Scar - A Marca do Mal

Mediocre warmed over torture-porn that isn't particularly awful, it's competent enough. But it's not that compelling I lost interest far before the boring little grue-fest movie ended. Some of the cast had been in much better genre film, Angela Bettis in the much superior "May" and Titus in the cult classic "Killer Klowns from Outer Space", both of which are much more worthy of your valuable time than this dreary number.

In the interest of full disclosure, seeing this on Netflix, it obviously wasn't the 3-D version, but I strongly feel it wouldn't affect my scoring of the movie that much

Eye Candy: Kristin Kowalski gets topless

Scar (2007): Slasher/Serial Killer flick.As a teen Joan was abducted and tortured by a serial killer who murdered her friend. She returns to her hometown to attend her niece's graduation but the killings begin again, body pops up in a a lake during the Town's Fish Festival. More teens go missing and Joan becomes a suspect. Typical incompetent cops. The film cuts between Joan as a teen and the present day. Really disturbing torture scenes. Not just stabbing but being drained of blood (takes place in a funeral home). Some interesting plot twists. Directed by Jack Weintrob & written by Zack Ford. On the Horror Channel. 6/10.

Maybe it's because I share a birthday with Angela Bettis but I tend to like things she's in more than a lot of people.

Whatever the reason (secretly I think it's the gore factor) I enjoy this movie.

If you're after great acting then this isn't the place however I really like the story.

Not for those with a weak constitution.

While driving to her hometown Ovid, Colorado, to visit her brother and local sheriff Jeff (Christopher Titus) and her niece Olympia (Kirby Bliss Blanton), Joan Burrows (Angela Bettis) recalls her traumatic experience with her best friend Susie (Tegan Moss) when they were teenagers. Joan (Brittney Wilson) and Susie are smoking pot in the cemetery and decide to snoop the caretaker Bishop (Ben Cotton) in the funeral home. Joan falls and hurts her knee, and Bishop invites the girls to enter in the house to clean the wound. Sooner they are sedated with chloroform and submitted to a cruel torture in a sick game where Bishop tells each girl to ask to kill the other to stop the suffering. When a copycat killer kills Olympia's friends, Joan tells the police officers that Bishop is back but nobody believes in her words. When Olympia is abducted, Officer Lucas (Chris Nannarone) actually believes that Joan has abducted her niece and might be the serial-killer.

"Scar" is an impressively gore and sadistic horror movie that follows the style of "Hostel" or "Saw". The story is reasonably well developed through flashbacks, but it is not difficult to guess the identity of the killer; the predictability is due to the few numbers of characters. I am a fan of the cult actress Angela Bettis, but in general the acting is good, highlighting Ben Cotton and Devon Graye. The special effects and make-up seems to be great, but I saw the DVD without the 3-D glasses and the image was completely blurred. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Scar – A Marca do Mal" ("Scar – The Mark of the Evil")

I just realize that my title/summary could be confused with my rating. It wasn't my intention. Originally I would've given the movie a 5/10, but in the end (of the movie), I was more disappointed by the opportunities it missed, than the not so bad 3-D things it had (although once you watch a 3-D movie in an IMAX theater, there's nothing that can compare to that experience).

The movie is standard horror fare, so to speak, with some nice actors (some beautiful, some talented). I even liked the fact, that the movie didn't try to squeeze a big 3-D moment from every scene. It would have annoyed me. On the other hand, I heard people complain, that it didn't really make much of it's 3-D. So there you go, two sides of a coin. Depends on which side you will look then.