imagineNATIVE 25 FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW! We are back in baby’s arms, all covered in blood and screaming over the outstanding Blackfoot exploitation short E.V. Savage, written and directed by Stevie-Ray Strangling Wolf and Shelby Strangling Wolf. The story opens with young woman E.V. Savage (Ocean Gaspard-Ronson) sitting in a bar alongside her parents, Shelby Savage (Shawn Tyler) and Sydney Savage (Cheri Marade). When the waiter, Jasper (Jason Taylor), asks for E.V.’s ID before serving her a drink, her parents double down with an ominous insistence that it’s her birthday and she should be served. E.V. braces herself, fully aware of what’s coming next, as her mother lifts her sunglasses and reminds Jasper just who the Savages are—a notorious mass murderer couple known for carnage. It’s time for E.V. to uphold the family name and commit her first slaughter.
The setup is clear: this is a coming-of-age tale soaked in blood. E.V. longs for a normal life, but her lineage ensures that normalcy isn’t in the cards. What follows is a darkly comedic, ultra-violent rite of passage, as E.V. enters the family business of killing. The short relishes in its gore and attitude, making it instantly memorable for fans of extreme genre cinema. Every scene is dialed up to eleven with a knowing wink.
“It’s time for E.V. to uphold the family name and commit her first slaughter.”
For fans of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, E.V. Savage is a triumphant return to that aesthetic. During the 1990s, seeing that film six times in theaters wasn’t unusual, and this short captures the same chaotic energy. The Strangling Wolf Brothers create what feels like a spiritual sequel, imagining what Mickey and Mallory’s child might grow up to be. The dynamic between E.V. and her parents mirrors the dysfunctional love and violent mentorship of that earlier film. Even the family bonds feel strangely authentic—chainsaws and all.
Stylistically, the filmmakers embrace everything that made Natural Born Killers such a touchstone: grainy film stock, abrupt shifts between black and white and color, and lo-fi aesthetics that heighten the raw brutality. The result is a short that feels dangerous, unfiltered, and completely unhinged—in the best way. It is the best use of this technique since John Leslie’s Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story, a homage to The Shining that understood how to use camera technique to evoke horror and absurdity simultaneously.
Beneath the blood and frenzy, there’s a surprisingly serious message buried at the heart of the film. Yes, it’s an exploitation piece through and through, but there’s depth to E.V.’s struggle between personal agency and generational violence. When the lights come up and the body count is tallied, there’s no doubt who did it. E.V. Savage did it, and she’s just getting started.
E.V. Savage screened at the imagineNATIVE 25 Film Festival.
"…a violently gleeful homage that will get you Oliver Stoned."
