‘Brute 1976’ Review: A Brutal Piece of Nostalgia
For those who enjoy unapologetic homages to 1970s horror, I won’t mince my words: Add Brute 1976 to your summer watch list immediately.
Resurrecting the cheesiness of desert-dwelling psychos who kill with thrill, this independent feature is already drumming up hype from diehard fans of the retro decade that brought us The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes.
It’s August 19, 1976, and Raquel (Gigi Gusten) and June (Bianca Jade Montalvo) have car trouble on route to a photo gig. As they explore the isolated area, the girls stumble into an abandoned, beaten-up area behind a car graveyard and next to a massive cavern. Raq and June giddily go exploring in the tunnels, which are part of the appropriately named town, Savage. But the two women soon realize they’re about to stumble into a sun-soaked nightmare.
While Raq is taken hostage by a family of masked madmen, a hippie van torn right out of the pages of a slasher manual pulls up with a full load of cast and crew, all in transit to meet the couple who are now in danger.
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The campiness of the vintage caravan further emulates the bohemian feel of characters, each of whom embodies those slasher stereotypes we know and love. There’s junkie driver Charlie (Robert Flested Jr.), foxy-brown look-alike model Roxy (Adriane McLean), closeted gay photographer Jordy (Adam Bucci), and a blonde sexpot named Sunshine (Sarah French).
We are now set up for either a promising slasher film or a horrendously bad rendition of what we cherished most from this hokey era of classic horror films.
Brute 1976 has some captivating and mind-blowing moments, including the gnarly Star-Spangled Banner scene. It captures the freedom of two beautiful women galivanting for the camera while Raquel is brutally taunted by this murderous family. They parade the organs of her beloved June around the room with a gleeful derangement reminiscent of Rob Zombie’s House of 1,000 Corpses.
The gore, jump scares, and menacing monster men blend well against a desolate desert backdrop from beginning to end. But, even after the ultimate twist was beautifully revealed, I couldn’t help but think: motive, anyone?
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Still vague on this cultist reflection of family, forecasted future, and prophesied salvation, my brain is unsatisfied with the finality of the exposition. That’s not to say this was disappointing. There is no way I would conclude Brute 1976 to be dull or dismissive after watching one of the best and graphically gross glory hole scenes ever put on film!
All in all, Brute 1976 is a solid horror flick that tosses you back to the heyday of the post hippie/disco glam period that we all loved and missed. Director Marcel Walz creates a free-spirited time capsule of an era before technology and tracking devices destroyed the independence of a whirlwind experience. Without any premonition of ill-will upon reaching a quaint community that we’d now call a museum of hillbilly tchotchkes on display, you can feel the excitement, love, fear, and desperation through every pore of these well-developed characters. I’m just still stuck on that ambiguous “end of days” reasoning for how we all got here. But that’s OK. I’ll get over it.
Brute 1976 plays at the Laemmle Glendale in Los Angeles, CA on August 26, 29, and 30, 2025. It opens at the Alamo Drafthouse in Indianapolis, IN, on August 29, 2025.
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Brute 1976
Summary
With its gnarly kills and terrifying killers, Meredith J. Brown says you need to add Brute 1976 to your summer watch list immediately.
Categorized: Reviews
