport minces about, making salads and peeping lustfully as the two couples cavort, all the while Otis is plotting his revenge by his late-father's grave-stone.

It reminds me of a poor man's "Deliverance" in some respects and while at first glance, the cast may be unfamiliar, many of the faces are recognisable. Sanderson, Allport and Pomerantz have become better known actors, while Gale (pre "Re-Animator") appears in an early role as the sinister-looking Mac, all-purpose local man who could be a hero or a villain. Despite these names, it's Caitlin O'Heaney's presence that really emboldens this low-budget slasher flick. Light years before "Tales of the Gold Monkey", the brassy brunette is like a divine nymph and between Allport's colourful peacock like performance, the two make an odd yet engaging pair.

If you can overlook the moments of despair (Hamlin's cow-milking scene or the irritating banjo music spring to mind), there's enough material in this low-budget shocker to make it worthwhile. And while the climax descends into little more than a killing spree, it's energetic, gruesome and the plot twists satisfying. I watched this film many years ago and found it underwhelming, but on second more recent viewing, there's more depth in the cast and sub-text than perhaps initially meets the eye.

I'm sure the celluloid this was shot on has turned to putrefaction by now...

[Vomitron_G · 3/10 · 14 February 2009]

Just to begin with a side-note: I watched this one together with Coventry yesterday night, and at one point we both went "What the hell kind of trash did we manage to put on this time...?!?".

This being said, SAVAGE WEEKEND - in my humble opinion - is about as pure vintage, obscure trash as you can get 'em, when it comes to horror and sleaze. There's a bit of torture, gruesome/inventive killings (but I'll warn you right away: don't start drooling over this yet) and quite a bit of uncomfortable yet strangely arousing (and very naked) sex-scenes that are supported be the most unworldly sounding music and sound effects. To top things off, we even get a pretty damn pathetic chainsaw-fight during the movie's climax (thankfully, the saw did hit the flesh in at least one, brief shot).

Sadly, all this comes in the shape of a very, very bad film. Seriously, this might have been one of the worst attempts at film-making I've ever seen (but hey, at least it was shot on real film - thank God it was still the 70's). The way the film was put together (from story-telling to editing) was so atrocious the word "sloppy" doesn't even begin to describe things in a million years. To make it all worse, we've got microphones and boom-sticks pooping into to the frame all over the place (sorry, I meant to say "popping", but I really like this typo).

A truly horrible film, and at the same time fascinating (even if for all the wrong reasons). The red herrings are laughable, though they made guessing the identity of the killer all the more fun (at least when you watch it with some friends). The acting - I hate to admit - could have been worse. But not much, of course. When you're looking for killings and death-scenes, you might become bored rather soon, as you practically have to wait for all of them until the third act of this wretched film. Before all this, you can only be amazed by all the inept qualities this rancid pile of celluloid displays. Actors mumble stupid things, pointless events take place, and all character-drawings are a bit, ehrr,... odd, to say the least.

What the motivation behind certain scenes were, are plain incomprehensible. At one point, we witness the killer's POV when he's walking through the house in a creepy search & stalk manner (think Carpenter's opening-scene from HALLOWEEN). Best thing about this scene: There's actually no-one in the house at the time he's doing his lingering 'heavy breathing'-routine. It's completely deserted. Everybody's outside in the woods, at the lake or in the stable (having sex in one way or another, I might add). So what the hell was this stupid killer doing in the house? One of my favorite scenes, sets up for an incredibly gruesome (and potentially very nasty and bloody) killing. I found myself cheering during the set-up (so trust me, you're bound to love the idea as it's close to frickin' Torture Heaven). It takes place in a basement; That's about all I'll say. But damn the hell out of this movie for totally failing to deliver the bloody carnage it promises during the pay-off! Utterly aggravating.

Another "OMG"-scene has one lady caressing the udder of a cow (in an explicit, sexually orientated fashion). A big-moustached local (friend of the family, apparently) steps in to give her a helping hand. It doesn't take long for these actions to lead to attempted rape (and again the gratuitous portrayal of female breasts). I have frowned upon lesser things, if I may say so.

I'll just wrap it up, because if by now I don't have you convinced this is a very, very bad movie, then I'm sorry to say you're a lost cause. However, when it comes to SAVAGE WEEKEND, I'd love to play the bad boy: I recommend this to anybody who's into Total Trash and alleged Shock Features. I myself can't even help having liked that "100% vintage 70's exploitation feel" the movie irrefutably has. I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I did. Yes, I know, I can be a bad boy sometimes.

