{"id":1451,"date":"2024-07-30T19:36:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T19:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1451"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:58:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:58:38","slug":"scalps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/30\/scalps\/","title":{"rendered":"Scalps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Scalps <\/strong>(1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 21st<\/sup> Century Film Corporation\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 82 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic violence, language, nudity, attempted rape)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Fred Olen Ray\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Fred Olen Ray\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Drew Neumann and Eric Rasmussen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Larry Van Loon and Cynthia Webster\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 2, 1983 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jo Ann Robinson, Richard Hench, Roger Maycock, Frank McDonald, Carol Sue Flockhart, Barbara Magnusson, Kirk Alyn, Carroll Borland, Cynthia Hartline, Forrest J. Ackerman, George Randall, Jay Walker, Frank Scott.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: NO STARS!!!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Don\u2019t go messing around in old Indian burial grounds, especially ones with a curse on them (which seems to be all of them). It\u2019s not rocket science; it\u2019s common sense, a trait lacking among the six addle-brained archeology students in Scalps<\/strong>, a wretched horror movie from writer-director Fred Olen Ray (Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers). They\u2019re told by their professor not to go digging around for artifacts. They\u2019ve warned by an old (drunken) Native American to stay away from the cursed place. There\u2019s even a law on the books prohibiting such activity. No matter, the dummies do it anyway. In doing so, they\u2019ve put themselves in a world of you-know-what. So that\u2019s what I kept smelling during Scalps<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

\u00a0We\u2019ve reached the point in my review where I typically describe the plot. I\u2019ve already given you a good idea of what it\u2019s about; now let\u2019s fill a few blanks. The six college students in question are Ben (McDonald), Ellen (Magnusson), Randy (Hench), Louise (Flockhart), Kershaw (Maycock) and DJ (Robinson). They\u2019re going on a weekend field trip to collect rocks. When their professor is unavoidably delayed, they set off by themselves. Despite several warnings, they start digging in a place called \u201cBlack Trees\u201d. They unearth an artifact that unleashes an evil, vengeful Indian spirit. One dumb kid gets possessed and kills the others. THE END.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Video Den (my teenage video store hangout) had a section called \u201cSo Bad I Can\u2019t Believe I Rented It\u201d reserved for the worst of the worst. It offered such gems as Weekend Pass and Can She Bake a Cherry Pie at the low, LOW price of 99 cents a night. In the case of Scalps<\/strong>, easily one of the worst movies I\u2019ve ever seen, it would be an overcharge. I can\u2019t see paying any amount of money to sit through this miserable excuse for a movie. It doesn\u2019t just give horror a bad name, it gives cinema a bad name. It doesn\u2019t even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as cinema. That would imply it deserves to be in the company of esteemed titles like Robot Monster, The Creeping Terror and The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t. Its rightful place is the trash heap. WHY OH WHY DID I WATCH IT?!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Total ineptitude is on display on every imaginable level in Scalps<\/strong>. It can also be seen on levels that haven\u2019t been discovered yet. I honestly can\u2019t believe somebody gave the green light to release it in its present form. To be fair, Ray isn\u2019t entirely to blame for this mess. According to the filmmaker, it was the studio\u2019s doing. They took the cut he turned in and re-cut it, throwing in all the trims and cuts in places where they made no sense. Well, that explains some of the editing but the rest of Scalps<\/strong> is on Ray. Take the sound. It\u2019s badly recorded. Much of the time, the score drowns out the dialogue. Other times, it\u2019s too muffled to make out what the actors are saying. When you can hear what\u2019s being said, you realize that not being able to hear the dialogue is a blessing in disguise. It\u2019s terrible which is bad enough in and of itself. Now add to that the total lack of acting ability among the cast, none of whom appear capable of acting their way out of a wet paper bag. It\u2019d be pointless to single anyone out since they\u2019re equally awful so why don\u2019t we leave it at this and move on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You may have noticed that I didn\u2019t name the actor who plays the professor. That was by design. I want to use it to make my next point about Scalps<\/strong>. It\u2019s not unusual to see some veteran actor looking to keep his or her career alive pop up in one of these slasher flicks. Prominent (and non-prominent) examples include Glenn Ford (The Big Heat) in Happy Birthday to Me, Jackie Coogan (The Kid) in The Prey, Farley Granger (Strangers on a Train) in The Prowler and Jose Ferrer (Cyrano de Bergerac) in Bloody Birthday. I guess you could also include Joan Crawford (Mildred Pierce) in Trog and Veronica Lake (The Blue Dahlia) in Flesh Feast. In Scalps<\/strong>, that dubious honor goes to Kirk Alyn, the first actor to play Superman. He didn\u2019t have much of a career to begin with; about half his roles are uncredited ones. I\u2019m guessing he\u2019s the only vet actor Ray could afford. The only other person of note in Scalps<\/strong> is magazine editor\/sci-fi aficionado Forrest J. Ackerman as a colleague of the professor played by Alyn. That he\u2019s carrying a sci-fi magazine in his one scene is the closest this movie comes to being even remotely clever.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The cinematography is strictly Skid Row level. To call it amateurish would be giving Scalps<\/strong> too much credit because even an amateur is capable of focusing a camera. I expect that\u2019s taught in Intro to Photography. It gets blurry more than once in Scalps<\/strong> which is another blessing in disguise. It doesn\u2019t look much better in focus. It looks cheap, dirt cheap. Cruddy is another good descriptive term. The makeup effects are totally unconvincing. There are a couple of decent gory scenes but they too look fake. The score, which seems to play non-stop, is just annoying.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s not a single artistic or technical aspect indicating that anybody involved with Scalps<\/strong> has a shred of ability, talent or intelligence. I haven\u2019t seen anything this incompetent since…. well, NEVER! I get that it\u2019s an independent movie. Hey, I\u2019m a strong supporter of independent filmmaking. I have a lot of respect for filmmakers who try to squeeze a dollar out of a dime in order to realize their vision. However, effort doesn\u2019t always yield positive results no matter how noble. It takes ability and even though Ray went on to success as a cult horror filmmaker, there\u2019s none on display in Scalps<\/strong>. It is absolutely unwatchable at ANY price. I demand my 82 minutes back… NOW!!!\"\"<\/p>\n

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Scalps (1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 21st Century Film Corporation\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 82 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic violence, language, nudity, attempted rape)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Fred Olen Ray\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Fred Olen Ray\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Drew Neumann and Eric Rasmussen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Larry Van Loon and Cynthia Webster\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 2, 1983 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jo Ann Robinson, Richard Hench, Roger Maycock, Frank McDonald, Carol […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Scalps-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2018,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451\/revisions\/2018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}