Scar (2008)

Do you remember my ‘Top 11 Movie Villains’ list had Angela Bettis (as May) at number three? Well it’s about time I actually saw her in something else! And what better film to do alongside ‘The Human Centipede’ films and ‘Feed’, than her 2008 film ‘Scar’. By the way in case you haven’t noticed, I am listing films under their UK release.

Anyway, ‘Scar’ follows Joan Burrows (Angela Bettis), a survivor of serial killer Bishop (Ben Cotton); a killer who takes two people hostage and tortures them one at a time until one of the hostages tells him to kill the other. Interesting premise, no?

Yeah, there is no problem with the plot, the plot is fine. It’s your standard Scooby Doo plot, there’s a killer around and everyone’s trying to find out who’s behind it. Joan thinks it’s Bishop, but it obviously isn’t since he’s dead. Believe me, not only is it obvious that the Bishop character is dead in ‘present’ day, but the characters say it nearly all the time. Also Joan, it is very hard for someone to recover from having their body drained dry. Then again this is the same woman who shouted at cops that ‘Bishop’ is getting away...while holding a knife...covered in blood.

I was trying to wait till later to say this, but I can’t really continue without saying it. The film’s plot is interesting, but, the film itself is so utterly dull, there’s no denying it. The characters are either dull or infuriating, the chemistry between them is non-existent, the pace is slow, the dialogue is bland, I just couldn’t find the film interesting. And I tried, I really did, I really wanted to like this film, but I couldn’t find anything appealing.

Well, okay, I lied, I found one appealing thing. Jeff, played by Christopher Titus, was a great character, Titus did a fantastic job playing him. He was the one character you hoped didn’t kick the bucket, whereas everyone else was just...meh, mainly because the acting is mainly half-arsed. You don’t like the other characters enough to care about them, and you don’t hate them enough to despise them. Well, except for Olympia’s (Kirby Bliss Santon) best friend...whoever that was, Sandra (Monika Mar-Lee) that’s it, I hated her. And there was whoever wanted to smoke pot and have her religious boyfriend, Howard (Brandon Jay McLaren) to have sex, I hated her too.

Apart from Sheriff Jeff, there is also Bishop. Again, like Titus, Ben Cotton did a really good job playing him, even if he only had a grand total of roughly twenty minutes screen time. Also, I’d like to have had more time with Howard, he seemed a really interesting character. But we only got three minutes? Maybe four of screen time involving him, which I thought was a real shame. The girls in the flashback scenes (Brittney Wilson and Tegan Moss) also gave great performances.

Now as mentioned the film has a slow pace, which, for a film that IMDB has classed as ‘crime’, you’d think would be okay. You’d think there’d be time for character development. No. That doesn’t happen. We get obvious dream sequences (Well, in what sort of reality would someone go for a jog in the middle of the night when there’s a killer on the loose?), and we have Joan constantly go to Bishop’s old house when it’s obvious that A. The murders obviously aren’t taking place there (I’m sure someone would’ve noticed blood stains and a heavily injured person in what is now a museum) and B. The police have already checked it.

It’s also predictable as well. You can tell when things are going to happen and can easily narrow down who the killer is. Hell, now that I think about it, you can tell who the killer is the second the character is introduced. Honestly though, I did think someone else was the killer, mainly because it would’ve made more sense and have been more interesting. Especially when one of the victims was still alive when found, meaning that the killer literally just did it without anyone seeing the incident. If you’d like to debate who you thought would’ve made a better killer just comment below.

Now, apparently when this film was first screened, one man fell unconscious and paramedics were called, whilst another person ran out the theatre and threw up. Honestly, I don’t see why. Pretty much 80% of the gore you’d expect in this is offscreen. Compared to films like ‘Hostel’, this film had nothing. Hell, say what you want about ‘The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence), but at least Tom Six was a man of his word and gave us a huge amount of gore. ‘Scar’ gives us two torture scenes, both of which were pretty sub-par for a horror film.

In its defence, the early screenings were in 3D, something which my DVD copy didn’t have, so the gore was probably more effective. There’s also a girl whose tongue is cut out, someone who gets cut by an electric saw, and someone who cuts off her thumb. Then again I found it quite far-fetched that this person cut off through flesh, cut through muscle and cut through bone, with a shard of glass in the matter of ten seconds, let alone not go into shock.

The killer did also yank teeth out, as stated by the back of the box. Actually, no, the killer threatens to take a hammer and chisel to some teeth. Threatens, not does. That was actually the one thing I was looking forward to after reading the back of the box, and it didn’t happen! Even the UK cut of ‘The Human Centipede 2’ had that!

For a film with a low budget though, it does pull off a decent film, and the cinematography and lack of bright colours pull of a surprising success. But, again, I just found it so dull. For what should have been somewhat a success, a predictable plot, some barely adequate acting and sluggish pace results in a disappointment. It’s definitely not the best film in the world, but, while I didn’t, you may enjoy it. Give it a shot.