Oh, I failed to mention this in my ravings: SAVAGE WEEKEND stars William Sanderson (of BLADE RUNNER fame, no less) and David Gale (RE-ANIMATOR's Dr. Hill). Though their presence saves absolutely nothing about this putrid film, it does add some cult-value to the matter.

"You Get Lonely, You Get Weird!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 18 August 2021]

SAVAGE WEEKEND has some problems. However, it has some good points as well, including the character named Otis (William Sanderson). Sanderson plays him with just the right mixture of backward hick and unbalanced menace.

The nefarious Mac Macauley (David Gale) is also quite good in a wicked "macho man" sort of way. His dialogue on the fishing boat is priceless, especially during the branding iron flashback sequence.

As for the rest of the cast, they're very dull indeed, in spite of their disrobing every few minutes.

THE PROBLEMS: #1- It takes over half the movie's running time before anyone gets killed! #2- The acting can get pretty wooden -like a sentient forest- at times! #3- The boom mic is visible in several scenes, making them painful to watch!

Incredibly, even with all of its flaws, once the killer puts on the mask this becomes an effective horror movie. Made two years after TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and BLACK CHRISTMAS, and pre-dating HALLOWEEN by two years, WEEKEND gets points for originality, a nice twist, and a boffo finale!

Be sure to watch the uncut version only...

Substance DVD version is cut

[levelheader99 · 1/10 · 30 January 2007]

My 1 out of 10 rating is for the Substance (Music Video Distribution) DVD version of the film. Very disappointing release of this obscure slasher movie. This DVD has all nudity and extended violence cut from the print. If you want this uncut, get the old Paragon VHS version. I figured this would be a VHS quality picture put onto DVD, but I didn't think it would come out chopped to bits. If you can't get these films out uncut, then just don't release them. This DVD makes the film look horribly dull, and pointless. In actuality, the uncut film is not bad if you like this genre. Boooooooooo to Substance. Makes me wonder if their other DVD releases are cut also including "Pranks" and "Tanya's Island"?

Still the worst movie I've ever seen....

[blackheart · 1/10 · 12 November 1999]

C'mon people! Why is ANYONE defending this POS? I love a good B-movie, horror, slasher or otherwise but this thing has been at the top of my 5 worst movies list for over 12 years and NOTHING has come close to unseating it! Just ignore this if you ever see it in the video store, it will take 90 minutes of your life

Couples go to the country to watch a boat being built.

[chrisbrown6453 · 2/10 · 11 July 2001]

What the heck is this? Is this even a horror film? You don't actually get to see any real horror 'till 50 minutes into the film. Most of the film is just the couples going at it. Like I said to a friend earlier, I feel as though I've lost 5% brain cells having watched this crap. It basically starts off with couples going off to the country-side to watch some stupid friend of theirs show off his boat and fix it up a bit. Besides the lame plot, there's crappy acting and directing too. The thing that kept me watching the film was spotting the boom mic in every shot. I don't see how they could just leave that in there. The director must have been on the brink of going blind because the mic was so easy to spot. It was actually kind of fun spotting it.

There's obviously a lot of pointless nudity in the film since I mentioned the couples go at it a lot in the film. That's basically most of the movie right there. When the killings do start there's nothing special. Just some lame hanging and a few more wasted deaths. The killer was so predictable. This whole movie is predictable.

I was so confused when I was watching the film. I kept wondering where the heck they were going and why people would get mad for no apparent reason. There are so many plot holes and things that confuse you that you spend 15 minutes of your time trying to figure out what the heck just happened 15 minutes ago.

The mask the killer used for the film was some lame mask that I assumed was the only mask left that the prop guy could get his hands on. It's like one of those masks that are left behind in stores the day before Halloween, because all the good masks are already taken. If I could give this film a lower rating I would. I'm gonna add this `film' to my worst films list. Can't believe I wasted my time on this.

One of the crappiest films I've ever seen. A waste of a slasher film, and you don't even realize it's a slasher until 50 minutes into the film. Don't waste your time on this unless you're an aspiring director that wants to make sure to not make the same mistakes the director for this film did. Try to keep the boom mics outta the shot people.

