I think that anyone who has read my blog knows that one of my favorite movies is The Exorcist and that against all odds, one things that doesn't get enough credit is the cast in that movie. The leads included Ellen Burstyn who got her second of three Oscar nominations in four years (winning a year later for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore); the classic badass actor and frequent collaborator of Bergman, Max Von Sydow; Pulitzer Prize winner Jason Miller and a supporting role by Lee J. Cobb of 12 Angry Men and On The Waterfront fame among other things. And yet perhaps the most recognizable star of the movie is also the whose career most people don't know past the sequel would be Linda Blair. I mean I'm not sure most people know about her filmography post -1977 and part of that is the kind of movies that she ended up being in after that, from the roller disco movie Roller Boogie to women in prison movies like Chained Heat and Red Heat, as well to the movie of topic today, the 1984 vigilante flick Savage Streets.
To be noted though, I'm sure that if anyone follows the Razzies should recognize this movie as being one of a trifecta when Blair won the Worst Actress award, paired up with Night Patrol and Savage Island. This is also one of those movies where I only know three of the actors in the movie. Aside from Blair, there is John Vernon who despite barely being in the movie gets second billing, probably because he is the only other name actor, most remembered as being Dean Vernon from Animal House. And then there is scream queen Linnea Quigley, a year away from her most mainstream role in Return of the Living Dead. Other than that, I have no clue who any of these people are and judging by their acting abilities, they probably didn't have much of a career anyway. Also of note is that this is one of the few films in the resume of director Danny Steinmann, whose other films included the classic porn film High Rise and one of the more notorious sequels of the Friday the 13th franchise, A New Beginning.
But let's get to the movie itself, which is a weird one to say the least. Since it is the 80's, a trend that exists throughout movies like this is that all of the "teenagers" in the movie are played by people in their 20's, which might have to do with the large amount of nudity in the thing, from a shower scene in a high school gym to a zooming shot of Linda Blair's character Brenda laying in a bathtub and the gang rape scene that becomes the starting point for the revenge aspect. Structure wise, this movie moves a lot slower than you'd expect from an 80's vigilante film, reminding me almost of the pacing of Mad Max, where the whole getting revenge all takes place within the last act of the movie, the first two thirds more or less setting up the why it is happening.
The movie begins with Brenda and her friends, along with her deaf mute sister Heather (played by Quigley) walking through town while being harassed by a gang called the Scars. They retaliate by trashing their car, which leads the gang to start taking their revenge on the girls by first gang raping Heather and then killing one of the friends, Francine, by throwing her off of a bridge. This leads Brenda to go kill the gang members on her own. All throughout the movie, you could tell that Blair was having fun with the role of playing a rebellious teenager but when it gets to the final minutes, she really embraces the whole vigilante aspect of her character making it all the more enjoyable when she kills off the Scars. Linnea Quigley does a really good job here as well, playing a character that has no dialogue making the rape scene all the more unsettling. That moment does have a jarring structure tone wise since while that is going on, Brenda is fighting with another girl in the locker room/showers and that is played off more campy, the easiest comparison I could make to this being similar moments from Last House on the Left but I think it works better here since the camp in that movie does get to be a bit much.
Overall, I'd say that if you're a fan of sleazy 80's films, you might like this movie. It probably isn't for everyone though. I myself like it although something did feel off about it. The first two thirds did set up this kind of rival gang battle between the girls and the Scars that the movie didn't capitalize on by having Brenda take on the gang by herself. And while I do enjoy seeing Linda Blair acting all badass, I think it would have worked better if the girls all got together for their revenge. From an interview with Steinmann, he wanted to have the group thing be there but lost out to one of the producers so that does provide an explanation. Still, the movie is an alright watch for what it is and it does make me want to actually see more of the post Exorcist II career of Blair.
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