Der Fluch des blutigen Schatzes

I had always heard about Scalps as people say it's Fred Olen Ray's best horror flick. Well if this is his best, I'd hate to see the rest! The film starts off a little dull, but starts to get better as the group make their way into the mountains. The atmosphere is quite creepy in a low-budget kind of way and reminded me slightly of The Evil Dead, plus the location is similar to The Hills Have Eyes. I love the shot of the rotting skeleton when the car goes past, but no one sees it.

Once they have set up camp, the group hear mysterious drumming, see strange faces in campfires, and so on. There are some hilarious lines such as "I broke a fingernail!", and also when the girl says that the drumming is coming from hell. The scalping scene is probably the highlight of the film, and is brilliantly done - it really surprised me. When the girls throat is cut, she writhes around in agony and it looks realistic. Also the part where he removes her scalp is really cool. There's another good gore scene when a mans head is chopped off, but it's not quite as impressive.

Overall, Scalps is worth a watch if you can tolerate low budget horror. It's nothing amazing, but does have a low budget charm about it.

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Scalps; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 0.75 Direction: 0.75 Pace: 0.50 Acting: 1.00 Enjoyment: 0.75

TOTAL: 3.75 out of 10.00

Scalps is an early Fred Olen Ray joint, and it shows. Both the story and filmmaking had potential. Sadly, Ray misses out on all the evident opportunities, Only to deliver a half-baked tale, an undercooked movie stuffed with overcooked and hammy performances. Hhmm...why do I feel hungry?

In essence, the story should have been enough to grab the audience by the hair and hold their heads steady so their eyes were glued to the screen. However, what could have been a profound story about Native Americans and their abuse at the hands of the land thieves and their subsequent revenge, becomes nothing more than another slasher flick with supernatural overtones. It's a shame, as at the start of the picture, it's apparent the narrative could have taken a more esoteric trail. What we do get is fifteen minutes of filler travelogue as we ride with the students in their clapped-out station wagon to the dig site. However, we get to meet an obliging Native American who kindly recounts the dark legends of the area, so we know what's coming later...much later. And that's one thing about this tale - There's a lot of dead space, which required packing with factual, relevant, and gripping information about the tribes of the area. Then there are the characters who are about as vacuous as the story. Here's a note to all the prospective writers-come-directors out there: If you're going to have a slow story, populate it with exciting and credible individuals - and should the characters be insubstantial, then make the story captivating - of course, both would be perfect.

I felt tricked by the opening sequence of the movie. The cinematography, though too slow in pace, is quite decent. It builds up an eerie atmosphere. And the archaeologists forced suicide is superbly filmed. But, sadly, once the opening credits have ceased rolling, the filming style slips down the slippery slope of averageness. The worst scenes are in the so-called university and the teenager's journey. You can tell the university is nothing but rooms in somebody's house. And the repartee between Professor Machen and his secretary is shot separately. They're obviously not in the same area. Watch as the secretary passes the Prof a file. He doesn't take it from her hands but lifts it off his desk and thanks her. And, when we're on the car trip, Ray gives us some dire panoramas of oil derricks and powerlines, with the customary rough road bounce and shake. The rest is your standard point and shoot. On the plus side, the special effects are passable, except for the full rubber mask of the Native American; surely it wouldn't only be the guy's head that transforms under the possession(?) It should be a full-body mutation. It looks fake because the masked face and body colourings are so varied.

The cast is the prime element in this production, and these actors and actresses are not brilliant. However, thanks to the poor script and below-par direction, they shine a smidgen brighter. Regrettably, it's not nearly enough to keep the audience's attention.

I cannot recommend this missed opportunity of a movie to anyone - not even the die-hard Native-American Horror Lovers dotted around the globe. There is so much wrong with Scalps that I could write a book, and sadly, only enough good to fill out the back of a match-book cover. Don't waste your time collecting this Scalp.

Drop that bloody knife and put your wig back on, it's time to check out my Absolute Horror and Killer Thriller Chillers lists to see where I ranked Scalps - or to find something better to watch.

Take Care & Stay Well.

The movie starts with a guys head being chopped off, this happens in the very first scene so i guess it's a reminder of the movies R certification. Some students go on a expedition or as their teacher prefer to call it a field-trip. Close to their destination the car breaks downs and they go to a near by gas station, there they come across an native-American old man that warns them about the hills, about the killings that went on in the past. As you can expect, they aren't concerned with the warnings and continue their search for artifacts at what they now know to be an native-American burial ground. After a successful afternoon collecting artifacts, one of the guys is possessed by an native-American spirit, that gradually transforms him physically... let the scalping begin.

i found the gory scenes by far the best aspect of the movie. the location is also nice, reminding me of movies such as the "hills have eyes", the hot, dry california desert helps create some tension, the vulnerability of the open spaces. there's not much acting going on but the actors did a reasonable job. a good way to spend 80 minutes, if you're a horror fan.

This one is putrid. No redeeming points at all. A friend rented this and we punched him out for daring to fall asleep during it because we still had to watch it. He deserved it and worse. What could he have been thinking in renting this travesty? Avoid at all costs, even drugging the audience is futile.

The best way to describe Scalps is as a missed opportunity. The premise is scary enough. College kids go to remote desert location to look for indian artifacts, come under attack from evil black magic and strange creatures(who are not explained in any way) and an evil indian sorceror.

This movie is utter pants. All the scenes shot at night are virtually impossible to watch, you literally cannot see anything, and the sound quality is very poor. It could be argued that this is just my copy of the movie, but then how do you explain the totally incoherent narrative? It makes no sense whatsoever. Where did the monsters come from? Why are they attacking the kids? Why did the people in town know about this if no one returns alive?

At the end of the day I think that this makes the film virtually unwatchable, and not endearing like The Beyond of Lost highway as the questions raised by those films are not suppossed to be answered.