Scarred is a movie that should've been made in the 80's. Directing/Writing team Jon Hoffman and Dave Rock hit all the by-the-book slasher notes - there's scenes of the killer watching from the trees, a looney doomsayer who mutters "violence is a sin", a script that purposely separates characters to make them easier pickings, and it even starts off with the typical "drunk couple making out in the woods are attacked and killed by a psycho" - and the entire movie is watchable for what it is and competently shot on a low-budget to boot.

The Henson family setout on what's supposed to be a pretty normal little camping trip. It's a way for dad to try and get his teenage kids to try and bond with their new stepmother, which might prove a little bit difficult since she's only a handful of years older than they are. Ben (Jonny Mack) is the slacker-type brother, Kim (Julian Berlin) is his mean-spirited sister who hates her step mom, and Alex (Charity Shea) is Kim's best friend who also happens to like Ben. It promises to be a weekend filled with family events and the kids sneaking off to get wasted.

Along comes park ranger Jesse (David Austin) who really eases the minds of our campers by telling them the story of an abusive drunk moonshiner who's wife had a fling with a trapper (who has a boil-filled face) that ends-up with her having a daughter with the same condition. In a rage one evening good old day decides to cut off the youngsters face (that's some morbid shit right there!) and after offing his wife and himself, the girl is forced to live in the woods. Now she's all grown-up and it's rumoured she's wandering the woods ready to kill for a new face.

Turns out the entire thing was true and while the kids split-up from the parents in order to have some fun - in fact, Kim sets her sights on the ranger looking for some cheap thrills - people start getting killed off one-by-one by our raving, deformed maniac who enjoys making guttural growls at her victims before pouncing on them. It's just too bad most of the deaths occur off-screen and the movie cops out on the skin quota as the rest of the movie plays out like all the 80's slashers that glutted the market after the success of Friday The 13th.

Scarred gets it's first two-thirds right in a "cheesy slasher movie" way, it's just too bad that the finale is just plain silly and the weakest thing here and despite containing a fair amount of bloodshed, the entire last act is filled with lame scenes of the ranger and his "girl" tooling around on an ATV, the Ben character annoyingly screeching like a little bitch, and a goofy confrontation where Kim figures out that, to use a hoary cliché, that beauty may just kill the beast.

If you're looking for a dopey and pretty entertaining slasher flick you could do a lot worse than Scarred - it's got a crappy final third, it insists on opening and closing with some lame death metal that all indie horror flicks seem to favour, the killer is goofy looking with so-so make-up, and some of the line readings are wooden as they come; but it's an alright throwback that's decently done and acted fairly well by the amateur cast (Shea makes the best impression and is pretty cute as well). (Chris Hartley, 2/28/06)

Directed By: Jon Hoffman, Dave Rock.
Written By: Jon Hoffman, Dave Rock.

Starring: Hannah Leigh, Julian Berlin, Jonny Mack, Charity Shea.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Scarred is pretty low-budget but the transfer here looks fine. It handles the bright daytime scenes well, even if it's a little less stable during the many night scenes. It's also free of grain.

Extras: The screener disc I recieved only contained a trailer, but the retail release is supposed to also contain a deleted scene and commentary from Hoffman and Rock.