Written and directed by the Banjo Kid from "Deliverance"??

[Coventry · 2/10 · 14 February 2009]

Struggling through "Savage Weekend", I was instantly reminded of "Deliverance". Not necessarily because the film also takes place in a remote backwoods area or because there's banjo music playing during the opening credits, but merely because this is such an incompetent and amateurish production that it looks as if it were written and directed by that infamous mentally underdeveloped Banjo Kid from that classic film! This movie is bad, and not just low-budget bad but really BAD to the third degree. We're talking incoherent screenplay, insufferable characters, long stretches of boredom where absolutely nothing happens, predictable twists, laughable killing sequences and utterly senseless dialogs. There's already something very wrong with the title of this dud. "Savage Weekend" is misleading because there's no savagery going on at all. 45 minutes of sheer boredom and then a handful of lousy and bloodless murders does not equal savage in my dictionary. "Sleazy Weekend" I would have accepted, since there's really a lot of sex and female nudity, and "Nonsensical Weekend" would have even been better! Two couples and one flamboyant gay boy head out to a woodsy region to check up on the construction of a boat owned by one of them; a wealthy stockbroker. A considerable amount of time later, we witness someone putting on a reasonably unsettling mask and going on a killer rampage. One of the boat's workmen – Otis – has a grisly past and behaves suspiciously, but the film tries too hard to make him look guilty so you quickly know that it won't be him. There isn't a single moment of genuine suspense or horrific excitement and even the sex sequences start to look tedious and work on your nerves after a while. That's just never a good sign. According to the trivia section on this website, the finished film remained shelved for several years. Well, in my humble opinion, it should have remained shelved for all eternity.

Completists will want to check out this obscurity.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 15 October 2015]

Writer / director David Paulsen ("Schizoid") got something of a head start on the slasher craze with this offering. It predates Carpenters' "Halloween" by two years; it was filmed in 1976, but not released until 1980. It's just weird enough - and kinky enough - to be watchable, although it may not appeal to some hardcore devotees of the genre as it takes a long time to begin its murder spree, and even at that point there's really no gore to speak of. Instead, what we get is a lot of odd touches and interesting character details, not to mention a fair bit of humour.

Marie (Marilyn Hamlin) goes on a weekend excursion to the country with her new husband Robert (Jim Doerr), her younger sister Shirley (Caitlin O'Heaney, "He Knows You're Alone"), and their openly gay friend Nicky (Christopher Allport, "Dead & Buried"). Soon, their good time is ruined by a psychopath wearing a goofy Halloween mask.

While there are no real A-list stars here, there are certainly some very recognizable faces. O'Heaney has some seriously sexy moments (viewers will definitely appreciate the doses of nudity in this film). Allport is amusing, even if his character is somewhat stereotypical. It's great fun to see David Gale of future "Re-Animator" fame as a lumber man providing wood for a boat that Robert is building with some associates. Top notch character actor William Sanderson is a vivid, unkempt redneck / red herring. A very young Yancy Butler makes her film debut. It's not surprising that Hamlin never got much acting work, because she's simply atrocious here.

There might not be enough here to completely satisfy some slasher fans, but it remains rather offbeat for its 88 minute time and it is worth a look.

Six out of 10.

Disappointing and forgettable exploitation film

[RomanJamesHoffman · 3/10 · 15 October 2012]

I was interested in watching 'Savage Weekend' after hearing it mentioned in the same breath as 'Black Christmas' and 'Silent Night, Bloody Night' in being a type of proto-slasher flick as, despite being released in 1979, it was filmed pre-'Halloween'. However, apart from being made in the 70s and featuring a killing spree, it has nothing in common with the aforementioned films and is really more of an exploitation flick than a slasher. Maybe some would consider this hair-splitting, but the main thing is that, regardless of how you categorise it, 'Savage Weekend' is basically an exercise in almost totally forgettable film-making.

The plot has a rich New York businessman taking a vacation upstate with a group of friends to his summer house where a creepy local has been hired to build a large boat for him. While there they hang out, sunbathe, flirt, and have sex a lot which for some may seem a bit gratuitous. For my money, the sex is an important part of the attempt at a plot as it is the sexual politics among the city types, the libidinal frustrations of the locals, and the interactions between them which pushes the film forward (albeit at a slow pace) and indeed the sexually charged atmosphere is well crafted in parts and may have resulted in a better film.

