Rent Savage (2009)

Mild spoilers follow ... - Savage review by NP

For a big lad, Big Foot is very adept at killing people whilst keeping himself out of sight. We don’t get to see him for a while, and when we do, we are given tantalising shots of silhouettes and various limbs speeding past.

At first, the tone of Savage seems to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, with knowing performances from some of the cast. As time goes on, either the tone gets a little darker or I became used to some of the flippant moments. Either way, as the death toll mounts, we are effortlessly invited into darker waters (speaking of which, a solitary eye floating in the river is a moment that provides a perfect mixture of shock and mirth).

For a horror film, this isn’t going satisfy everyone, although there are some moments of gore and some tension, even if it is difficult to sustain an atmosphere of terror in blazing sunlight. For a low budget project, setting the action amidst forest fires is ambitious (the resultant fires don’t look like they need much controlling), but having those fires disturb the habitat of Bigfoot is an interesting plot device.