Scalps

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.

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.

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 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.

If you want a fine example of 'bare bones (horror) film-making', "Scalps" is just as fine as any example. Not that it's a fine film, mind you. Everything about it, is rudimentary. Like if it was made by a brute. It looks like the editing was done with an axe, first having the film chopped to pieces and then glued together with Pattex super-glue. The camera work is limited to pointing it where the actor is when he speaks his lines (or when he does something). The audio work was limited to making sure it was at least recorded. This makes up for background noises being very inconsistent during simple conversations, when the camera switches angles. In an attempt to cover up the sloppy sound, you get many scenes where the musical score continues to play throughout several scenes where it doesn't even belong. While this becomes ridiculous too often, the score itself does have its moments. It's minimalistic and electronic, and at times manages to enhance the desert landscapes with an ominous atmosphere.

Essentially, "Scalps" plays out like mixing an ordinary slasher flick with an "Evil Dead"-ish 'vengeful spirits'-theme, set in a desert à la "The Hills Have Eyes" (at one point it even seems Fred copied the exact same 'passing through a tunnel with a car'-scene from the first "Evil Dead"). A group of young archaeologists set out to excavate an Indian burial ground. We all know you should stay away from such sites when you're starring in a horror movie. One directed by Fred Olen Ray, no less, so thankfully that also means naked boobs and gore... The boobs at display are fine, the attempted rape-scene too (yes, the spirits they awaken are not only angry, but also horny). The gore at display, while being raw and not of a high technical standard, is pretty cool too (heads being decapitated & scalped, throats being cut,...). It's bloody but very basic, yet not without charm. You can include not-so-effective 'possessed' make-up effects in the gamma, and one, incredibly puzzling appearance of a ghostly demon dude with an animatronic lion's head. A great source of incomprehensible laughter, but afterwards I learned that this was test-footage Fred never intended to edit into the movie. His producers decided otherwise. Another highlight in the SFX department is the exploding ghostly Indian head. Its evil, floating influence is felt & seen numerous times throughout the movie (not sure if that was intended either), but at one point it makes the stupid mistake to appear amidst a crispy campfire. Boom! Bye bye, ghostly Indian head. Good stuff.

The film's pace is pretty damn slow; obviously, as we're dealing with an early 80's slasher here. The performances aren't very convincing, as to be expected, but the young cast does manage to say things with a straight face. And that in itself is an accomplishment, as most of the dialogues are clichéd-driven, moronic drap. However, one girl manages to utter the most memorable line from the whole film: "Defiling the graves of the dead will only anger their souls!". Upon hearing it, it spontaneously evokes the viewer's urge to repeat it with a more firm, low-pitched, threatening voice. And so we did. Hilarity ensued.

I think that sums up about everything there is to say about Fred Olen Ray's "Scalps". He does try to make a serious-toned supernatural slasher, but delivers an inept piece of bare bones film-making. It's notable for the rudimentary gore effects and the occasionally atmospheric soundtrack. But, as so it goes with most of his other 80's horror/sci-fi outings, it's advisable to watch it with friends. That way you can have more fun with the 'bad movie qualities' it has. Make this film better, and share the laughter. And then go right ahead and watch his honest-to-god "Alien" cash-in "Deep Space" too. By then (1988), Fred had already learned to pick up the pace of a film, understood that his films needed more slimy tentacles & grotesque monster action and very well gained the budgetary means to hire The Great Charles Napier ("I've got a mouth that can open sideways too!") to spear-head the cast. It's the one film that proudly managed to put him on my B-movie map in my early days. If you really need to see one Fred Olen Ray film, then watch "Deep Space".