Retro Movie Review: SAVAGE STREETS

"She's Crossbow Psycho!"

Maintaining my diet of trash cinema, I watched 1984's Savage Streets, an example of a film subgenre that was more popular in the 70s and 80s: the female revenge flick. Here it's mashed up with the street-smart teen movie, and it stars one of the icons of that era, Linda Blair.

Brenda (Blair) is the tough but sexy leader of a gang of girls who all look way too old to be in high school. Her father has died, and it's affected her whole family, including her mother (Joy Hyler), who owns the nightclub frequented by Brenda's crew. The only bright spot in her life is her sister, Heather (Linnea Quigley), a kind soul who is deaf and mute.

But Brenda's care and concern for Heather doesn't stop her from taking the younger girl strutting down the streets at night and even stealing the convertible of a tough-guy quartet that's led by Jake (Robert Dryer). And this is what leads to Heather's rape and beating in the school building while Brenda is indulging in a locker-room fight with a jealous cheerleader (Rebecca Perle).

With Heather in a coma, Brenda can't learn who attacked her sister. She has no choice but to soldier on, going to school and hanging out with her girls, one of whom (Lisa Freeman) is pregnant and engaged. But directing the assault on Heather seems to have awoken Jake's bloodlust, and another tragedy follows.

At the same time, Brenda accidentally identifies the culprits in Heather's assault and gears up to go hunting. Like, literally, with animal traps and a crossbow that she's scary good at shooting. The last third of the movie looks and feels more like a horror film than anything else, and the brutality inflicted by the protagonist is arguably worse than what she's avenging. This probably shouldn't be a surprise, since director Danny Steinmann went on to make Friday the 13th, Part V: A New Beginning.

I don't know that I can recommend Savage Streets to film connoisseurs with sensitive palates. It would be funny, with its Razzie™ Award-winning performance by Blair, if it weren't so vicious. But, if you're already a fan of this type of flick, you may find it engaging. And where else can you hear the immortal line, "Go f**k an iceberg"?

Watch the original trailer! See the full movie--in French!

Rated R for adult language, violence, gratuitous nudity, sexual situations, 80s clothing, and the potty mouth of Principal John Vernon.

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