Please note: This was screened in July 2023
Exploding out of the Super 8 movement of the New York’s 1980s scene, Beth B.’s first solo feature is a fervent satire on the televangelism that crept across American TV screens through the 1970s and 1980s.
Salvation! follows devoutly religious Rhonda Stample (Exene Cervenka, singer of LA punk band X), her devoutly non-religious husband Jerome (a young Viggo Mortensen), and his beautiful, seductive sister Lenore (Dominique Davalos) who all get mixed up in a web of blackmail and sex with repressed televangelist Reverend Randall (Stephen McHattie). Naturally, things only get further out of hand from there.
B's film is both outré and garish, and is given an extra shot in the arm by a stellar soundtrack featuring Cabaret Voltaire, New Order, and Arthur Baker.
A new Digital Restoration courtesy of KinoLorber.