Two-thirds in, the violence kicks in. However, the release of the sexual tension isn't executed well and the sloppy editing lets the film deflate before your eyes and robs the kills of any suspense or anything to sate those in search of 'Friday the 13th' style Tom Savini kills…save for the needle kill, that is. In conjunction with the painfully, painfully obvious red herrings and consequent (yawn) "twist" reveal, as well as the lacklustre final confrontation, when the film finished my overall feeling was one of boredom. Sure there are a few good scenes, and a couple of good ideas, but taken as a whole this movie offers nothing. Whether you chalk it up as a slasher or an exploitation film, this rates quite poorly and can be safely avoided.

***********************

Public domain movie. Watch free here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKz3-WBcVv8

Compelling, little known Slasher Sleeze

[MADMANMARZ · 7/10 · 15 March 2000]

There is just something compelling about this little known slasher/mystery, produced in the late 70's. The acting is solid, the characters seem realistic, and even though not much happens in the first 40 or so minutes, the trashy sex scenes and slow character development keep you hooked, until the murders start. The murders are seriously not the most memorable, (except for maybe the needle in the head) but Savage Weekend keeps the viewer watching, with a lurid story filled with sex and climaxing with violent murders. The revealing of the killer is not exactly shocking, if you pay attention either. Consider it a slasher with some melodrama.

Terrible Slasher Film

[Rainey-Dawn · 2/10 · 26 October 2015]

This is one of those films I acquired in the 50-pack Drive-in Collection. This is another one of their filler films. We all know that there will be some awful films in a 50-pack and this is one of them.

It's another stereo-typical slasher film in way out in the backwoods of nowhere with lots of bluegrass music, women showing their boobs, sex and of course some killing. The story is lame - nothing to hold my attention for very long.

I am going to rate this film a 2 instead of a 1 because I got a chuckle at the end of the film. Two guys fighting - the one grabs a machete and the other a chainsaw. The machete guy was wining then the 3rd guy pops up to grab the chainsaw and he ends the film.

2/10

Lame gore thriller for the lower-half of double bills

[lor_ · 24 January 2023]

My review was written in March 1983 after a Lyric theater screening on Manhattan's 42nd St.

"Savage Weekend" is a poorly-made terror film lensed in 1976 as "The Killer Behind the Mask" and released domestically by Cannon in 1981. Picture is also known under the title "The Upstate Murders", and is reviewed here for the record.

Story has several couples (adults; this film precedes the successful "teens in jeopardy" horror format of late) visiting an upstate N. Y. country house for the weekend. Undeveloped (and oddly distracting) subplot has a vast wooden ship half-built in the barn, with the men discussing its completion schedule.

Apart from nominal story values, "Weekend" is structured as a softcore pornography film, with frequent extraneous sex and/or nude scenes, and even the genre's utilitarian fantasy flashbacks. WIth soft photography by Zoli Vidor, no horror atmosphere is created during this lazy idyll, and the closeup gore shots when a killer-in-a-mask starts picking off the cast seem tacked on.

Lethargic dialog readings and poor scene construction (Director Paulsen emphasizes one-shot closeups that don't cut together well) make for rough going until some minimal suspense in the final reel. Paulsen demonstrated a more professional approach in his subsequent Cannon assignment, the 1980 "Schizoid" (aka "Murder by Mail").

Jason You're Not

[artpf · 2/10 · 12 October 2013]

Several couples head upstate to the country to watch a boat being built. Unfortunately they are stalked by a murderer behind a ghoulish mask.

Firstly the movie opens to hillbilly music even tho it's NY state. The twanging gets faster and faster and then stops and just restarts! Huh?

We see a woman dressed in white running then stopping. For some reason in the middle of the forest, there is a running Buzz Saw! Huh.2?

Then there is a guy with longish hair and binoculars who picks up the buzz saw. Huh.3? The woman doesn't bother to run as the buzz saw man gets closer and closer. She just stands there! Huh.4?

Cut to NYC.

This 2 minute scene tells you where you are headed. And it won't be good. It's a very slow, complete with an extended slow moving gay scene in a bar that ends in a fight which no one tries to stop, and leaves you hoping the gay guy is the first to be killed because he's so freaking annoying. He's a poor version of a gay man playing it way over the top and being so condescending in the process.

I should also mention that the movie was supposedly made in '79 but looks very much like it was made circa '72.

