Salvage (2009 film)

Salvage

DVD cover
Directed by Lawrence Gough
Produced by Julie Lau
Written by Colin O'Donnell
Alan Patterson
Starring Neve McIntosh
Shaun Dooley
Linzey Cocker
Release dates
  • 21 June 2009 (Edinburgh Film Festival)
  • 2 March 2010 (United Kingdom)
Running time
 79 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Salvage is a 2009 British horror film directed by Lawrence Gough, produced by Julie Lau and written by Colin O'Donnell and Alan Patterson. The film stars Neve McIntosh, Shaun Dooley and Linzey Cocker as residents in a suburban street who find themselves isolated from the outside world following an emergency. The film was one of three produced in Liverpool to celebrate the city's status as EU City of Culture in 2008, and was filmed on the set of former soap opera Brookside.[1] It was produced on a minimal budget, and was the last time the Brookside set was used for filming purposes before it was sold to a private developer. Neve McIntosh won two Best Actress awards for her role in the film.

Plot

On Christmas Eve morning, a paperboy delivers newspapers in a cul-de-sac. Hearing a row between an Indian couple, he peers through the window, but is spotted and chased away by the man, Mr Sharma. He flees into the woods behind the street, but is surprised and killed by an unknown assailant.

Meanwhile, Clive (Dean Andrews) is driving his 14-year-old daughter Jodie (Linzey Cocker) to stay with her mother for Christmas. She is reluctant, as her parents are estranged, her father has custody, and she does not get on with her mother. At her mother's house in the cul-de-sac, she finds nobody apparently in, but lets herself in with the key hidden in a flower pot. Hearing noises upstairs, she finds her mother, Beth (Neve McIntosh), having sex with a man, Kieran (Shaun Dooley). Disgusted, she storms out and goes across the road to the home of her friend Lianne. Beth follows her, but Lianne's mother Pam (Debbie Rush) refuses to let her in.

As Beth stands in the street, a helicopter flies overhead and a team of black-clad special forces soldiers appears in the street and orders everyone inside at gunpoint. Mr Sharma emerges from his house covered in blood and advances towards the soldiers with a knife. They shoot him dead. Beth and Kieran stay in her house listening to gunfire. Kieran reveals that he is happily married with two sons. He and Beth appear to just have had a one-night stand. Before the power goes off, a television news report shows a shipping container which has washed up on a nearby beach. Three bodies were found near it and another further inland.

Hearing noises upstairs they discover the loft door open and a bloodstained sledgehammer. A figure appears and Kieran stabs him in the throat. As he dies, Beth realises it is her next-door neighbour Peter, who has smashed his way through the communal wall between their lofts.

Beth and Kieran cross into Peter's house, discovering the place turned upside down and Peter's wife dead. Pam bangs on the door shouting for help, but before they can let her in she is dragged away in a spray of blood. They spot the body of one of the soldiers lying in the back garden and run out to retrieve his radio, but find he is still alive, although badly wounded. They drag the soldier, Akede (Kevin Harvey), inside and bandage his wounds. He says that Mr Sharma was an al-Qaeda terrorist and the shipping container contained arms for a terrorist operation. The army have sealed off the street to contain the terrorists, confirming Kieran's suspicions. However, later Beth hears him talking on his radio to his commander and saying that the creature is very fast and deadly and they are all dead. When she confronts him, he admits the truth. Special forces "rescued" a group of people from abroad, but instead of releasing them they pumped them full of drugs to create a secret weapon. All but one died, but that one proved an uncontrollable monster. It was sealed in a shipping container and being taken for destruction by a helicopter, but the helicopter went down in the sea. The shipping container washed up on the beach, but before special forces could arrive it was forced open by three drunk teenagers. The creature killed them and escaped.

At this point the creature appears at the window and starts to force its way in. Beth and Kieran flee into the loft, but Kieran is dragged down as he tries to climb in. Beth manages to reach her own house, but comes face to face with the sergeant major (Ray Nicholas) commanding the special forces team, who knocks her out with his rifle.

Beth awakens to find herself tied up outside, presumably to act as bait to lure out the creature. It is now dark. At this point, Kieran, badly wounded but still alive, appears and frees her. They run straight into the sergeant major, who stabs Kieran to death. Beth flees into the woods, pursued by the soldiers, and finds the paperboy's body. The creature appears, but does not notice her, and attacks the soldiers. Beth returns to the cul-de-sac and goes to Lianne's house to try to find her daughter. She finds Lianne hiding in the living room. Lianne tells her that Jodie has gone home. Beth flees the house ahead of the remaining soldiers. Shots suggest that they have killed Lianne and are disposing of all witnesses. Going back to her own house, she finds Jodie, but they are attacked by the creature. Beth manages to stab it to death as it attacks Jodie, but as she stands up and screams in triumph she is shot dead by one of the soldiers.

Cast

The Brookside set, seen here in 2007, was the setting for Salvage.

Production

Salvage was one of three films produced celebrating Liverpool culture to coincide with the city's status of EU City of Culture in 2008. It was directed by Lawrence Gough.[1]

Filming for Salvage had begun by March 2008, when the Liverpool Daily Post reported that the set of Brookside Close had been rented to a local production company to use as a production set. The production was a low-budget production titled Salvage.[2] This was the last time the houses of the Brookside set were ever used for production purposes.[2] It was sold to a private developer months later.[3]

Release and reception

The film received modest reviews following its release, and was not widely distributed. Despite the best efforts of the set designers, some reviewers did comment on its similarity to Brookside Close.[4] Giving it three out of five stars, the magazine Time Out observed that the film had made clever use of the set.[5]

The film, which marked Lawrence Gough's directing debut,[6] won Neve McIntosh an International Fantasy Film Award for Best Actress in 2010,[7] as well as the Award for Best Horror Actress at the Fantastic Fest.[6]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Salvage (2009) | Horror Movie, DVD, & Book Reviews, News, Interviews at Dread Central". Dreadcentral.com. 4 September 2009. Archived from the original on 17 November 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Brookside Close becomes set for horror movie". Liverpool Daily Post (Trinity Mirror). 19 March 2008. Archived from the original on 17 November 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
  3. ↑ Jones, Sam (18 December 2008). "Brookside sold: Set goes under the hammer for £735,000". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). Archived from the original on 17 November 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  4. ↑ "Salvage Director Interview - Sky Movies HD". Movies.sky.com. 18 March 2010. Archived from the original on 17 November 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  5. ↑ Floyd, Nigel (18 March 2010). "Salvage Review.". Time Out London. Archived from the original on 17 November 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Bentley, David (17 March 2010). "Neve McIntosh stars in British horror film Salvage released on March 19". Coventry Telegraph (Trinity Mirror). Archived from the original on 17 November 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  7. ↑ Dale, Martin (7 March 2010). "Fantasporto honors 'Heartless'". Variety Magazine. Archived from the original on 17 November 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2012.

External links