Savage Love (2012) Reviews

• Savage Love: Has its moments

  Platypuschow2017-09-12

  This German film is advertised as a horror, adventure, mystery but make no mistake it's a comedy horror and not an entirely bad one either. Telling the story of two friends who venture off to an obscure sex club for a night of debauchery but get more than they bargained for. The film has a lot in common with Dusk Till Dawn (1996) just with more humor and less quality. That's not to say Savage Love is bad, in fact it has several laugh out loud moments and a certain charm about it. The trouble is often the lack of budget shines through and it hurts the film, many poorly constructed scenes and several that simply shouldn't even exist. Not being a fan of German cinema I have to say this is right up there and a perfectly watchable film if you want cheap laughs and lashes of gore. The Good: A couple of good gags Oddly likable The Bad: As much humor misses as hits Could have been made a bit better Poor finale Too much male ass!

• Savage cuts in Savage Love

  laerikli2013-06-04

  I really like Ittenbach's films, like his old ones - "Black Past" and "The Burning Moon". I really enjoyed "Beyond The Limits", and even an old VHS of "Riverplay" was quite entertaining, but "Savage Love" did not meet the Ittenbach-standard at all. Well, at least the German release was a big letdown. For some time I actually thought the German release was complete and intact, but later I found out it was actually heavily cut, and that is the reason why I have to revisit this review, and update my opinion on the film. Salvation comes from Austria, as they have actually released an UNCUT version of this film. It turns out the uncut version clocks in at 88 minutes in length, while the German, cut version, is only 83 minutes. Most of the gore and fun stuff is cut out of the German version, and the film is very weak and possibly suffers from "artistic damage", due to the heavy cutting. Thank God, the Austrian version is A LOT better! The script is still weak, and the actors are not that good or particularly charismatic, and at times I wonder what Olaf really had in mind when directing some of the scenes. On the positive side the sound and picture quality is quite good, we get a DVD with over 2 1/2 hours of bonus material, and the best of all, we get the UNCUT version of SAVAGE LOVE. Originally, after watching the German release, I was very, very disappointed by SAVAGE LOVE, and thought Olaf had "lost it". But after discovering I had been watching a version which was 5 minutes shorter than the uncut version, I understood that I had to give this film a new chance. So I did. :) I bought the Austrian blu ray (which is only released in 666 copies, so you better act fast if you want it), and have no regrets. The film is still not the best from Olaf, but the Austrian release is a helluva lot better than the German release. We get several nice and gory scenes, including headchopping, chopping bodies in half, axe to skull, multiple axe-chops to the body, zombies eating humans and lots of other gory scenes. The script, the acting and the story is still not that good, but at least the film is COMPLETE now, as it was meant to be, which brings my rating up from an original lousy 1 to an OK 4. For all you Olaf Ittenbach - colletors out there, remember - the Austrian version of SAVAGE LOVE, is what you want, NOT the German release. Complete version is 88 minutes. Now, go get it! :)

• Lead actor Dustin Semmelrogge - enough said

  Horst_In_Translation2017-04-24

  "Savage Love" is (despite the title) a German German-language live action movie from 2012, so this one has its 5th anniversary this year. The writer and director is Olaf Ittenbach and he has made horror films here in Germany for over 25 years already, so you can certainly call him an established filmmaker. But his long career is also evidence that you do not need to be a particularly gifted artist to find work in the industry for decades. The only cast member I knew in this 85-minute film here is Dustin Semmelrogge and yes he is the son of Martin Semmelrogge ("Das Boot"). And while I don't think his dad is the most talented actor at all, Dustin even lacks talent completely and he also lacks the charisma/recognition value from his father. Says a lot if the highlights of your career are becoming last in the German Version of "I am a Celebrity" jungle show and the lead role in an Olaf Ittenbach film. His co-lead here is Frenchman Philippe Jacq, who is certainly better than Semmelrogge, but this does not require a lot and does not mean he is a god actor. Then again, can you really blame the actors for not shining in a garbage movie with a garbage script like this one here? Perhaps not or only to a small extent, but it's almost impossible to elevate the material, let alone make it work. The weakest moments of the entire film were probably the girl(s) with the devilish voice. Man that was embarrassing. I am pretty glad this film ended before the 90-minute mark and honestly I'd have preferred to end it way earlier already. I thought it was a mess and this includes basically all components of this production. Only see it if you (for whatever reason) really love Ittenbach's other work. Major thumbs-down.