So there seems to be a crazy man in the woods and no one will hear you as you scream even tho they are like 50 feet away. This part of the movie does produce some decent T&A, but that's not saying much for the film's improvement.

Oh, and BTW, be sure to look for the one actor who has the hard-on that you can see right through his clothes! No joke.

The film just sort of rambles and is so slow and nobody seems to really run away when the killer is after them...and why that hillbilly banjo keeps coming in when the film is set in NY is beyond me. It's not until 2/3s into he movie that the masked killer dude is introduced. By this time, you just hope an atomic bomb explodes and gets rid of the whole lot.

It was a complete waste of celluloid. And a bigger waste of my time.

Strange but boring slasher film

[jmbovan-47-160173 · 3/10 · 2 December 2021]

Not quite certain what was happening here as this film simply doesn't make much sense. Or I was so bored I couldn't follow the plot points (if there was a plot). Rich people go to the country. Someone starts killing them as they engage in debauchery. And then that's it. Sigh. Dull.

Kooky horror with surprising thematic depth

[drownsoda90 · 8/10 · 9 July 2015]

"Savage Weekend" has Marie, a recently separated mother going away to upstate New York with her new boyfriend and her sister, Shirley, and their gay pal Nicky to a remote farmhouse. There, a massive boat is being built on the property with the help of a lazy and potentially unhinged country local, Otis. Shortly after their arrival, someone shows up on the property, lurking about with a sinister mask.

It is to my utter surprise that after over a decade of being a die-hard fan of the genre, this film just now came to my attention. Where have I been? Or, maybe the question is, where has this film been? "Savage Weekend" is a flick that seems to have been relegated to the realm of low-budget obscurity for various reasons. Filmed in 1976, it was not released until three years later, and was probably never given a second thought. Given that it predates most slasher films by many accounts (aside from "Texas Chain Saw," which appears to have been a bit of an influence), the positioning of the film in the horror genre's historical timeline is certainly worthy of attention.

On the surface, "Savage Weekend" has all the hallmarks of a bad movie: quirky and uneven performances, utterly bizarre music choices (a strange mixture of synthesizers and twangy backwater banjo), and some of the most horrendous editing I've ever seen in a movie. Why did I like it? Well, as a longtime genre fan, I take a lot of the film's surface pitfalls for granted. It's a B-movie, no doubt, but it's got a lot of heart in it.

The characters, despite some hammy performances, are uniquely drawn, for one. They are not cookie cutter slasher characters, nor are they teenagers (probably because the filmmakers didn't have that trend to ride on in 1975), so there are some unusual dynamics operating here for a film of this nature— these people are established, worldly adults, not babes in the woods. The inclusion of the gay male character is a bit surprising for a seventies film, even in spite of the slight stereotyping that occurs — we do get a rather funny scene in the beginning however where he beats the living hell out of two rednecks pestering him in a bar, followed by "I wasn't raised in the South Bronx for nothing" retort. It's the weird moments like these that also help make the film stand out— that, and his goofy, sexually-charged dance with Caitlin O'Heaney in the upstairs of the farmhouse.

The movie is actually rife with sexual dynamics, and even social and political themes that bubble up within the narrative to varying degrees. There's commentary on class, sexism, sexuality, power, and jealousy, all of which are rather hefty themes for a shoestring grindhouse flick, and I think that is maybe the central reason I found this little picture so fascinating. Slasher fans of course will be pleased with the sinister face mask and the killer hiding out in the barn and lurking around the upstairs of the house; these classic genre elements come in full swing in the film's last act. Some have said the film is slow, and I would tend to agree, though it is certainly not boring. I'd actually almost hesitate to label it a slasher film, as it comes across as more of a twisted psychothriller that may have ended up inadvertently lending some blueprints to the slasher canon, yet doesn't actually meet (and pre-dates) "slasher" qualifications. The murders are essentially bloodless, and the body count low; there is a well-played twist ending that is still mildly surprising even today.

As I said before, the film does have a lot of surface problems, especially in terms of choppiness and continuity, but under the technical dirt is one of the most unusual and thematically rife horror films to ever fall under the label of the purportedly "mindless" slasher genre. "Savage Weekend" is definitely a B-movie and may pass as a slasher in the textbooks, but it is not a stupid film, and for that I commend it— no matter how much I may curse the editing department. 8/10.