Scarce

By all accounts, "Scarce" should bore any avid horror fan to tears. It is a plot we have seen over and over and over again, and in the end, offers nothing new. However, the film does so many things well that it ends up being an enjoyable slasher film that is better than a lot of stuff I have seen make it into theaters lately.

The film starts badly. In fact, I rolled my eyes more than once and was prepared to shut it off. We see a bunch of college aged guys at a huge party drinking, trying to get laid and spouting of some bad dialogue. However, this only lasts for about five minutes, when we flash forward to the next morning. We meet our three main characters--all typical college guys--who are heading back home from a short vacation of snowboarding in Colorado. They banter back and forth during the drive and eventual hit a huge snowstorm in Pennsylvania. They stop at a diner, where the have an encounter with some locals after asking for directions. Obviously, any horror fan knows where this leads, as the directions they are given are bogus and they end up crashed in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard. In the crash, one guy breaks his leg, so the other two venture out to find help. They get to a cabin where they meet up with a seemingly friendly local who offers them food and place to stay. Well, turns out (surprise!) this local is actually a cannibal, who, with the help of a few of his buddies, kills travelers and harvests their meat to make it through the scarce winters.

The film is the combination of so many films I have seen from, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to "Hostel" to "Wrong Turn" to "Calvaire." However, the production is top notch and the filmmakers know how to create tension and suspense using wide camera shots and angles. Additionally, our protagonists actually are pretty likable, and though they make some dumb choices, we can't help but to root for them. The gore is pretty well done and plentiful enough to satisfy gore hounds. We get chopped up bodies, slit throats, decapitations, and shotgun blasts. The setting of the film is foreboding and I really did "feel" the cold, particularly the last 10 minutes of the film when our main characters are running for their lives during the wind and snow in nothing but their boxer and T-shirts! It is a scene that is many ways reminded me of the highly stylized and effective final scenes of the French film "Calvaire" and I think is done equally well here.

My biggest qualm with the film is that I HATED the ending. Too many recent horror flicks are using this "twist" to be different and effective, when it is actually becoming a predictable cliché. I was actually pretty invested in the two main characters and really wanted to scream when the film ended the way it did.

Maybe I am becoming too soft in my reviews, but I actually enjoyed this film quite a bit and highly recommend it, despite the low IMDb rating and reviews here. If you can get past the beginning (and the end) of this film, it is a very well done and competently directed film that ends up being a lot better than it had any reason to be.

FrightMeter Grade: B

I recently watched this flick online and let me tell you, it was pretty awesome. Some excellent kills and chase scenes. This movie sort of reminded me of Wrong Turn and Shredder. It had the snow boarding part, like in shredder, then it had the cannibalism part, like in Wrong Turn. It also had a pretty decent storyline about a group of friends who are stoked for a weekend of snowboarding and partying, only to be stranded in the mountains. When they come across a lodge, they decide to seek shelter, only to be stalked by a group of vicious cannibals. If you aren't a huge fan of extreme violence and gore, then might want to skip out on this flick, but I do recommend it to other hardcore horror fans.

I can honestly say this is by far the worst movie I have ever seen and I have seen probably 10 times more films than others my age as a film professional.

It had no chance from the beginning, as it's script was consistent with the overall badness; not clever, no shape, no depth... It wasn't scary. It was just gross. Even the fake blood was done badly. The camera work and print quality was as bad as it gets too. It seemed that every instinct one would naturally have in order to make a good film, this filmmaker chose the opposite position, perhaps thinking it would make his work "original". In a world where it is difficult to be originally "good", he has achieved unmatched originality at being "bad".

Steve Warren, the star, is as creepy as he needs to be, but he has no room to make this thing stink less. The two young men co-stars were competing to see how far to one extreme to the other they could go with their emotional tones, from flat to overly animated, as if a lesson in what NOT to do.

One would think if it was so bad, one would at least be entertained by it in some bizarre way, but no, it was unbearable, impossible to watch, and sadly, I always watch a movie from beginning to end. In this case, I may need years of therapy to recover.

I can say there is one thing this film could do well; it can reduce your appetite. So, dieters, go for it, daily and get skinny.

This is the bastard son of Hostel and some stupid random cannibal movie. Bad acting, worse plot. The story is chock full of dumb clichés, weak plot points and stuff that just plain doesn't make sense. Characters behave in ways that only if they were written really badly would. Pointless shots of the bad guys being *bad*. The ending was a joke right? No one would actually make that dumb of an ending. Oh wait, I watched it, it did end like that. I have to say the effects were pretty good, it was gross and the gross was nicely done. Just not worth watching for that alone even if you are a grue hound. Stay away from this stinker.

Today I watched Scarce (2008), directed by Jesse T. Cook and John Geddes, a film about a group of snowboarders on vacation. During a snow storm they are forced to seek refuge, but little did they know they are safer out in the storm. The people who grant them refuge are cannibals, surviving on what they 'hunt' throughout the winter.

Overall a pointless film with a very slow start, but the effects were cool, especially because it was on a low budget. I mean, of course I only watched it for the blood; I wouldn't sit down and watch a film with that premise if I were looking for an intellectually challenging experience.