Savage Harvest Movie Review

Savage Harvest is a 1981 horror movie directed by Robert L.Collins and starring Tom Skerritt, Michelle Phillips and Arthur Malet.

The movie begins with a man being killed by an animal in a small village in Africa. A man called Derek (Derek Partridge) is driving along when he sees the local tribes leaving the area. He talks to the leader and he is told that it is too dangerous for them to stay. Something is going on. A family is living in the area, on a plantation. They are Maggie(Phillips), Wendy(Anne-Marie Martin),Kristie and Jon. Maggie is married to Derek. Her ex husband is Casey(Skerritt) and he is there too. A friend, MacGruder(Malet) arrives at the plantation. He thinks that there are large predators in the area. He tells the family that he found remains. He tells Maggie to be careful. He is looking for a radio. Casey finds out what is going on and he wants to go to the plantation as his daughter is there and Derek has gone away for the night.

Mac's van breaks down and he finds himself face to face with a panther. Casey finds an overturned vehicle and he sees drag marks. A man is dead. A lion kills one of the staff at the plantation. There are more than one of them. Casey arrives in time to save his daughter. He tries to shoot at the lion but it escapes. There is a group of them now and they want to get in as they are starving. A lion comes down the chimney and it eats one of the staff. He enters the living room and the family are terrified. They get it out and they have to barricade the place to stop them from coming down the chimney. They get some guns. The lions try to break down the door. Everyone tries to barricade the house.

Kristie makes the mistake of opening the door and gets dragged off by a lion. Casey saves her but it attacks him. Jon shoots it. Jon and Wendy get on the roof and they wave at a passing plane for help but it doesn't work. The lions are relentless. Casey decides that they should drive out of there. Derek is on his way home, unaware of what is happening. The lions greet him and he gets eaten. Maggie comes face to face with a hungry lion. She tries to scare it off. The lions storm the house. The group build a barriacde around them so they can get to the car. They manage to get there. The lions attack and they light a fire to keep the animals at bay.  They get into the car and drive away. 

I liked this film. It was a lot of fun. It does make people think that lions go around eating people but that isn't true. I think humans are more likely to kill lions than the other way around. It is an entertaining film, though. Some lovely animals in this, even if they are the villains(Yes, I do like lions!) and Michelle Phillips of the Mama's and Papa's makes an appearance. I recommend this and I will give it a 5/10.