Savage Vows — Savage Vows( DVD)
Savage Vows is a mid-90s SOV slasher featuring a bickering cast, a fair bit of knife-bound gore, a few dips in logic/sense, oh and SOV legend Mark Polonia as one of its cast too. It’s very much a film for the more seasoned SOV fan, as it does feature some of the genre's more trying elements- i.e. bad pacing, brutal-if-at points naff effects, and decidedly mixed acting…but it has its moments, and if you’ve already been hooked by the SOV line, I feel you’ll find worth here. This recent DVD release comes courtesy of the guys at SRS Cinema- featuring a commentary track and bloopers
Savage Vows is from the year 1995, and it was the one and only directorial credit from Bob Dennis. Though he has twenty-one acting credits, dating back to two late 90’s Polonia brother's films Night Crawlers (1996) and kooky voodoo revenge film Bad Magic (1998)- which also got a release on SRS a few years back.
The film opens rather promising as we see our lead Mark (Armand Sposto) running through a forest finding various slashed-up bodies- he runs to a house to call for his loved one. She’s inside looking rather deranged, and seemingly has two heads- one she throws at poor Mark- he jerks awake in bed finding the head in his lap, then really wakes up. We move to the funeral of Mark's beloved, and all of his buddies are gathered around, including Adam (Mark Polonia). The group decide they will stay with Mark at his lakeside home (this looked rather familiar, maybe it featured in a Polonia bros film?).
His buddies take in a few metal/ goth types, a few snappy/ bitchy women including Adam's wife- who seemingly despises him. Mark Polonia plays a guy with a heart condition, in as mentioned a rather difficult relationship with his stern raven-haired wife. For the first half-an-hour or so, we get lots of bickering, and some of this is rather unintentionally amusing.
When the gore kicks in we at first get brief knife slashing/ pitchfork deaths by our black-gloved killer- but fairly soon we get more prolonged and brutal stabbings, which clearly cheap look but do get quite intense/ gruelling- with the actors selling them well enough. We also have a neat dream sequence, where the character is sitting on a chair outside- they flip around slashing a wrist, and spraying the onlook in red.
Acting wise Sposto is passable as the troubled, lost the love of his life Mark. The rest of the cast move between competent, and bad/ overacting. Mr Polonia plays the typical geeky and wiry guy he always does, but he’s good enough in his role- and it’s nice that his character was given a bit more depth/ background than the other cast members. Oh, and we have a ranting the bible red neck in trucker hat guy, who is memorable in his hammy overacting. On the whole Savage Vows is a passable enough low-budget slasher, with a few memorable moments/ characters.
Moving onto this recent region-free disc- and as you’d expect with an SOV film, the print looks at points washed out and warp- but as SOV go the production/ shot look isn’t bad. On the extras front, we get a commentary track from Bob Dennis and Mark Polonia-this is a wonderful chatty and wholly interesting track. They go from talking about the location, which apparently was one of Bob’s family's summer homes. We get talk about the lead actor- who seemed to be always screaming or running. We find out what part Bob played- the ranting truck hat guy.
We get a rundown of who played all the mourners- many who worked in video shops with Bob. We find out about the different things Mark suggested with the films making- and as always, he has a crystal-clear memory, telling some great stories. The film had an on/ off nine weeks shoot, and we get talk about how key scenes were set up and captured. We get effects chat, and discussion about what is the bloodiest/ blood-less kill in the film. Really if you’re an SOV/low-budget horror fan, you’ll find this track a true joy!. Otherwise, on the extra front, we get a bloopers reel, this clocks in at over thirty-three minutes- and of course gives more insight to the filming. We get a film trailer, and a general SRS Cinema trailer reel.
In finishing Savage Vows is a good enough SOV slasher- with some gruelling kills. The DVD features a great commentary track, which I’d say is almost worth purchasing for that alone…all round I wanted to give this release a two and a half mark, but as we don’t do halves at M[m] I’ve gone for a three mark.