Savage Island movie review

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Directed by Jeffery Scott Lando

Written by Kevin Mosley

With Winston Rekert, Don S. Davis, Steven Man, Kristina Copeland, Brendan Beiser, Beverley Breuer, Gregg Scott, Zoran Vukelic, Nahanni Arntzen, Lindsay Jameson, Kyle Sawyer

Year : 2003

Country : Canada

Length : 85 min

Misc : Savage Island Website : http://www.visitsavageisland.com

Rating : 7 / 10

SYNOPSIS

Steven And Julia Harris' are visiting Julia's family on remote Savage island. But their peaceful weekend getaway turns into a brutal nightmare of unspeakable terror when a family of backwoods squatters demands the couple's infant son as an even swap for causing the death of their own youngster...
And these folk will NOT take no for an answer; they're out for blood !

REVIEW

Warning: Here's a director to follow the work of!
For his first movie, we can't say that Canadian director Jeffrey Scott Lando had all the means available to make a masterpiece. Indeed, with a very low budget, a 13-day shooting in DV, and a quite basic scenario, "SAVAGE ISLAND" had nothing in particular to get out of the mass...
However, getting the The Maniac Award for Best Feature Film at Mania Fest 2003, Film Threat Award for Best Feature Film at the Fright-Fest 2003 and the prize of the Best Horror Feature Film at the Shocker Fest the same year, this first release by Lando plays in the “Grown-Ups” area!

In the cast of this movie, some unknown people but also Don S Davis (General Hammond "STARGATE SG-1", "TWIN PEAKS", "X-FILES") who plays a most unusual part that he interprets perfectly.

A kind of mix between Wes Craven's "THE HILL HAVE EYES" and John Boorman's "DELIVERANCE", "SAVAGE ISLAND" is more of an horrific thriller than a horror movie, properly speaking. Apart from two or three simple but effective scenes, the story is essentially based on the terrifying deeds of the Savage family, coming to avenge the murder of their young son.
A rare rising in violence then begins, characterized by a macabre series of murders, kidnappings and suicides, to end up with an astonishing twist!

The quality of the production and of the actors play (all perfect in their respective part) is unfortunately lessened by quite unequal images: some scenes have much grain and the nighttime plans are much too dark (the use of black and white fortunately help us distinguishing the actions).

In spite of a much unoriginal scenario and a striking lack of budget, Jeffrey Scott Lando has, unquestionably, made of "SAVAGE ISLAND" a reference in the genre! What will he make then with a higher budget? A career to follow with attention...
Published on 2004-08-25

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