Savina Gersak
- 1990
Filmed in 1985 but not released until 1990, this film tells of a woman who flees from her husband and hitches a ride with a passing stranger. It turns out that the stranger (Mark Hamill) is a psychotic serial killer who likes to take Polaroids of his victims and then keep their eyeballs. The woman's husband, a cop, realizes who the stranger really is and sets out to rescue his wife. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Soldiers find themselves trapped and in mortal danger behind enemy lines in Afghanistan. Their only hope for survival is to board a specially-designed war bus and blast their way to safety. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Gregory, John Vernon, (more)
- 1989
Otto Kern (Ivo Ban), a stiff-necked technician at a Slovenian factory, is not well regarded by his bosses. It seems that he objects at every turn to their efforts to feather their own nests by accepting bribes from suppliers to use the more expensive foreign imports rather than local materials. His efforts to get the authorities to take these crimes seriously meet with a wall of indifference. When he is turned down for what he believes to be a well-deserved promotion, it is the last straw for him. Despite the fact that he is married with children, he decides to take justice into his own hands in the most drastic possible way. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Radko Polic
- 1989
This low-budget Italian exercise stars Bo Svenson (in a ridiculous-looking fake beard) as a college professor who takes a group of American students to a remote Serbian village to witness an ancient Balkan religious service. Unbeknownst to the kids, Svenson has an ulterior motive: he intends to recruit Beverly (Mary Kohnert), the sole virgin of the group, to participate in the ceremony -- actually an occult ritual in which she is to become the Devil's bride. The kids learn of this treachery and try to escape aboard a moving train, but soon find that the engineer is none other than Satan himself, who causes the train to jump its tracks and speed off through the wilderness toward the village again. Most of the kids are destroyed in their attempts to avert the train's course -- all but Beverly, who has foiled the Devil's plan in her own way, thanks to an enigmatic flutist (Igor Pervic). Needless to say, the Evil One is not pleased. Released directly to video, this attractive-looking but rather hollow occult horror is related in name only to Mario Bava's penultimate Beyond the Door 2, which in turn bears almost no connection to Exorcist rip-off Beyond the Door (aka Chi Sei?). ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1988
- R
The story contained in this bizarre psychological drama/horror movie adds a new dimension to the term "dysfunctional family." It is set in a small town in New Mexico and is told through the eyes of "Sonny Boy," a horribly abused child who was raised by the brutal giant Slue, who rules Harmony with an iron fist and makes his money stealing and fencing televisions. Slue's "wife" and fellow gang member is the cross-dresser Pearl. They get Sonny Boy after their fellow gang-mate Weasel botches a car theft and kills the owners. He brings the car back and that's when they find the baby, whom Slue would have fed to the hogs had not Pearl begged him to let him raise the child. The kid might have been better off dead, for Slue constantly tortures the boy and even sets him afire one day. When not "toughening the boy up," Slue keeps him in a water tower and only feeds him live chickens to give him a craving for fresh blood. Seventeen years pass in this way. One day, Slue gets angry with the town mayor, loads Sonny in an ice cream truck and takes him to visit the town leader. Sonny Boy rushes in and bites the hapless mayor in the neck. From then on, Slue uses the poor teen to terrorize the town. One day, he leaves the boy briefly in a bar where Sonny meets seductive Sandy and is attracted to her. Had Slue not cut out his tongue, to keep Sonny from telling secrets to the police, he would have talked to the girl. Later Slue goes off on a business trip and Weasel and another take Sonny Boy out to kill a prospector for his gold. This is the final straw and the townsfolk finally retaliate. Sonny Boy survives the ensuing massacre and for the first time in his life is given a chance for normalcy and maybe even happiness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Carradine, Paul L. Smith, (more)
- 1988
This in-name-only sequel to the mediocre H.P. Lovecraft adaptation The Curse is a slight improvement on its predecessor, eschewing any trace of Lovecraft in favor of a standard nuclear-mutant-beast plot but imbuing this theme with a menagerie of brain-damaged setpieces. When the protagonist and his girlfriend stumble across an abandoned atomic test site, he's bitten on the arm by an irradiated snake-monster; in a creative but excessively grotesque twist, only the venom-infected arm begins to undergo the inevitable transformation into a fanged beast (sort of a reptilian variant on Bruce Campbell's rebellious demonic hand in Evil Dead 2), which leads to some unpleasant quirks in the young couple's relationship. Before long, the poor guy becomes a veritable snake-factory, churning out baby serpents at an incredible clip. The performances are quite good and the makeup effects (by Screaming Mad George) deserve credit for their disgusting audacity. Very weird but more fun than its predecessor, this is probably the film that Sssss! wished it could have been. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jill Schoelen, J. Eddie Peck, (more)
- 1988
- PG
Garrett (Miles O'Keeffe) is a bounty hunter who rides across Morocco on horseback to save the beautiful heiress Analisa (Savina Gersak) from her Arab kidnappers. Armed with a crossbow and exploding arrows, he battles the villains who seek a stash of priceless diamonds held by Analisa's father (Donald Hodson). This unexciting action adventure is plagued by audio technical problems. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miles O'Keeffe, Savina Gersak, (more)
- 1987
- R
Ator (Miles O'Keeffe) is a warrior summoned by the sorceress Deeva (Iris Peynado) to protect Princess Janna (Savina Gersak) from harm in this fantasy adventure. The hero battles the evil forces on the island of Malta with some fancy swordplay. Elizabeth Kaza and Tim Lane co-star in this "B" movie that is plagued by poor editing and a lack of continuity. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miles O'Keeffe, Savina Gersak, (more)
- 1987
In this political drama, the manager of a Montenegran factory gets in the way of the schemes of a dishonest bunch of power brokers who get him arrested on phony charges of corruption. No one has the courage to come to his defense except for one factory supervisor, who consequently suffers for his good deed by being fired after several demotions. Eventually the government steps in and straighten things out, but the need for everyone to save face prompts the factory boss to pretend that the manager's absence was simply due to his need to be away on business. However, this dishonesty won't wash with the boss' defender, and he continues to suffer reprisals for his refusal to play the game even minimally. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miodrag Krivokapic, Savina Gersak, (more)
- 1984
Both the premise and the storyline falter and ultimately fizzle in this rural drama by Zivko Nikolic. A distinctive fishing village on a picturesque lake is inhabited by hard-working women who support their male counterparts because the latter are too busy to work -- they have to hang out in the local pub, flirt with the waitresses there, and dream of going to America where they must assume they will be paid for their current behavior. At any rate, one young man realizes that the modern era is upon them, and he gets the idea that they should connect their beautiful lake to the ocean by drilling a tunnel through the intervening mountain range. The result would empty the lake and give them rich soil for producing abundant crops. When a blond American bombshell, a second-generation Yugoslavian, arrives from the U.S. to work in the pub, the young man enlists her aid in his dream project. But the men are too overwhelmed by testosterone to think clearly, and soon the village is rift by a blood feud, presaging the tragic decomposition that would tear apart the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. For anyone unfamiliar with the history of and divisions in Yugoslav society, parts of this film may zoom right past, uncaptured. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Savina Gersak, Dragan Nikolic, (more)
