This should've been Darren Healy's claim to fame; he provides a brilliant performance and a thrilling character transformation as Paul Graynor, a shy photographer who is dragged down an alleyway one night by two men and mugged. They then beat and castrate him for good measure. Paul becomes a recluse, terrified of the world around him. He takes control back; he joins a gym, shaves his head, loses the glasses and takes steroids. He also buys a large hunting knife and carries it around with him. Then he starts to hunt for the men who emasculated him. In essence, Paul turns in to the men who assaulted him, and we are geared up for a shocking, violent climax.With the exception of 'The Commitments' in the early 90's, Irish cinema was a rare beast up until probably the late 1990s and early 2000s, but in all fairness, we have never produced anything worth shouting about. Healy starred in a film called 'Crush Proof' around that time, a film that should've been a lot better than it was, but he nevertheless was superb in that one. He's been a fairly low-key actor over the years and personally I think he would've been perfect for a role in RTE's landmark gangland series 'Love/Hate'.'Savage' is quite a violent film, and one that does stay with you. Director Brendan Muldowney makes good use of the grim Dublin streets in creating a bleak and dangerous atmosphere. The script does a good job building up the tension until it explodes. There's been nothing else quite like it produced on these shores.

SAVAGE is a low budget, murky, and rather depressing psychological thriller from Ireland. It's about an ordinary young guy who is mugged and scarred by a gang of street thugs, and who subsequently undergoes a violent transformation into a petty criminal himself. The idea for the film's story isn't a bad one, but unfortunately this is a movie that suffers from the usual flaws of independent cinema.The script is never as hot as it thinks it is and all of the characters are resolutely unappealing. SAVAGE tries to be a powerful piece of movie-making but for most of the running time it just sort of passes you by. I didn't care much for the main character although his physical transformation is a good one. The whole midsection of the film just seems to tread water although it does pick up for a hair-raising climax which is very good indeed; a pity that the rest of the movie doesn't follow suit.

After reading some reviews and recommendations here and there, I got curious. The title, poster and plot on their own wouldn't have really drawn me to watch it.First off: it's not really bad and there are some individual scenes that are pretty intense (and even an occasional sort of funny one - with the sheep), as is the acting by Darren Healy. But the script feels like a mess and mostly like a generic series of 'must-happen' events in what has come to be known as the revenge flick, including an all-out bloody ending. For some films that works, for example 'I spit on your grave' (1978!), where form, creativity and energy really come together. 'Savage' looks bleak, and wants to paint a bleak picture of how a civilized man can totally lose himself in 'fear, control, anger and REVENGE'... Well, those 'chapters' didn't help any at all either, did they? But bleak as it tries to look, it is visually pretty uninteresting, and hard as the punchline wants to be, it doesn't punch. Not for me, anyway.That's it. A small 6? A big 5? For Healy's good effort, some proper moments and those poor sheep I will show mercy.

This is a story of a man who lost his identity of maleness. This is introduced as a Top 10 disturbing films by a youtube user. So I tried it. For me, this isn't a disturbing movie more like a sad story. The movie consists of 4 parts; Fear, Control, Anger, and Revenge. We can see him changing gradually as the story goes on.Paul (Darren Healy) was attacked by two brats on the street. He couldn't fight back or even scream because he was completely intimidated. He was under a brat's thumb. This incident affected him really bad. Basically He was mentally neutered. He struggles to regain himself as used to be by getting a dagger and a taser, joining a self-defense class, and taking steroids. Nothing really gives him confidence and slowly he gets screwed up. There are people who try to help him; his work mate, girlfriend etc. The trainer of the self- defense class tells him that he is not OK and he also sees a psychiatrist, but he isn't willing to listen to them because his mind is so messed up. Things don't go well for him. His self-esteem is crushed flat.I have to admit that he tries really hard to deal with his problem by himself. It rather pushes him into the edge. He expects more than he can actually achieve. People can only do so much with this kind of state of mind. While ordinary people might have thought of the idea but never actually plan to carry it out, it could be a big progress for a person who suffers from depression if he can live one day without thinking of killing himself. He had to realize that people have their own pace for doing things and, moreover, everyone has a problem. The character Paul is well developed and shows good acting, in fact, he made me feel like supporting him so bad.I can't help thinking that he tries too hard to be someone else but him. He isn't a tough guy or a muscular type, however he seems to consider that's the kind of man he should be. But again it's just not his thing! So of course, he reaches the point of lunacy eventually.Only one part of this movie which was really disturbing for me is when the main character, Paul killed a sheep for the process of retrieving his masculine. Attacking someone or something unresisting is hard to watch. Maybe it was necessary for Paul, but I hated it. This scene actually has a connection to the end which is the biggest reason that I end up rating this movie only 6 although it's a well done film.-------- SPOILER ----------The ending…Paul got the information from police which was that the kids who attacked him has been arrested and are going to be transported. He goes to take a revenge at the site but he missed the chance. After that, while he was walking with anger and frustration, he bumped into two brats (they are totally strangers for Paul) who are trying to brake in a car on the street. Paul changed his targets and beat them up. Finally Paul killed one of them like he did to the sheep…I don't know if he retrieved his peace. It is just sad that he couldn't inflict vengeance on the two kids who attacked him and screwed him up so bad. At least, I wanted Paul to pay back on them although it's still a sad ending. Paul can't go back to normal anymore. However, probably those kids will be out of prison or institute shortly and enjoy freedom because they are under age. What a sarcasm. What a sad story.