Michael_Elliott Savage Weekend (1979) * 1/2 (out of 4) Five New Yorkers head to the country so that one of them can check on a boat that he's having built. Once there they settle in but soon a psycho in a mask shows up and starts killing them off.SAVAGE WEEKEND might seem like a Friday THE 13TH or HALLOWEEN clone but this here was actually made in 1976 but not released until 1979. With that in mind, it's easy to see why this thing wasn't released because outside of a few good things there's really not too much here worth watching. The biggest problem with this picture is that it's pretty much deadly dull and you're just waiting around forever for something fun or interesting to happen but you just keep waiting and waiting.The boredom is the film's biggest fault as we're introduced to some slightly interesting characters but absolutely nothing is done with them. We get incredibly boring subplots that just drag the film down even more. The characters are pretty much what you'd expect from a one-note film like this. You've got the divorced woman fearful of her ex but she's still with her new boyfriend. You've got the slut friend and of course there's a good-looking man there for her. The fifth member of the group is a gay man who is basically just comic relief but I will admit that he's the best thing about the film. Not only do we get some funny scenes with him but he also manages to beat up some rednecks in a local bar.The murder sequences are all mostly forgettable as there's not enough memorable violence or gore to recommend this to horror fans. The actual mystery is kept fairly well but at the same time you don't really care who is killing everyone. The film ends with a decent machete versus chainsaw battle and I will admit that the set-up of the picture pays off nicely at the end. Still, SAVAGE WEEKEND is a forgettable horror film that not even the non-stop nudity can save.

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.

qormi Not bad....very low production values, obvious cheap budget, but the acting is okay and the plot and pace are okay, too. One of the country bumpkins was of "Larry, Darryl, and Darryl" fame from the Bob Newhart Show; this time playing a much edgier Darryl. The lead actress, Marilyn Hammel, is very hot and a very good actress. Why she had virtually no career aside from this is a mystery. The ending was not predictable,but the light switch was. The violence was understated, but very unnerving. Much better than many of the subsequent slasher flicks. One thing - the fights were very phony. They should have used stunt doubles or hired a fight choreographer and ran a few takes until they got it right.

Coventry 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.