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Rock Savage formed the Savage Film Group in 1980 in Capitol Heights, Maryland. His movie Mummy A Gore-Gore is “guaranteed to make your wife leave the room in under four and a half minutes" according to Fred Hopkins of the Island Ear from Long Island, NY.
Allen Richards of B-Independent.com sums up the Savage Film Group in his review of Maxx Bloodd: Vampire Spy, saying, "Content wise...the humor is sexist, the language is vile, and the bad guys are all stereotypes. But it's the familiarity of Rock's retro-pulp novel world that makes it so enjoyable. Rock's movies harken back to a day when writers like John D. McDonald & Ian Fleming lined airport dime racks. Sure those novels were trashy, but damn if they weren't fun! Thank goodness people like Rock Savage won't let them die!"Then there are the non-fiction documentaries. The blurb for Mondo Pagan says, “The world of Pagans, Druids & Witches!! Learn the truth about Pagans & meet some real Witches!! Hear some Pagan rock & roll!! See Rock Savage interview a sexy nude chick with some great body art!!!!! See the fantastic fire dance where anything goes!!"
Rock even used those multiple exclamation points in every sentence when answering my interview questions. The man is in hyperbolic high gear! We did the interview semi-live, emailing back & forth to each other over several days.
In 1999, at a sci-fi/horror convention, I bought a copy of Savage’s Hard Boiled Heroes directly from Conrad Brooks, one of the actors in the movie. Brooks is best known for appearing in Ed Wood movies like Plan 9 From Outer Space in the late fifties. Rock shot Hard Boiled Heroes with Super 8 movie film and dubbed in the sound, then later transferred it to DVD. The cheap look is part of the fun that, and the unabashed, uncensored enthusiasm for all things retro.
Here is my interview with Mr. Savage:
Bill Ectric: Is the naked pagan dance in Mondo Pagan for real?
Rock Savage: Yes, it is.
Bill: Cool. Tell me about working with Conrad Brooks.
Rock: It was a challenge to work with Conrad. He's a great guy, but on the day of filming he said that he needed cue cards! Well, one of my actress made the cue cards right there on location, so all went well. Conrad loves to be in movies.
He got his ex-wife Ruth to be in the film and after our shoot, she made kielbasa. What a great couple, they still act like they're married!
Bill: Do you still use Super 8 film? Is it difficult to find? You can get some good effects when you transfer it to video.
Rock: You can get it from film labs but why bother? It now costs as much as 16mm! The price of the film per roll ($17.00 last time I used super 8) plus lab fees will bust your budget! Each roll only shoots four minutes. The last thing I shot on Super 8 was the “Illegal Possession" segment of Violence is My Business. The jerks at the film lab had my film for 60 days and did some sloppy work in the process. So I then shot the rest on Hi-8 video and my post production guy, Marvin Kennedy, edit it using a “film-look" program that I thought looked great! So after that, I never looked back.
Bill: Tell me about the actors who appear in your films.
Rock: Frank Vassallo, who plays all the main villains, he is part of the orginal team. We met at PG Colleage back in 1980 and he is part of the neucles of the Savage Film Group.
The Mod Mutilator was a real wrestler, he was a jobber for the WWF (without a mask) back in the late 1970s & early 80s! I met him through a friend. He’s a real life tough guy. He was a mercenary in Central America and ended up in Mexico wearing a black mask and peace sign on his trunks, he played an ugly American and cheated to win! He now has a blue mask (one of many), and joined the Savage Film Group in 1988. He plays himself in our films.
Eric Koger is also an orginal member and plays Rex Jones, one of our action heroes. Eric is a real life tough guy, too he knows Kung-Fu and was sent to Iraq in 2003. He kicked ass and we're happy to have him back safe and sound.
Don & Lola Woods are a very talented husband & wife team, they play many different charaters and they are our script doctors.
The main four action heroes in our films are Harry Gross, occult investgator (played by me, Rock Savage) the Mod Mutilator, wrestler turned crime fighter (Himself) Rex Jones, master of Kung-Fu and superspy and Dr. Anubis, master of black magic (Marvin Kennedy).
Let me tell you about Marvin, he's an actor, film-maker, musician (he now does all our sound tracks and was in over 12 rock bands), make up artist, sound man, and post production superstar. I hope I didn't leave anything out!! Anyway, Don & Lola joined us in 1997 when we were looking for new blood and Marvin and I met at a convention, where we were showing our films. Marvin also made a film with a masked wretler called "El Gringo Bravo". Marvin joined us in 1999 and has also remastered most of our films for DVD!
Bill: Is there a particular producer or director you would like to work with?
Rock: The man who inspired me to make films outside of the talentless Hollywood sinkhole was Hershell Gorden Lewis. I read about him when I was in high school and then I knew that I wanted to make independent films! Hershell and I did get to work together on the Chainsaw Sally movie. I do a guest shot and scenes from two of my movies are in Chainsaw Sally.
Bill: How did you get started making movies?
Rock: I became president of the film production club at PG College. Most of the main members are still with the Savage Film Group.
Bill: You describe Hard-Boiled Heroes as "The noir 1930's meet the mod 1960's in what could be called the first "noir mod" movie ever!" How did you come up with that idea?
Rock: I’m a big fan of the pulp heroes and harboiled detectives, also I really dig the hip spy movies of the 1960s!! Sooooo...why not mix the two together?
Bill: You say you like pulp fiction . . .
Rock: I love the old pulp fiction books, not the stupid movie by what's his name.
Bill: Whoa! Wait a minute. You’re dissing Tarantino?
Rock: He’s highly overrated.
Bill: But, Rock . . . Tarantino! Reservoir Dogs!
Rock: “Reservoir Dogs" is a frame-by-frame rip off of a Hong Kong film called "City on Fire."
Bill: What about “Pulp Fiction"?
Rock: The movie "Pulp Fiction" has nothing to do with real pulp fiction!! In fact I have a collection of real pulp fiction from the 1930s!
Bill: Do you consider your films campy?
Rock: I have a strange sense of humor and I do want to have some "camp" because I think that all movies should be fun.
Bill: Are you a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000?
Rock: I really hate MSK3000. I don't like it when people talk in the theater so I don't like those fools talking over the movie!
Bill: Any chance of a major motion picture release in theatres?
Rock: A major movie release? I don't know...is the world ready for that?
Bill: Is there anything you would like to add to this interview?
Rock: Yes, please tell all your readers to visit my website at www.savagefilmgroup.com and buy some movies!!
Bill: Thanks, Rock!!!
This article was first published in 99 Burning.
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