A drug deal gone wrong sees five friends fighting for their lives in A Savior Red, an indie horror-thriller over 15 years in the making.

It’s normal to expect a wait between a film’s first festival screening and its general release; anyone who gets as irate as I do about ‘end of year’ lists composed almost entirely of as-yet-unreleased movies knows this all too well. But the journey of A Savior Red to our screens has been more prolonged than most. Shot in 2009 and received warmly at a number of small US film festivals, Brian Scott Hunt’s indie horror romp is finally available for all to see, now restored in 4K.

Kicking things off with the tone and energy of a ‘90s college flick, the film follows five friends as they set off on a doomed drug deal out in the country. Before Charlie (Alex Branton) and his friends have even met their contact, things take a turn for the gory when their car collides with another vehicle, the other driver dying shortly after in an even more disconcerting turn of events. Shaken by what they have just witnessed, the lads somewhat bafflingly continue on their quest, eventually getting tangled up with the burly Brett (Joel Lane Hudgins) and his gaggle of henchmen and servants; this is not the simple transaction promised.

Hunt dances along the line between thriller and horror, with visual homages to giallo films and David Fincher and a setup akin to the Saw franchise. It’s sweaty, gory and as much about psychological power dynamics as physical ones; our protagonists find themselves trapped in the middle of nowhere and forced to play sick games, the playthings of Brett and his sadistic masked accomplice Castor (Jeff Swearingen).

These antagonists are comfortably the film’s most compelling characters; the five college kids have nary a notable personality trait between them. The androgynous Castor is first seen accompanied by male slaves in leather gimp suits, serving as a queering foil to the hypermasculine Brett, and indeed to the protagonists. Like a cheap David Bowie crossed with Heath Ledger’s Joker, Swearingen is diverting enough to begin with but his performance is one of diminishing returns as the movie rolls on. It’s unclear if his gender bending is trying to say something or merely being deployed to unnerve us, and is perhaps the element of the film that dates it the most.

A Savior Red: Movie Trailer (A Savior Red)

Speaking of which, the visual style of A Savior Red features a series of devices that place it firmly in that late-2000s US indie flick milieu, most notably in its editing. One early montage replete with jump cuts and grungy power chords is so familiar that it’s hard not to feel a sense of affection amidst the schlocky nonsense. Credit where it is due, though, for something shot on a $12,000 budget over 15 years ago, it’s an otherwise very good looking film; the restoration to modern streaming standards only enhances this.

It’s a shame that, due to ‘technical difficulties,’ A Savior Red has had to wait so long to see the light of day again. The buzz of that early festival success and any potential cult following as a result may well have dissipated years ago, but in the age of digital media here’s hoping it finds its crowd. With a tongue in its cheek for much of its runtime and a series of twists that keeps viewers on their feet, this rollicking, imperfect indie thriller punches well above its weight.

A Savior Red: Movie Plot & Recap

Synopsis:

Five friends set off on a journey to complete a drug deal, becoming involved in a bizarre car accident and then caught up in a series of twisted games out in the countryside where no-one can hear them scream.

Pros:

• Remarkably well produced on a miniscule budget
• Excellently restored to 4K standards
• A sense of self-awareness and humour to the bloody violence

Cons:

• Underwritten characters
• Dated visual and editing tropes
• Underdeveloped exploration of 𝓈ℯ𝓍 and gender