Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

milosprole9 So, it's about six people where they go to the Californian wasteland to dig up around in an Indian burial ground for artifacts, and then they unleash the evil spirit. The spirit possesses one of the group and begins slaughtering them one by one. The plot sounds similar to The Evil Dead, right? It also reminded me on The Hills Have Eyes because of the location. Since The Evil Dead is successful low-budget horror film and well done, but is Scalps also good? No, it's not at all! It has a bad editing, ugly cinematography, terrible makeup, bad acting and ridiculously bad dialogues and lines. I didn't care for any character, they weren't memorable. I liked the ending though, it was a bit creepy. The plot is interesting, but this movie could have been MUCH better.I'm fine with it that it's really a bad movie, but it's somehow enjoyable and I could give it a 5/10, but it's way slow for filming while driving etc., so I gave it a 4/10.

BA_Harrison A professor of archaeology (played by '40s Superman star Kirk Alyn, in his last ever screen appearance) sends six of his college students on a field trip to the desert where they desecrate an ancient native American burial ground, much to the annoyance of an ugly Indian spirit called Black Claw, who possesses one of the group and proceeds to kill off the rest.Director Fred Olen Ray blames the distributors for ruining Scalps by messing around with the editing; but even if this wasn't the case, I still very much doubt that the film would have been much cop, given its predictable plot, lousy pacing, lack of scares, and crappy performances from a cast of nobodies (apart from Alyn, the only other recognisable name is renowned monster movie aficionado Forrest J. Ackerman, who is clearly there to plug his latest book, Mr Monster's Movie Gold).A few semi-decent gore effects—including a slashed throat, a grisly scalping, and a juicy decapitation—make the second half of the film marginally more interesting than the uneventful first half.3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 4 for IMDb thanks to the hilariously bad animatronic lion-man, which was apparently one of the things added by the distributors against Olen Ray's wishes.

Woodyanders A group of college students find themselves being terrorized by the lethal spirit of the evil Black Crow (Richard Hench in grotesque make-up) while digging for artifacts in an ancient Native American burial ground.While this film suffers from sluggish pacing, a drawn-out opening act, and the unfortunate fact that the distributors recut the movie with flash forwards that give away the fates of most of the characters well in advance (thereby undermining any real tension this picture might have otherwise had), writer/director Fred Olen Ray nonetheless still deserves credit for making nice use of the desolate desert locations, maintaining a grimly serious tone throughout, doing a solid job of crafting a brooding gloom-doom atmosphere, and delivering plenty of nasty gore that includes a brutal scalping and a juicy decapitation. The acceptable acting from the competent cast holds the movie together, with Jo-Ann Robinson in particular a definite stand-out with her sweet and appealing portrayal of the perky D.J. Moreover, there are nice bits by Kirk Alyn as amiable old duffer Professor Machen, Carroll Borland as Machen's huffy superior Dr. Sharon Reynolds, and Forrest J. Ackerman as the bumbling Professor Trentwood. The cinematography by Larry Van Loon and Cynthia Webster makes occasional effective use of a dynamic hand-held camera. The shuddery synthesizer by Drew Neumann and Eric Rasmussen hits the skin-crawling spot. No classic, but worth a watch for dedicated fans of 80's low-budget indie fright fare.

Tikkin 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.