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Savage Attraction (1983) - Blu-ray Review

Movie Review

3 beersIt begins like a bomb going off. Frantic and haphazardly edited together, two unrelated scenes – a truck barreling down the highway and a woman about to be beaten – converge to create a fast paced beginning to this Ozploitation flick. Savage Attraction (aka Hostage) is a movie that finds its feet inside a carnival booth and then beats us across the face with its fascist flair.

Sixteen-year-old Christine (Kerry Mack) is in over her head. She flirts like few other women with almost everyone who comes to her booth. Yet, Walter (Ralph Schicha), a German welder, soon sets his sights on her. He wants marriage. She laughs it off. She wants to have fun – like sex in the shower fun – and he, threatening to shoot himself if she doesn’t marry him, knows how to run a big time con job.

And Christine, being young and naïve, completely falls for it. “I don’t want him to die,” she mutters to her friend before agreeing to marry him.

Directed by Frank Shields (The Surfer), Savage Attraction is pretty spot-on when it comes to fascism and the control of the female body. You see Walter is a neo-Nazi and, as he and his buddies make secret plans to bring about a new Reich of uprising, he persuades Christine to leave the carnival and go to Germany. Once there, his dream for a better life with children becomes her nightmare.

"You’ve not seen anything until you see a Neo-Nazi push a baby in a stroller down the street! A Savage Attraction has arrived with a special HD delivery."


Kerry Mack is a total babe and this film knows it. Thankfully, it doesn’t tease us for too terribly long as a seriously delicious shower scene happens near the first 15-minutes or so that makes what came before just above your typical Lifetime offering. There’s not much blood but the threat of the violence – especially coming from Walter’s constant watching of Nazi propaganda – is all too real. Soon enough, Christina is witnessing his underground group meetings.  

The acting from the two leads is convincing enough on the one-dimensional scale. But it’s this film’s leanings toward fascism and all things Nazi party affiliated that really counts. Oh, and the score from composer Davood A. Tabrizi is seriously fantastic; electronic sonics provide a nice mood throughout this holy terror.

With Christine pregnant again, things in the household get really tense. Even their first child, whom Walter seems to be grooming for Nazi stardom, gets in on the action as he goes through his father’s things and beings mommy a live grenade. Holy Shit, kid! But Christine is alone. She has no friends. She has no help. And Walter is FUCKING insane; losing grip on reality the more he tries to control what his wife does and things.

You see, Walter has a lot riding on Christine keeping her mouth shut about his activities. He's trying to impress the people at the top of the party.  A choice must be made. Walter chooses to goose-step alongside the rest of his bank-robbing hooligans. He will shut Christine up for good. While it sounds basic, there is an incredibly shot nightmare sequence that calls to mind some early Germanic film influences. It’s quite gripping and then, as if that wasn’t enough, there is the prepping for the bank robbery. All cool stuff.

Based on a true story, Savage Attraction might be marketing something it is not. This is tabloid fair for sure. A young runaway and a Neo-Nazi in a tale about abortion and bank robbers? But, in its execution, we have a nightmarish b-movie thriller. The film is now on blu-ray thanks to Code Red, who have minted the new HD Master from the original interpositive.

You’ve not seen anything until you see a Neo-Nazi push a baby in a stroller down the street! A Savage Attraction has arrived with a special HD delivery.

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Film Details

Savage Attraction (1983) - Blu-ray Review

MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 98 mins
Director: Frank Shields
Writer: John Lind
Cast: Kerry Mack, Ralph Schicha, Gabriella Barraket
Genre: Drama | Thriller
Tagline: The true story of a sixteen-year-old girl looking for excitement... And the men qho turned her innocence into somethign savage.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Want to own me?"
Theatrical Distributor: New World Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: May 5, 1983
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: December 3, 2016
Synopsis: Based on a shocking true story! In 1980s Australia, Young runaway Christine (Kerry Mack) is dragged into a whirlpool of psychological terror when she marries a coworker, Walter (Ralph Schicha), who turns out to be a modern-day Nazi.

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Savage Attraction (1983) - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Home Video Distributor: Code Red DVD
Available on Blu-ray - December 3, 2016
Screen Formats: 1.78:1
Subtitles: None
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Region-free playback

This 1080p HD release from Code Red has been newly scanned and restored in 2k from the original camera negative. The results are quite good. Blues in the night radiates and the green of the shore provides a nice contrast. Black levels are even and edges are very fine indeed. There is a nice sheen to much of the movie, making it a totally memorable experience as this is the best the film has ever looked in its lifetime. Present in an aspect of 1.78:1, Strange Attraction sports a solid and expressive soundtrack in an English mono track.

Supplements:

Commentary:

None

Special Features:

Theatrical Trailer

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Savage Attraction (1983) - Blu-ray Review

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