disc rating:
companies: Hoax Films,
The UK Film Council, BBC Films, Northwest
Vision and Media, Digital Departures,
The Liverpool Culture Company
year: 2009
runtime: 75′
director: Lawrence Gough
cast: Neve McIntosh, Shaun Dooley,
Linzey Cocker, Dean Andrews,
Shahid Ahmed, Trevor Hancock
writers: Lawrence Gough,
Colin O’Donnell and Alan Pattinson
cinematography: Simon Tindall
music: Stephen Hilton
Reviewed from a screener provided
by Revolver Entertainment
Order this film from Amazon.com
Salvage is due for release on DVD from Revolver Entertainment on July 6th, and is currently available for pre-order through Amazon.com and other online retailers.
Over the past decade the British Isles have become ground zero for modern low budget horror. Motivated by the success of Danny Boyle’s comparatively lavish 28 Days Later (produced for around $10 million) aspiring filmmakers looking to cut their teeth on the genre have been pouring from the woodwork as of late. 2009’s Salvage follows in the frugal footsteps of The Dead Outside and Colin, and makes for a promising if imperfect feature film debut for writer and director Lawrence Gough.
Salvage begins quietly enough, with teenager Jodie (Linzey Cocker, Is Anybody There?) traveling to a quiet suburban cul-de-sac to spend Christmas with her divorced mother Beth (Neve McIntosh, Bodies). None too pleased with the prospect of spending the holiday with her mother to begin with, things become more complicated when Jodie happens upon the woman in the midst of a casual sexual encounter with Kieran (Shaun Dooley, the Red Riding trilogy). Understandably perturbed by the sight of her mother bonking about with an unknown gent (and on Christmas Eve, no less!), Jodie storms out of her mother’s house and across the street to spend the rest of the holiday with one of her childhood friends.
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