Review of Savage Streets (1984) by Patrick D — 04 Nov 2008

Linda Blair was at the height of her 80's trash exploitation fame when she starred in this delectably down and dirty grindhouse epic as Brenda, an over-aged high school "bad girl" senior who's the leader of the tough all-girl gang the Satins. Trouble rears its ugly head when the Satins run afoul of a brutish all-guy street gang called the Scars (led by pockmarked sneering Neanderthal Robert Dryer). These detestable no-count hoodlums not only viciously rape Brenda's innocent deaf mute sister Heather (a very cute and endearing Linnea Quigley), but also toss Brenda's pregnant best gal pal off a bridge to her death. Man, are these guys real nasty customers. But have no fear. After sitting in a bath tub topless and dragging on a cigarette while lost in deep thought, the spunky and resourceful Brenda decks herself out in a clingy skintight leather jumpsuit and breaks out both a crossbow and some bear traps with the specific intent of hunting down and killing the vile subhuman scum.

Director Danny Steinmann, who also blessed us with the criminally underrated early 80's psycho slasher gem "The Unseen" and the fifth "Friday the 13th" picture, really pours on the scorching sleaze with this choice chunk of 80's trash cinema. All the correct sensationally scuzzy elements are ripely abundant here: polished production values, a roaring rock score, plentiful graphic violence, profanity-ridden dialogue, a catfight, the expected gratuitous high school girls' gym locker room shower sequence, a harshly drawn-out, explicit and unflinching rape scene, and a generous sprinkling of bare female flesh (besides the luscious Linda and the adorable Linnea, the equally hot Rebecca Perle and Suzee Slater also show us their stuff). Moreover, we also get gleefully hammy overacting from a game cast (John Vernon in particular has himself a rip-snorting ball as the cranky, foul-mouthed high school principal). Overall, "Savage Streets" sizes up as a hugely enjoyable and satisfying serving of topflight tacky and raunchy 80's exploitation action revenge thriller.