Michael Ledo Greg Pettis (Jeff Pomerantz) former spokesman for a governor that committed suicide has his son (Adam Hirsch) for the weekend. His ex-wife is off for the weekend or so with her boyfriend Robert Fathwood (Jim Doerr). He is having a boat being built. The group includes broker friend Jay Alsop (Devin Goldenberg), Shirley Sales (Caitlin O'Heaney) and the flamboyant Nicky (Christopher Allport) who has all the best lines. There is a story about a girl being branded with an "H" for "whore" by Otis (William Sanderson). Toward the end of the film a slasher appears.The film opens with a teaser that happens at the end of the film. Greg wears a black suit with a black tie when we first meet him. There are three scenes where the microphone appear and a fourth where there is a microphone shadow. Nicky was great in his bits and they needed to fit him more into the script. Much of the film was "so bad it is good." I watched this on a 50 DVD pack which showed the branding scene and plenty of nudity.Guide: Sex and nudity (Marilyn Hamlin, Caitlin O'Heaney)

arfdawg-1 The Plot. Several couples head upstate to the country to watch a boat being built. Unfortunately they are stalked by a murderer behind a ghoulish mask.First of all this movie was actually made in 1976, not 1979. It's truly a pre-cursor to every slasher film that followed it.Secondly, I cannot believe I have never seen this film all these years.Is it good? Not so much, but it's not horrible. Except the middle is awfully uneventful and boring. It's interesting from a historic sense. It's got all the trappings of a slasher movie. Plenty of blood and a good smattering of nudity. Plus it takes it's time with the exposition.Some of the plot is disjointed. And for some reason all the locals speak with hillbilly accents even though this was set in Hudson Valley, NY.As we approach the middle of the movie it really starts to get bogged down and becomes boring. And it REALLY gets bogged down with a confusing plot and not slashing for quite some time.In some scenes you can see the boom mike. There's a nude scene where you can clearly see the girl is wearing bikini bottoms! And then there's an odd scene where another girl strips and starts to seduce a gay guy. What?The movie is kind of a mess after a decent beginning. One has to wonder why it was recently released on Blu Ray

Mr_Ectoplasma "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.

Bezenby I think this is the first case of a slasher film taking a slight nose dive once the killing begins. Luckily, there's still a lot to recommend in this film. Instead of a bunch of teenagers running around arguing, drinking and having sex, you've got a bunch of adults, er arguing, drinking and having sex.Two couples whose names I've forgotten head out to the country to see how construction is going on a large schooner (being built by crazy hick William Sanderson). Also in tow is hard as nails gay guy Nick, who seems to get off on getting a into fights with the locals and basically flaunting it, baby. Our two couples are a bit less interesting. One is a divorcée (and her new boyfriend is having the boat built) the other is her sister, who's playing sexual games with the other guy, including having sex with him out in a field while Nick watches (and injures himself on a barbed wire fence).However, there does seem to be someone else hanging around. The first indication of this is a dead bat nailed to the door of where the couples are staying. We also see someone picking up a mask to wear while they do something. Is it Sanderson, who talks to a grave? Or David Gale, a local fisherman type with eyes for one of the chicks? Or is it someone else? Well, you have to wait almost an hour for the killings to start so a little patience is needed.The problem is, there are several folks in here that would have made perfect heroes, but a lot of them are dispatched by the killer, kind of reducing the cast to the less interesting ones. It's still worth a look if you're into proto-slasher films. There's little gore but a bit of atmosphere, although it's easy to peg who the killer is.This is usually found on 50 movies packs, one in particular also having another seventies slasher film, Creeper, on it too. I like that better to be honest.