[SAVAGELAND is
now available on home video.]
Review by Bob Ignizio
Sorry Marvel fans, SAVAGELAND
isn't a surprise entry in the MCU bringing Kazar and Shanna the She Devil to
cinematic life. Rather it is a horror film presented in faux documentary format
about Francisco Salazar (Noe Montes), an illegal immigrant laborer and amateur photographer
accused of committing a mass murder spree in a small Arizona border town. The
evidence for his guilt is weak, but thanks to anti-immigrant prejudice and the desire to find
a scapegoat, Salazar gets convicted. On his appeal, however, new and disturbing
evidence seems to indicate that not only is he innocent, but the real culprits
represent an unimaginable horror.
Not a bad premise, to be sure, and throwing a little social
commentary about current attitudes towards illegal immigrants into the mix
gives the film some added thematic weight. SAVAGELAND was conceived before Donald Trump's
presidential run and talk of wall building, but there is a character clearly
modeled after Sheriff Joe Arpao (Sheriff Parano, played by George Lionel
Savage), and the general attitudes expressed by this character and others are
in line with things Trump and his supporters have said and done with regards to
immigration. Through this subtext, the film does a good job of conveying the
dangers that a more aggressive policy towards illegal immigrants can have
unintended negative consequences.
