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Scarred
Directed By Jon Hoffman and Dave Rock
Released: 2005
Starring: Julian Berlin, Maxine Bahns, Hannah Leigh, and Johnny Mack
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Released By MTI Home Video
The Hanson family ventures into the woods for a camping trip. All is not
well with the fam since Frank remarried to a woman half his age. This trip
was meant to acclimate his kids, Kim and Ben, to their new mom, Heather.
Of course, their weekend is ruined when a hideously scarred and deformed
woman begins to hunt them down. It seems that this hideous and nameless
creature hates any attractive woman and will steal their faces to wear in
place of her own.
Scarred has a decent setup but the execution is pitiful. The actors
are stiff and the direction is dull. There are some hot chicks (clothed)
and some gory moments (tame) but nothing to get excited about. The editing
isn’t very tight making the 90 minute running time feel like an eternity.
The creature makeup is revealed much too early and is wasted on an actress
incapable of eliciting any scares whatsoever.
The scene where the creature imitates her victim while donning the woman’s
face is actually pretty good. But moments like this are few and far
between. Instead, there are many scenes as lame as this one: Ben and Alex
(Kim’s hot friend) discover the creature’s hideout complete with human
faces adorning the walls. Ben actually convinces Alex that it’s a joke by
Jesse (the forest ranger) to scare them and they return to camp for some
horseplay. Well, it actually is a joke thanks to the lackluster set
design.
The last third of the movie turns into a contest to see who is more
annoying, the creature or Ben. The creature ceaselessly shrieks and roars
while the injured Ben continues to blubber and scream. After a while, both
performances quickly become laughable and embarrassing to watch. If any
tension had been built up at this point, there's no way it could hold up
through this section of Scarred.
This flick is a real teaser and not just in the nudity department. While
the movie does deliver on the face-crimes (how often do you get to see
someone hold their own face hostage?), it just doesn't come together very
well. Ripping off The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one thing, but not
doing it even remotely well is another. The most intriguing scene is the
flashback which tells the creature's back-story. This, of course, is
ruined the next time the creature runs onscreen and goes "ROOOAR!".
Scarred is a pretty lethargic entry in the canon of straight-to-video
Slasher flicks and most horror movie fans won't be able to sit through the entire
film.
For more information, go to
MTI Home Video.
Or check out the film's official website
here.
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