I will never get that 82 minutes of my life back. ‘Scalps’ isnt so much a ‘movie’, more…it’s a test of endurance. How long can you sit through a handful of randomers wandering around in the desert before you give up and eject the movie violently?
The spiritual successor to movies like ‘Blood Shack’ and ‘The Hills have Eyes’ results in a product thats somehow LESS charismatic than ‘Manos: The Hands of Fate’ (and THAT’S saying something!). ‘Scalps’ really does feel at times like a 15 minute short film thats been extended to 82 minutes through sheer determination to make it a commercial release.
This was one of the lesser scrutinized ‘Video Nasties’ and having sat through it, I can easily see why…
The plot? an Archeologist wants to do a dig at the site where a supposed massacre of Native Americans took place. At the same time a group of teens and reasearchers head up ahead of him to set up camp. Cue (and im not making this up) SIXTY MINUTES of pissarsing about in the desert, wandering aimlessly, holding up badly made props and talking utter nonsense…they do anything….ANYTHING…to pad the runtime out to feature length.
Ignoring the strange edits in the opening of the film of skulls and demons, the first actual, honest to god kill in this thing doesnt happen till the hour mark. with the second kill happening off screen 10 minutes later.
The scripts meandering, dull, uninteresting. Lacks focus. has no real energy or passion behind it. The characters are equally basic and have no real depth beyond their one mission which is seemingly to wander around the desert and not do very much…
The only credit I WILL give this thing, is that about 7 minutes off the end, it does *sort of* kick into gear and delivers a couple more kills and some very basic, but non the less (at this point) entertaining gore shots. but that REALLY isnt worth sitting through 75 minutes of nothing to get there.
The directions totally drab, flat and lifeless. The version I viewed from retromedia was a total patchwork affair, the bluray boasts a ‘2k scan of the original 35mm negative with censored scenes restored via tape sources’
What that means is that the vast majority of the film looks like a 16mm print thats been duplicated 5-6 times, intercut with THE fuzziest and awkward looking 4th or 5th gen VHS tape sources. This film isnt particularly pretty as it is. Its washed out, awkwardly cut, badly composed, the cast all seem to be adlibbing for the most part, noone knows how much set space they have to work with. But because the source elements that made up this release are so poor, it makes a bad situation SO much worse.
The soundtracks diabolical, the cast have almost no energy behind their performances and sound like non actors who’ve been roped into appearing in a friends film for a laugh and a case of beer.
It’s a totally dreadful movie to sit through, with maybe a handful of fun little gory bits that *JUST* about stop it from being a film I actively hated. The only time I think i’ll ever catch this one again is if I choose to review it for the youtube channel…and it’ll be a cold day in hell before I do that anytime soon. avoid.
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