Savage Intruder

Savage Intruder (Hollywood Horror House), Directed By Donald Wolfe, Starring Miriam Hopkins (1970). 

A few years ago I bought this Video Nasty artwork book called Shock, Horror by Francis Brewster, Harvey Fenton and Morris, it has become a reference guide for all things I vaguely remember seeing in the horror section of the video store as a kid. I'm always taking a trip down nostalgia lane (this site is cathartic for me in that fashion). Some of the videos are just obscure oddities that seem like a good time and never made it officially to the nasty list but who really cares anyway, right? Savage Intruder (or the more appropriately titled Hollywood Horror House) was accidentally marketed during the hype as a banned vid, how this happened I have no idea? Pretty anything on Vipco was sold as "banned" or lurid to capitalize on the 80's censorship craze. This film doesn't deserve that kind of bargain basement treatment, it's a lot better than you'd think! It's not in the Deep Red catalog but off and on we branch out into other lists for inspiration. J4HI.com sells this on a double feature with Nashville's "Dear Dead Delilah" an Agnes Moorhead trash-ter-piece that looks pretty creepy too. So let's dig into this wacky hippie nightmare and see what happens already!

Lidsville is the gaaa gaaa grooviest

Brought to you by Avco Embassy no less (I always view them as the "Spinal Tap" company). I had no expectations initially, but this film is very disturbing and has a lot more gore than you'd think. Hollywood-- it chews you up and spits you out till you're down at the bottom of the porn industry to paraphrase a Seinfeld episode and that's exactly where our story begins with the dismembered body of some old hag. Some dude in a floppy hat beats a haggard Imogene Coca looking drunk over the head (maybe it's Albert from "I Dismember Mama" up to his old tricks again). He cuts her arm with an electric turkey carving knife and blood splatters across the toilet (Eek! can it get any sleazier than this)? This is the kind of seedy shit that goes down in La-La Land everyday and don't blink now or you might miss Joe "3rd Stooge" Besser as a bus driver tour guide!

STOP CHOPPING UP PEOPLE SO LOOUUUD

Miriam Hopkins in her last ever screen performance is Katherine Packard (Parker on IMDB for some reason), a demented "Norma Desmond style" wacko. I love it when old timey actresses decide to delve into sleaze, kind of how Veronica Lake did in her last film "Flesh Feast", although this one is monumentally more entertaining. This film seems to have influenced "Tourist Trap" and possibly "Pin: A Plastic Nightmare", it's the kind of warped film you'd see late at night back before cable existed and it would haunt your nightmares. I could imagine someone babbling about this one to anyone who would listen "Seriously, It Really Happened I'm not making it up". 

my eyeball could use more vaseline 

Vic (David Garfield) shows up as a caregiver who uses the most retarded alias ever to slip in under false pretenses "LaurelAnHardy" and wouldn't you know, they all fall for it and hire him. All the old bippies who work for Packard are annoyed by Vic's hippy haircut and see him as a member of the new generation they don't want to relate to. He gets along pretty well with the old battle axe and there's even a clunky montage of them becoming more chummy. Obviously, he's the killer that's been wandering around town right, maybe. He does inject himself with scag and trips out in a kaleidoscopic freakout, he's haunted by the image of his slutty mother with bulging eyes and red lipstick who scowls at him. His mother reminds me of this scary commercial that wigged me out as a kid for the Haunted Mansion in Long Branch NJ and I remember not even being able to look at the T.V. I was so terrified. It's weird how you're child brain plays tricks on you because after seeing it again on Youtube there's no creepy woman.  

AAAAAAAAAHH, I just ate a ton of garlic bread!

Vic brings his Asian girlfriend Greta (Virginia Wing) to his bosses lavish home after dark. Katherine begins to get hot and horny for old Vic (Yuck, it's pretty gross)! Whenever we see him chop someone up, they insert a bottle of ketchup slowly pouring out the red stuff, nice touch but it does remind me of those 80's wait patiently for your Heinz ketchup to emerge commercials like this one with Matt Lablanc. The slimy Vic and gives off a dimestore hood vibe, he forces his girlfriend to drop acid and says "You're a pain, so take this painkiller", Cosby anyone? He seems more content to be a gigolo for his elderly has-been boss than work on his relationship with the cute Asian girl, more proof that this dude is a fucking weirdo. 

Whoops, I took the kind of acid that dissolves your esophagus

This film is super trippy and fits somewhere in the realm or "The Psychopath" or "Blood and Lace", it has that look of a cruddy 70's TV movie (think Joy N. Houck Jr.) but then BLAMMO, it smacks you over the head with shocking imagery and it's a very jarring combo, I love that kind of shit!

The Vipco box cover falsely claims that "People behind the Driller Killer were responsible for this", yeah right! This one is not ashamed to revel in it's campiness, there's one part where a shindig featuring Buddy Douglas gyrates with a huge breasted woman and Kathy drops enough acid to think she's the Christmas queen in a parade. This one is worth seeking out, the ending is totally insane and probably up for debate! This film takes slight influences and uses them so it all comes off as a good cryptic mixture, check it out! It's available from J4THI.com and on Youtube (for a limited time).

BUY HERE 

Somebody call child protective services, Oh wait it's a midget!