Beth (Neve McIntosh, TV’s Case Histories), a divorced lawyer living in a British suburb, is out on the street trying to retrieve her estranged daughter from her neighbor’s house when a group of black-clad, special-forces types appears out of nowhere and guns down a terrified man brandishing a cleaver. Forced back into her home by the soldiers, Beth attempts to find out what’s going on and make sure her daughter is okay. Her married lover thinks they’re under attack from Muslim terrorists, but the truth is far more sinister, and it soon becomes clear that they cannot depend on the soldiers for aid or rescue.
A cinéma vérité-style horror movie made with a typically bleak European aesthetic, Salvage is a classic example of how there is nothing more terrifying than sympathetic and compelling characters trapped in an unexplained situation they cannot control. Eschewing flashy editing or cinematography, director Lawrence Gough simply allows the story to unfold without embellishment and without telling us anything more than what the characters themselves know, resulting in genuine tension and more than a little anxiety on the viewer’s part.
The film also benefits from a brief, 74-minute running time that trims away any fat that might detract from the story and/or character development. While some North American viewers might have trouble comprehending the thickly accented British slang, the fact that you have to really listen to the dialogue keeps you that much more invested in what’s going on.
Definitely not for those who prefer happy endings. —Allan Mott