Expected more

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I found this by accident. I was actually trying for another movie of the same name and got this by mistake. So you can imagine how confused I was for the first half hour or so. Eventually I realised it was a completely different flick but I didn't mind at all.This movie was well paced and suspenseful - keeping my interest all the way through, with the exception of some rather redundant and pointless chatting between the two main leads about family life (it was a shame they put that in because it killed a very good suspense session just when it needed to be amped up). The acting is mostly very good and I had no problem understanding what people were saying (and I'm not British) so I'm not sure why others did. I thought the Director did a great job of capturing that sense of panic & bewilderment in the main characters as their neighbourhood suddenly transforms into something completely alien and terrifying for no apparent reason. There were some great scares, some nice action pieces (tho probably not enough) and a some slightly gory bits. The ending was a bit odd to me and I hated the very final scene - it was too over the top and came across as a bit silly. This unfortunately brought the whole movie down a bit. But in general I think this is a decent little thriller and well worth watching despite some flaws in it's execution. Don't be put off by it's low rating on IMDb. This isn't a "classic" or the best horror/thriller movie around but it's one of the better low budget ones and has a lot going for it.

This was low British horror, with a short cast and short running time only 79 minutes Movie start off with paper boy, who ends up getting caught for peeking for window, soon we had run for life after that, something should have not seen, that person is after him. Then movie on Father and Daughter, father is telling is daughter to see her mother for Christmas holidays , Daughter is not happy with her mother but as come home, they could of worse start of off, Which end arguing on street and end up staying with neighbours.As mother is trying to get her daughter a swat to seem come out of now where and force back in doors, looked thought the house. For most of time, No knows what really happing and there some brief news on TV for fews seconds but I wasn't to sure what their were saying on news but powers goes out. Thought the movie, she tries to get her daughter and she goes thought a lot to their, their was decent bloody moment in this movie, not gory but can gurgling at times .The acting was great from the very Small cast and ending up movie good but I kinda of knew that was going to happen. There were dull moment in the movie, What bugged me at times was, This place the movie was set looked so familiar and then hit, this was same set of Brookside the Axed soap from UK!6 out of 10 Good movie

Salvage is set in Liverpool in England & starts on Christmas Eve as the fourteen year old Jodie (Linzey Cocker) is dropped off at her mother Beth's (Neve McIntosh) place in a peaceful little cul-de-sac to spend Chritmas there with her. However after a big argument Jodie storms out & disappears insides a neighbors house, Beth is annoyed & things get even worse when fully armed special ops from the army surround the close & cut it off, they prevent any communications from getting in or out & warn the residents to stay inside or risk being shot. Scared & confused Beth just wants to get to her daughter Jodie but soon realises that something big is going on, something that the special ops will do anything to keep quiet...This British production was directed by Lawrence Gough & was produced to celebrate Liverpool's title as EU City of Culture in 2008 which just sounds bizarre to me, anyway what we have here is a horror thriller that tries to pile on the tension & suspense but never ends up being anything particularly special. The script starts off like a typical thriller as everyone thinks terrorists are on the loose & the events seen are very vague with no explanation behind them other than guesswork from the character's but then it shifts into monster film mode for the final twenty minutes or so. Salvage has quite a few similarities with Aliens (1986) actually, the base under siege setting, the mother daughter relationship that drives the character's & the presence of a slimy monster who wants to kill everyone as well as the special ops army unit sent there to kill it. The first hour or so is fairly forgettable actually, I mean the script does an effective enough job of building tension & suspicion & keeping you guessing but it never really goes anywhere & I personally didn't like the character's or the setting that much which obviously didn't help. There are a few problems with the script, it's never explained why these heavily armed special ops unit couldn't kill one single mutant monster when a badly injured woman with a poker can or why Sharma was covered in blood when threatening the army unit with that meat cleaver & I just felt there wasn't enough explanation behind what was going on. The script manages to capture the character's quite well & they end up feeling like proper people & the downbeat ending (taken from The Night of the Living Dead (1968)) may not satisfy everyone. The script was partly inspired by an actual real life incident when the container ship MSC Napoli was beached on Branscombe Beach in Devon during 2007 & local residents flocked to the scene to steal whatever they could find! I remember it being widely reported back then in the media although having said that the actual container on the beach has little relevance in Salvage & doesn't play a great part in proceedings.Salvage was filmed on the disused sets from the old soap opera Brookside (1982-2003) which finished a few years ago but is still well remembered over here. The setting was instantly recognisable even though much of the film takes place in a house which to be honest could have been anywhere. There's a bit of gore but not too much, there's a slashed throat & some blood splatter but not much else. The monster looks alright even if it's only seen very briefly. The film is well made with quite frantic camera movement when needed & there are a couple of nice jump scenes here especially the first time you see the monster as someone unexpectedly shines a torch in it's face.Filmed on Merseyside in Liverpool here in the UK this obviously had a low budget but it doesn't really show expect for the intimacy & claustrophobic nature which both work in the films favour to be honest. The acting is good, there aren't many people in it but the performances are good.Salvage is a watchable British horror thriller that tries to keep you guessing & tries to crank up the tension but with little in the way of a pay-off expect standard monster film clichés it perhaps doesn't make the most of the careful build-up. Not a bad film I suppose but I wouldn't call it a great one either, worth a watch but don't expect a classic.

I'm rather perplexed by the fact most of the reviews on here go on about the lack of budget, albeit in a positive way. Yes it's not exactly Avatar in terms of spending on effects etc but the cost isn't something that's terribly relevant with this movie. The limited setting - most of the action takes place in a cul de sac - adds to the claustrophobic feeling. And the gore when it comes has the claret flowing with gusto and looks pretty convincing.I did struggle a couple of times to understand the dialogue - a combination of muffled voices and regional accents - and although on one occasion this seemed to be a pretty key piece of information, in all it was fine.Definitely worth checking out and I shall be following the director's work with interest