Savage Streets (1984 Review)
Director: Danny Steinmann
Cast: Linda Blair, Linnea Quigley, John Vernon, Robert Dryer
BCI/Deimos / Unrated / NTSC R1 / 1.85:1 Widescreen / Dolby Digital Stereo / 93 minutes / Purchase from DiabolikDVD.com
The Exorcist is frequently regarded as one of the (if not the) most frightening movies of all time. Linda Blair was the angel-faced little girl possessed by Pazuzu or Satan or the demon of green bile or whatever, but she was the star of that classic horror film. Fast-forward to 1984, some 11 years later, Blair is now a buDDing (notice the “double D’s”) action star destined for exploitation greatness. We all remember her as the sweet little child wearing a darling little nightgown pissing on the floor, but now she is an ass kicking gangstress fucking up bitches while wearing tight, black leather.
Brenda (Blair) and her girl-gang of “Satins” are out on the streets of L.A. showing her deaf-mute sister (Linnea Quigley) a good time when the sister is almost run over by a rabble rousing gang of dudes called “Scars”. The overly protective Brenda decides that getting back at the boys means stealing their cherry Chevy Bel-air Convertible and filling it with trash. This just pisses off the Scars and they want to get even. But their “even” is a little, well, uneven. They find the “retarded” deaf-mute sister alone and proceed to rape and beat her on the filthy boy’s room floor. One of the Satins find her and alerts the others, as well as the authorities, but no one knows who the culprits are.
It isn’t until the Scars go overboard with their mischievous bad boy antics and kill Brenda’s best friend by throwing her off of a bridge that the little pussy-boy of the Scars freaks out and accidentally tells Brenda who did all of the awful things. At that point she flips out and goes balls-out to get her violent and bloody revenge. By booby trapping and luring the rest of the boy gang into a warehouse, she fucks them up with crossbows, bear traps and fantastic one-liners. But will her estrogen filled rage and raised eyebrow smugness help her exact her revenge, or will she run out of snappy cracks about being double-jointed and kissing your ass good-bye?
Either way, this is one of the best straight revenge/exploitation movies I have ever had the good fortune to see. It is fast-paced, hilarious, violent, sexy and above all… tits. That’s right, Linda Blair’s tits are big, natural, full of nipples and showcased throughout. Mind you, there is only one scene when they are unleashed fully, but that doesn’t matter. The opening scene of her walking with her girls (and I mean her b00bs) wearing a super tight tube-top with her “high-beams” on is a rewind-play-rewind-play moment. I won’t even mention the slooooow cleavage zipping scene when she is putting on her leather catsuit.
Aside from Miss Blair’s glorious ta-tas, the entire cast is amazing. Robert Dryer as the Scars leader and Sal Landi (an Adrian Zmed look-alike) as his right hand man are disgustingly great bad guys, and cult icon Linnea Quigley in one of her first big roles as the mute-deaf sister was too cute for words. To see her brutalized was hard to watch even in such a cheesy ’80s action flick. But don’t worry, with buck naked girl fights in the shower, blouse ripping cat fights, an awe-inspiring soundtrack and theme song, and dialogue like Brenda spouting, “Now it’s your turn with the PUSSY!”, you won’t be bummed for too long.
I remember seeing this YEARS ago. And yeah, this was a great flick. It’s too bad Blair never capitalized on this, although I’m sure she wanted to be more mainstream and THE EXORCIST ruined that for her [true epitome of a blessing and a curse]. I really need to rewatch this one again. I wonder if Netflix has it? Great review, Greg!
Great Review Greg!
[and for those wondering - yes, Netflix does have the movie - it is in my queue as I type this]