SCAR (SCAR 3D)
US, 2007, 90 minutes, Colour.
Angela Bettis, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Devon Graye, Ben Cotton.
Directed by Jed Weintrob.
No, it's not a sequel to The Lion King (if only it were!).
This is just another of the torture terror films that have become popular with some audiences in recent years (the Hostel films, Captivity...). They require both strong stomachs and fortitude to sit through, especially the torture scenes where young women are, as here, sliced by a psychotic young man. While the film is obviously made to capitalise on 3D shock effects and blood spattering, it actually doesn't. The audience may experience morbid temptations to speculate how the makers could have really exploited the 3D blood and gore.
A little bit more effort has gone into creating some characters. A young teenager, Joan, was tortured by a funeral home worker and made to take responsibility for his killing her friend. When Joan returns to her home town as an adult, it all happens again for her niece. In a macabre scene, we see that the new funeral director has set up a museum in the home which titillates tourists with the gory story (just as we are as we sit in the audience). The new killer is not hard to pick (and, ironically, one of his excuses for his behaviour is that his father was in Iraq and tortured prisoners – but two wrongs don't make a right).
As in the Friday the 13th tradition, a number of people start disappearing and turning up dead. Not at all a 'must-see'.
1.The popularity of the torture-horror films? The quality of this entry?
2.The use of 3-D cameras? Exploiting the 3-D effect or not? For horror purposes?
3.The American town, the past, the present? The characters, the horror? In an ordinary and realistic context?
4.Joan Burrows: her past, teenager, her friend, going to the funeral home, the encounter with Bishop? The two girls disappearing, being tied up and tortured? Bishop’s game – making each responsible for the other’s death? Joan giving in to her friend’s death? Her getting free, the attack on Bishop, killing him? Her return to the town as an adult? Her brother, the sheriff? Her niece, Olympia? Her being afraid, trying to get over it? Joining in the town life? Care for Olympia? Her going to the funeral home to purge her fear, hearing the sounds, the tourists, the funeral home as a museum of her suffering? Her encounters with Paul, her supporting Olympia’s friendship with him? The discovery of Olympia in the cellar, the repetition of the experience? Her being tied up, Paul’s words to her? Her getting free, the attack on Paul, his death, her rescuing Olympia?
5.The present, school, high school and the final year? Dating, socials, the dance? Olympia, Sandra, the parties? Her relationship with her father? The friendship with Paul, going to his house, discussions with him? The disappearance of her friends, of Sandra? Her being taken, Paul torturing her? Wanting her to take responsibility for Joan’s death? Her escape?
6.The young people, Sandra and her liveliness, her friendship with Olympia, being abducted, her death? The young couple, the boy and his reservations, the deaths of the two – and Paul and his story about their pleading?
7.Paul, his father a torturer in Iraq, his shyness? Meeting Olympia, agreeable? Going to the hospital, his concern? The revelation of his madness, imitating Bishop? His words, reasons, his death?
8.The number of deaths – especially the sheriff and his concern? The role of the police? Their suspicions of Joan, circumstantial evidence, her arrest, prison? Paul enabling her to escape? Her tracking him down?
9.Audience response to such torture films, the young men torturing women? The close-ups and the brutality? The 3-D effect?
