Savage Streets is set in Los Angeles where Brenda (Linda Blair) & her mute deaf sister Heather (Linnea Quigley) are high-school students, Brenda is a tough member of a girl gang & they all decide to play a joke on a vicious gang of local drug dealers named the 'Scars' lead by psycho Jake (Robert Dryer). Brenda & her gang steal the Scars car & fill it with rubbish & find it very amusing but Jake & his boys are unimpressed & decide to take revenge, while at school Heather is forced into some toilets & gang raped by the Scars. Shortly after Brenda's best friend & fellow gang member Francine (Lisa Freeman) cuts Jake's face & as revenge he throws her off a very high bridge. Once Brenda finds out that the Scars were responsible for the brutal rape of her sister & the murder of her best friend she decides to take the law into her own hands & dish out some of her own brand of street justice...
Co-written & directed by Danny Steinmann this is the type of sleazy, seedy exploitation flick with a very deliberate sense of humour that was made for people with a slight mental imbalance just like myself, damn how can anyone not find Savage Streets the gloriously entertaining & downright funny exploitation film that it was always mean to be? The pace is good with either some scuzzy sleazy scene or some hilarious camp scene happening, some of the dialogue in Savage Streets is priceless & the whole rape revenge plot is pure 100% grade A exploitation gold from start to finish. The funny high school politics between Brenda & cheerleader Cindy is amazing, the Scars who are just downright scum & seem to cause trouble wherever they go & various subplots that go absolutely nowhere like that guy who keeps trying to chap Brenda up make this unmissable for all cult film fans out there. The rape scene is uncomfortable viewing but it's intercut with a silly fight between two girls in a shower which is just genius on director's Steinmann's part, it really is. I would have liked a little more time given to the revenge part of the film towards the end which is over far too quickly & wouldn't Brenda get locked up for killing three people? How she's free to visit graves at the end is anyone's guess. Also we never discover what Brenda did with Vince, the fourth Scar member who develops a conscience. For those with a liking for these over the top vigilante films Savage Streets is a good one full of camp humour & brutal violence with plenty of female nudity as well, what more do you want? What, a cameo from John Vernon? No problem, that's here as well.
I must admit I was a little disappointed with the violence levels here, there's a bit of blood but I would have liked to see slightly more satisfying death's for the Scar members. There's a fair bit of nudity with an obligatory girls school shower scene. The whole look of the film is very 80's with very dated looking clothes & hair & an absolutely terrible soundtrack full of awful rock songs. Apparently here in the UK Savage Streets had 12 minutes cut from it on video with the rape scene & scenes involving a crossbow being edited but I find this hard to believe as the rape only lasts a couple of minutes & Blair only uses her crossbow three times at the end so I really can't see it adding up to 12 minutes, I assume other footage was also cut & probably renders the film almost unwatchable.
According to the IMDb this had a budget of about $1,200,000 & it looks quite good actually with some decent cinematography & production values. The acting is suitably silly with a twenty five year old Linda Blair trying to pass for a teenager, John Vernon is always a hoot while Linnea Quigley makes an early screen appearance.
Savage Streets is an enjoyably trashy exploitation film with a camp feel at times which just works, sure it's dated & has no great artistic or social merit but it entertains & that's good enough for me. Just don't watch the UK video version.
Co-written & directed by Danny Steinmann this is the type of sleazy, seedy exploitation flick with a very deliberate sense of humour that was made for people with a slight mental imbalance just like myself, damn how can anyone not find Savage Streets the gloriously entertaining & downright funny exploitation film that it was always mean to be? The pace is good with either some scuzzy sleazy scene or some hilarious camp scene happening, some of the dialogue in Savage Streets is priceless & the whole rape revenge plot is pure 100% grade A exploitation gold from start to finish. The funny high school politics between Brenda & cheerleader Cindy is amazing, the Scars who are just downright scum & seem to cause trouble wherever they go & various subplots that go absolutely nowhere like that guy who keeps trying to chap Brenda up make this unmissable for all cult film fans out there. The rape scene is uncomfortable viewing but it's intercut with a silly fight between two girls in a shower which is just genius on director's Steinmann's part, it really is. I would have liked a little more time given to the revenge part of the film towards the end which is over far too quickly & wouldn't Brenda get locked up for killing three people? How she's free to visit graves at the end is anyone's guess. Also we never discover what Brenda did with Vince, the fourth Scar member who develops a conscience. For those with a liking for these over the top vigilante films Savage Streets is a good one full of camp humour & brutal violence with plenty of female nudity as well, what more do you want? What, a cameo from John Vernon? No problem, that's here as well.
I must admit I was a little disappointed with the violence levels here, there's a bit of blood but I would have liked to see slightly more satisfying death's for the Scar members. There's a fair bit of nudity with an obligatory girls school shower scene. The whole look of the film is very 80's with very dated looking clothes & hair & an absolutely terrible soundtrack full of awful rock songs. Apparently here in the UK Savage Streets had 12 minutes cut from it on video with the rape scene & scenes involving a crossbow being edited but I find this hard to believe as the rape only lasts a couple of minutes & Blair only uses her crossbow three times at the end so I really can't see it adding up to 12 minutes, I assume other footage was also cut & probably renders the film almost unwatchable.
According to the IMDb this had a budget of about $1,200,000 & it looks quite good actually with some decent cinematography & production values. The acting is suitably silly with a twenty five year old Linda Blair trying to pass for a teenager, John Vernon is always a hoot while Linnea Quigley makes an early screen appearance.
Savage Streets is an enjoyably trashy exploitation film with a camp feel at times which just works, sure it's dated & has no great artistic or social merit but it entertains & that's good enough for me. Just don't watch the UK video version.