Savage Sinema From Down Under-3 dvd set
Following Australia's horror hit,Wolf Creek, theSavage Sinemabox set celebrates Aussie horror with three of director Mark Savage's cult classics:Marauders(1986),Sensitive New Age Killer(2000), andDefenceless(2004). Savage's schlock gore, killer style, and campy, criminal characters, such as the Dominatrix Cop (Carolyn Bock) inSNAK, recall Herschell Gordon Lewis, John Waters, and Larry Clark.Marauders, Savage's '80s, low-budget video feature, looks fashionably trendy now, post-Kids, with its New Wave, New Romantic delinquent protagonists. Jamie stabs his mom to death, Emilio shoots his wife for not giving him the car keys, and David (Paul Harrington), a kid taking his girlfriend out for a cabin retreat, hits Jamie with his hot rod and speeds away. As Jamie and Emilio hunt David down to kill him, their cruel antics enrage everyone they encounter, culminating in a final scene depicting the teens done in by an angry mob. InSNAK, normal guys-by-day and hitmen-by-night Paul Morris (Paul Moder) and George Hartley (Kevin Hopkins) repeatedly bungle assignments, as Paul feels the monotony of suburbia creeping in until his gangster hero, The Snake (Frank Bren), enters his life.Defenceless, the bloodiest film, features wife and mother, Elizabeth, (Susanne Hausschmid) whose refusal to sign a land development deal results in the murders of her loved ones, followed by her deranged revenge.Defenceless'stotal lack of dialogue depends on its gruesome visual content for narrative, making it the most unnerving to watch. These films' are uniquely disturbing, not only for their graphic, explicit content, but because Savage has a knack for interpreting mental illness with uncanny realism. If one can stomach wife-beatings, child abuse, rape, murder, self-mutilation, and torture, Savage's films render characters haunted by inner-conflict. The box set also includes early Savage shorts, Savage's diary entries made during film shoots, and an entertainingMaking Of Maraudersfeaturette.--Trinie Dalton