Savage Streets
Savage Streets is a 1984 American teen vigilante exploitation film directed by Danny Steinmann and starring Linda Blair, with Linnea Quigley and John Vernon appearing in supporting roles. It follows a Los Angeles high school student who enacts revenge against a male gang after they brutalize her deaf-mute younger sister and murder her friend.
Savage Streets
John Strong
- Linda Blair
- Robert Dryer
- Sal Landi
- Johnny Venocur
- Scott Mayer
- John Vernon
Stephen L. Posey
- John A. O'Connor
- Bruce Stubblefield
Motion Picture Marketing
- June 29, 1984 (Omaha, Nebraska)[2]
93 minutes[3]
United States
English
$2 million[4]
The project was originally developed by Billy Fine, who had previously directed Blair in Chained Heat (1983), with Tom DeSimone hired as the original director. Shortly into principal photography in early 1984, DeSimone was replaced by Steinmann. Filming took place in Los Angeles, and was completed in February 1984. The production was marked by financial difficulties, resulting in filming temporarily ceasing before producer John Strong became involved.
Following a successful appeal with the Motion Picture Association of America to revert its X rating, Savage Streets was first released regionally in the midwestern United States in the summer of 1984, and went on to become a major box-office hit in several South American countries, particularly Mexico and Argentina. The film was banned in Australia due to its graphic violence, and heavily edited for its original release in the United Kingdom by the British Board of Film Classification.
Savage Streets received largely unfavorable reviews from critics, who felt its depictions of rape and teenage violence were exploitative and crude, while Blair's lead performance was also harshly criticized. For her performance, Blair won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress. In the years since its initial release, it has become a cult film.[5]
Plot[edit]
Rebellious high-school student Brenda spends an evening on Hollywood Boulevard with her group of friends known as the Satins: Rachel, Stella, Francine, Stevie, and Maria. Accompanying them is Brenda's younger, innocent deaf-mute sister, Heather, of whom Brenda has grown extremely protective following their father's death. A reckless drug-dealing gang known as the Scars, which consists of Jake, Vince, Red, and Fargo, nearly run the girls down on a street corner in Jake's convertible, causing Heather to fall to the ground. In retaliation, the girls steal the convertible before filling it with garbage and abandoning it on the street.
Jake exacts revenge by stalking the Satins at their high school, gaining the naive Heather's trust before having his cohorts brutally beat and gang rape her. After school, the girls find Heather unconscious in the locker room, and she is hospitalized in a coma. Later that night, the girls visit a local disco where they encounter the Scars, and a fight breaks out after Fargo sexually harasses the pregnant Francine.
After Francine has a dress fitting for her impending wedding, she is stalked by the Scars, who chase her through an industrial section of the city before Jake murders her by throwing her off a viaduct spanning the Los Angeles River. The crime enrages Vince, the only member of the group who expresses remorse for their actions, and he cuts ties with the Scars. Later, Brenda encounters Vince apologizing to the comatose Heather in her hospital room. That night, Brenda confronts Vince at his house at knifepoint, where he admits the Scars have murdered Francine.
Seeking vengeance, an enraged Brenda visits a weapons store, where she purchases a crossbow and several bear traps. She ventures into a sparsely-populated section of the city, where she locates the Scars near an abandoned textiles warehouse. Brenda taunts Fargo and Red, luring them into the warehouse, where she kills Fargo by shooting him through the neck with the crossbow, before dispatching Red by snapping a bear trap over his throat. Meanwhile, Jake kills Vince in a nearby alley by striking him with his car.
Jake finds Fargo and Red's corpses in the warehouse. He attempts to shoot Brenda with a pistol, but she incapacitates him by shooting him with the crossbow, and trapping him with a rope around his ankles which hangs him upside down. Brenda tortures the defenseless Jake by stabbing him with a hunting knife, but he manages to free himself and attacks her. Jake chases Brenda, cornering her inside a paint store. While the store's burglar alarm blares, Brenda douses Jake with paint before setting him on fire. Police arrive as the engulfed Jake stumbles out of the store and dies.
Some time later, Brenda, Heather, and the surviving members of the Satins visit Francine's grave. Brenda laments, "At least we made things right," to which Stevie responds, "No, Brenda, you made things right."
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Tom DeSimone was originally hired to direct the film, which had been devised by director-screenwriter Billy Fine, who had previously directed Chained Heat (1983).[4] The film was originally scheduled to go into production in June 1983, but it was postponed.[4]
Casting[edit]
Cherie Currie was originally cast in the lead role of Brenda, but was replaced by Linda Blair.[4] Blair, who had recently appeared in Fine's Chained Heat (1983), was hesitant to star as she did not want to make another exploitation film, describing Chained Heat as "not at all the film I set out to make."[4] However, based on the box-office success of Chained Heat, as well as a profit participation agreement she had signed with Fine, Blair agreed to star.[4] Linnea Quigley was cast as Heather, Blair's character's deaf-mute younger sister.[6]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography occurred in Los Angeles on a budget of approximately $2 million,[4] and was completed in February 1984.[4] Tom DeSimone began as director with Fine producing.[4] DeSimone was subsequently fired by Fine, after which Danny Steinmann, whose previous directorial credit was the slasher film The Unseen (1980),[7] was hired as his replacement. Commenting on how he came to be involved with the film, Steinmann said:
The shooting of Savage Streets was troubled: According to Blair and Steinmann, the production was shut down approximately two weeks after filming began, attributed to funding issues.[9] Steinmann recounted that Fine clashed with him on the set, and alleged that Fine's original financing for the film had been sourced from mobsters.[8] After Fine left the project, producer John Strong became involved and filming was able to resume.[4][9] According to Steinmann, he and Strong began to clash on the set toward the end of the production, recounting: "He was employed to protect the investors. I had agreed with their decision that John would act on their behalf and could do nothing to counteract them. John would look in the camera on most shots, talk with the actors, and always question me about everything."[8] The film's screenplay was reworked throughout the filming process, and Steinmann disagreed with Strong's insistence that the finale feature Blair's character exacting revenge alone, which Steinmann felt was unrealistic.[8]
Actress Linnea Quigley reflected on her experiences making the film that Blair was "great to work with," but added, "However, my scenes involved being raped... It was a very hard film to make."[6] Steinmann also praised Blair's work ethic on the film, commenting: "Linda Blair is a true professional. She worked hard and never complained."[8]
Soundtrack[edit]
The soundtrack featuring the theme song "Justice for One" performed by John Farnham was never officially released to the public but may be found on rare promos which were sent to DJs at the time of the picture's release.[31] Some LP releases were put out by the Curb Records[32]
Legacy[edit]
In the years since its initial release, Savage Streets has developed a cult following[5][33] and been exhibited at various horror and exploitation film revival screenings,[34][35][36] including at the New Beverly Cinema in 2008[34] and the American Cinematheque in 2016.[37]
Film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas cites Savage Streets alongside Ms .45 (1981) and Positive I.D. (1987) as one of a series of rape and revenge films produced in the 1980s that featured "vampish and overtly sexualized" models of agency for abused women.[38] Writer Art Tavana likens the film to a feminist version of Michael Winner's Death Wish (1974).[39]