When I threw this on, I was expecting a bad regional horror movie. I am not sure why but I was under the impression that this was shot in the Southern US with nobody of note and would play somewhat like a Don Dohler production. As I plopped myself on the couch anticipating a 90-minute endurance test, I was imagining an evening of multiple Facebook and bathroom breaks to get through it. Surprisingly, the movie ended up playing quite well and being a lot more fun than I was expecting. Bad movies made for the sake of being bad don't do much for me but it didn't seem intentional in this case. I was surprised that I enjoyed this as much as I did. The inclusion of William Sanderson (Blade Runner) and David Gale (Re-Animator) in the cast as well as a bizarre quality and the occasional nude scene made this much more tolerable than I was anticipating. In fact, it was kind of fun to watch although it would have been a lot more fun with a crowd or at least a few friends.

Marilyn Hamlin stars as Marie, a divorcee who goes on a getaway in upstate New York with a group of friends to work on her new boyfriend's schooner that is being constructed on a farm that he purchased. Her friends include her boring stockbroker boyfriend (Jim Doerr), his dull yet pervy friend Jay (Devin Goldenberg), her sister Shirley (Caitlin O'Heaney), and her gay friend Nicky (Christopher Allport) who is a moody and flamboyant caricature that you would never see in a movie today. Soon after arrival, they encounter a creepy local named Otis (William Sanderson) who used to own the property and seems like he could at any time flip out and become like his character in Fight for Your Life. Before long, people start having sex and then in typical slasher movie fashion, they begin to get killed. Red herrings and a few dream sequences abound as the remaining characters get picked off before a final confrontation.

Although this is a bad movie with some terrible acting and uneven pacing, it is quite off-kilter which keeps things interesting. The movie has frequent moments that just don't make a lot of sense but are pretty funny. From a scene where Nicky picks a fight in a bar to a bizarre sex scene where the creepy Jay sees the nude Shirley sunbathing and proceeds to seduce her with his lecherous gaze while Nicky looks on and cuts himself on a barbed wire fence, I was pretty amused for most of this flick. There is also a sequence where Shirley strips for Nicky (who I thought was gay) and then they apply makeup to each other while dancing around the house in another one of the many strange choices that the writer/director David Paulsen made that had me shaking my head. As I said earlier, it is moments like these where I wished I had been watching this with friends and had been able to comment accordingly. This is a perfect movie for beer, nachos, and low expectations.

Back when I was a kid, one of my favorite TV shows was an short lived Indiana Jones ripoff called "Tales of the Gold Monkey". This show has become a little more dark in recent years since star Stephen Collins has admitted to sexual abuse of a minor. I had no idea that his co-star in this show was Caitlin O'Heaney who has multiple nude scenes in Savage Weekend. She also appeared in He Knows You're Alone in 1980 and showed up in Late Phases in recent years. It was a nice surprise as well to realize that the studly handyman Mac was played by David Gale who looked much different than he did as Dr. Hill in Re-Animator. Paulsen went on to make Schizoid with Klaus Kinski and then worked on TV soap operas. (Josh Pasnak, 5/25/16)

Directed By: David Paulsen.
Written By: David Paulsen.

Starring: Marilyn Hamlin, Christopher Allport, Caitlin O'Heaney, William Sanderson.