Scalps

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.

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.

Six young archeologists set off to the desert to find sacred Indian artifacts. One of the six becomes the spiritual embodiment of the infamous Black Claw and begins to murder(including scalping one) his friends. Though warned by an old Indian that shakes a lot, these kids cannot be stopped in their desire to drive down the road of motion picture obscurity. This film has next to no budget which compliments its acting, directorial, and other creative talents. Director Fred Olen Ray directed this early work, and although the film has so many problems, one can appreciate Ray's appreciation of the classic horror tradition. He gives meaningless roles to the serial Superman Kirk Alyn as a befuddled professor who sees the POINT-lessness of digging up sacred Native American artifacts in the end, a brief and purposeless cameo to Mr. Sci-fi himself, Forry Ackerman, and a small role to Carroll Borland from Mark of the Vampire fame. The six stars(being very judicious with that appellation)appear to be right out of a high school play. The only plusses any of them have is that the ladies, especially the gal playing Ellen Corman, have wonderful visual assets. The special effects are a big joke as nothing looks real or scary in any way. A puppet is occasionally popping up here and there to show us the disembodied spirit of Black Claw. Night and day readily change. One moment the players are at a campfire in blackness, another moment on a rock as the sun falls, and then back to the darkness all in the same evening. Black Claw is one hell of an Indian if he can manipulate time and space to make that happen! This film falls in the so bad it's entertaining category. I wasn't scalped after seeing it, but I probably lost a few more hairs!