Scavenger (2020) Review

It is the future, the post apocalyptic future. The planet has gone to shit, the cars are covered in skulls and barbed wire and the people are leather wearing gimp masked cannibals. Tisha (Nayla Churruarin) is a butcher who roams the deserted desert looking for lone losers to cut down, cut up and sell to her friend for food.

So far so totally derivative and sadly Scavenger doesn’t not get any better in fact it gets a whole lot worse as Tisha sets out to seek revenge for an old woman by getting herself caught up in a sex club run by a savage gang.

A ultra low budget Sci-Horror Scavengers is directing duo Eric Fleitas and Luciana Garraza’s first film and holly hell is that painfully obvious. The pacing, editing and shots are all cliched beyond belief creating something barely above a first year film students opening attempts. Making very little of the tiny amount of originality they have there are a whole list of things wrong with this film so let me start making my cheap shots at this cheap film and hopefully we can get this painful process over with.

Filmed in Argentina the arid and desolate landscapes enhance the Neo-Western setting but who cares because anyone could have found some sand and set up a camera couldn’t they? The Mad Max look that permeates every scene is totally played out and I am so sick of seeing Sci-Fi horror movies that look like this because they have no creativity. The inside shots are not better than the outside shots and every interior is unconvincing and badly dressed looking too obviously run down and staged to create any kind of atmosphere or reality to the movie.

When it comes to the props it seems the crew have raided a Charity Shop for old Halloween decorations on their way past the local Butchers. Terribly made severed heads sit on bars, chains hang from walls and bags of offal sit in buckets all in the desperate attempt to shock and sicken the audience yet only annoying them.

Theses crap props are like the taboo themes of incest, abuse and cannibalism Scavengers dangles in front of us and goads us to be angered by yet it is all handled so badly by the pathetic plot and cliched filled script it falls totally flat like a damp fart.

With a paltry running time of 1 hour and 13 minutes Scavengers shouldn’t actually be considered a feature in my opinion yet somehow simultaneously it is far too long and I found myself desperately bored after about 15 minutes wishing it would end.

Shockingly none of the aforementioned issues are the worse thing about Scavengers, that title goes to its horrific misogynistic attitude towards the female characters. Unlike the variety of excellent movies at this years FrightFest with female leads Scavengers seemingly only features a woman as its anti-hero so she can take part in a gratuitous lesbian sex scene which is followed by a ton of horrible rape scenes.

Taking up way more screen time than any other element the various violations which include degradation, humiliation, torture and more serve no other purpose but to excite the lowest possible appetites of the audience in the worst possible way.

Desperate to be a Grindhouse cult horror the film is filled with gore yet none of it is well done or effective or even funny. Story wise there is a failed attempt at some sort of revenge arc culminating in a cathartic blood bath but Scavengers is not I Spit of your Grave in fact I wouldn’t even spit on this films grave, if you paid me.

Its not clever, its not daring, its not shocking its just grim and horrible and unnecessary and its exactly the sort of thing people who hate horror films constantly cite in attempt to get all of them banned.

If you love horror films avoid Scavengers like the post apocalyptic plague because believe me getting Radiation Rabies would be more entertaining than this pile of puss.

Movie Rating:  

Trailer: