Blood Salvage

Every so often, out of the general detritus of blood, guts, and bodies "B" videos that glut the video pipeline, there emerges a genuine sleeper. Blood Salvage, unfortunately, is not one of those finds. It is, however, an instructive viewing experience. Danny Nelson stars as Jake Pruitt, an Atlanta auto junkyard owner who specializes not in engines, filters, and headlights, but rather in hearts, livers, and eyes. Jake has two sons: one, a misogynist creep whose three favorite words are "slut", "whore," and "bitch," and whose job it is to run innocent victims off the road; the other an obese halfwit who wants to please everyone. When Jake decides that he wants to "help" April Evans, a paralyzed teenager--he sabotages the Evans family's RV, and then "discovers" them broken down on the road. In a twinkling, Jake and his boys have the RV into the shop, and one by one the Evans family walks up to the house (the younger brother, the father, the mother). None return. April, who in an I.Q. contest with Elmer Fudd would place a distant second, "senses" that something's not right. The upshot of all of this is that Jake removes spinal fluid from April's younger brother to inject into April's spine which--talk about your medical miracles--makes her walk again. Now Jake wants to marry her as a replacement for the boys' dead mother. April rebels. All the other Evanses bite the bullet, but April successfully kills off Jake and his boys to drive off into the sunset in the apparently fixed RV. What did this movie teach me? Never, ever again to watch anything written or directed by--if you'll excuse my French--a total pig named Tucker Johnston. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)