Another entry in the odd but enduring horror sub-genre that pits deep-woods psychos against unwary city slickers, BLOOD SALVAGE achieves a reasonable level of entertainment by mixing the requisite gore with a fair amount of black humor. The plot centers around Jake Pruitt (Danny Nelson),
a master mechanic, religious nut, and medical whiz who went permanently around the bend after his wife was denied an organ transplant that might have saved her life. With the help of his two sons, Hiram (Christian Hesler) and Roy (Ralph Pruitt Vaughn), Jake runs tourists off the road and hooks
them up to homemade life-support systems in his "body" shop, where he lops off parts and sells them to a traveling organ broker (Ray Walston of "My Favorite Martian"). Things run pretty smoothly until Jake develops a crush on April Evans (Lori Birdsong), a wheelchair-bound teen he spots competing
in a local beauty contest. Jake has Hiram sabotage the Evans family RV, which conveniently breaks down in front of the Pruitts' place of business. Jake lures April's little brother (Andy Greenway), mother (Laura Whyte), and father (John Saxon) into his house one-by-one, chloroforms them, and
straps them into the spare-parts department. April becomes suspicious and begins registering her complaints with a shotgun. The Pruitts capture her, however, and take her to the room previously occupied by the former Mrs. Pruitt. Jake plans to heal April's spinal injury and make her his bride. He
begins the surgery by withdrawing spinal fluid from April's brother (storing it in a mason jar crudely labeled "Boy") then injects it into April. After a couple of aborted escape attempts, the resourceful April bops Roy on the head with a plaster saint and, cured by Jake's ministrations, succeeds
in hobbling away, with Jake's pet alligator in pursuit. April, who has a nasty little mean streak of her own, manages to lure the reptile into a trash compactor. But she does not manage to elude Jake, who is miffed when he learns that his intended has clobbered his son and his gator. Accompanied
by the misogynistic and therefore delighted Hiram, Jake takes April into the body shop to administer a little pain. When Jake turns his back to heat a scalpel in a kerosene lamp, April kicks the lamp over, setting Jake on fire. Hiram runs after his father, and April searches for her parents. She
finds her liverless father pinned to a board and her mother, minus her eyes, in an animal pen. Failing to notice her brother's head floating in a large jar of brine, April is preparing to leave with her parents when Hiram returns. A struggle ensues during which April's father sacrifices himself so
that his wife and daughter can escape in the family RV. Hiram chases them in his Torino but is soon run off the road by April, though her mother dies in the process. Just when it seems the threat is over, Jake, severely burned, pops up from under a seat in the RV. April slams on the brakes,
pitching Jake through the windshield and onto the highway, where she runs over him a few times for good measure. Soon, Roy appears in the family tow truck and scoops up Jake, promising that he will fix him up as good as new.
BLOOD SALVAGE should qualify as trashy good fun for those who like this sort of thing. The film adds enough twists to the standard formula to keep things interesting, especially in the substition of a tough, resourceful young woman for the usual helpless-bimbo victim. The filmmakers' decision to
juice up the threat to the key victim-to-be by making her a paraplegic, however, may strike some viewers as offensive--especially when she is nearly sexually assaulted.
BLOOD SALVAGE does include a good deal of black comedy that keeps things from becoming too grim. In addition to some pretty snappy dialog (after chloroforming one of his victims, Jake rapturously rolls his eyes heavenward and says, "Praise the Lord--another convert"), the film is loaded with sight
gags. The broken sign on Jake's salvage yard, for instance, reads "Body and Pain," and one of the unwilling donors in Jake's body shop bears an uncanny resemblance to Elvis Presley. BLOOD SALVAGE is also bolstered by Nelson's gung-ho performance as Jake and Hesler's scenery-chewing turn as Hiram,
the ultimate redneck. Despite its apparently low budget (the film was shot primarily in Georgia, using local actors), BLOOD SALVAGE does not look cheap, thanks to the technical proficiency of its crew and first-time director Tucker Johnston, who keeps things moving along at a rapid clip. Boxing
fans should note that heavyweight Evander Holyfield, BLOOD SALVAGE's co-executive producer, makes a cameo appearance in the film. (Gore effects, profanity, sexual situations.) leave a comment
