"Scalps" is a pretty decent, if overall unspectacular slasher.
**SPOILERS**
Heading out to the desert, archeology students D.J., (Jo-Ann Robinson) Randy, (Richard Hench) Kershaw Ellerbe, (Roger Maycock) Ben Murphy, (Frank McDonald) Louise Landon, (Carol Sue Flockhart) and Ellen Corman, (Barbara Magnusson) prepare for a field trip assignment. Using local maps, they try to locate a burial ground that contained Native American remains for them to study. Finding the proposed site to study, they come across an old Indian legend concerning the movement of artifacts and bones from their graves would unleash the spirit of a warrior from it's resting place. As they manage to get the bones out of the ground, they suddenly find a series of strange events befall them and come to the realization that the stories were right and are now being stalking by a maniacal killer, who could be one of the students possessed.
The Good News: This one here does have a couple of rather nice areas that work. One of the main ones is that this one decides to forgo the usual matter of having it be an Indian burial ground and instead uses the storyline of making the artifacts removed from their land bring about the curse. That offers up a little amount of ingenuity, and makes for some really tense moments when the group begins digging up the grounds knowing full well that it will lead to them getting killed off. Those are quite fun and do have some nice amounts of tension to them. The kills themselves aren't terrible and do offer up some pretty gory moments. One is whacked in the head with a tomahawk, another has an arrow shot into their eye at close range, another has their throat slit before being scalped, all done in extreme close-up and another has a slew of arrows shot into their back and legs, among others. These here do spill a lot more blood than expected, which allows them to have some appeal to the gore-hounds out there. The final half-hour, which is where ninety-five percent of the action takes place, is a lot of fun. It's fast-paced, contains all the best scenes and kills, and is something that allows for plenty of fun to be had. The other good part is all of the pop-up scare tactics where the head of a deformed Indian head appears out of nowhere to offer up a few nice scenes. The fire-pit is the best one, since it's the best out-of-nowhere gag among them, and really works nicely. These here make the film watchable.
The Bad News: This one isn't that bad, but it does have a couple of rather important flaws to it. The first one is the fact that this one takes so long to get going. After the opening murder, this one takes until the forty-five minute mark to knock off another, and that is just way too long for the film. That leaves unending scenes of them complaining to no end about the seriousness of what they're doing and how it will come back to hurt them. Those scenes are just irritating, no less as the heroine is the one complaining about it, and rather than trying to take the obvious route or reasoning with the others, this one decides to have them focus on just ranting out a long series of statements that are supposed to get the viewer to side with the heroine, as they're arguing for the right cause, but this is done in such the wrong way that it finally gets too much and those scenes are annoying to watch and just make the film a chore to sit through when they're on. Those also hurt the film due to it's length, as this one could've really been stretched out a little longer. The fact that it doesn't even make eighty minutes is something of concern, as there's a little more that could've been done to make the film a little longer without it feeling stretched out at all. The confusing way it ends is something else, and when viewed, it will be obvious what is being criticized since it's easy to spot and makes for a rather head-scratching moment. These few areas here are what keep the film down.
The Final Verdict: While this one isn't that terrible as far as slashers go, the incredibly long period of time in between activity is what hurts this one the most. See this one only if you're a hardcore slasher fanatic or have a need to see trashy films, otherwise there's much better ones out there to see rather than this one.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language, Brief Nudity and Rape
**SPOILERS**
Heading out to the desert, archeology students D.J., (Jo-Ann Robinson) Randy, (Richard Hench) Kershaw Ellerbe, (Roger Maycock) Ben Murphy, (Frank McDonald) Louise Landon, (Carol Sue Flockhart) and Ellen Corman, (Barbara Magnusson) prepare for a field trip assignment. Using local maps, they try to locate a burial ground that contained Native American remains for them to study. Finding the proposed site to study, they come across an old Indian legend concerning the movement of artifacts and bones from their graves would unleash the spirit of a warrior from it's resting place. As they manage to get the bones out of the ground, they suddenly find a series of strange events befall them and come to the realization that the stories were right and are now being stalking by a maniacal killer, who could be one of the students possessed.
The Good News: This one here does have a couple of rather nice areas that work. One of the main ones is that this one decides to forgo the usual matter of having it be an Indian burial ground and instead uses the storyline of making the artifacts removed from their land bring about the curse. That offers up a little amount of ingenuity, and makes for some really tense moments when the group begins digging up the grounds knowing full well that it will lead to them getting killed off. Those are quite fun and do have some nice amounts of tension to them. The kills themselves aren't terrible and do offer up some pretty gory moments. One is whacked in the head with a tomahawk, another has an arrow shot into their eye at close range, another has their throat slit before being scalped, all done in extreme close-up and another has a slew of arrows shot into their back and legs, among others. These here do spill a lot more blood than expected, which allows them to have some appeal to the gore-hounds out there. The final half-hour, which is where ninety-five percent of the action takes place, is a lot of fun. It's fast-paced, contains all the best scenes and kills, and is something that allows for plenty of fun to be had. The other good part is all of the pop-up scare tactics where the head of a deformed Indian head appears out of nowhere to offer up a few nice scenes. The fire-pit is the best one, since it's the best out-of-nowhere gag among them, and really works nicely. These here make the film watchable.
The Bad News: This one isn't that bad, but it does have a couple of rather important flaws to it. The first one is the fact that this one takes so long to get going. After the opening murder, this one takes until the forty-five minute mark to knock off another, and that is just way too long for the film. That leaves unending scenes of them complaining to no end about the seriousness of what they're doing and how it will come back to hurt them. Those scenes are just irritating, no less as the heroine is the one complaining about it, and rather than trying to take the obvious route or reasoning with the others, this one decides to have them focus on just ranting out a long series of statements that are supposed to get the viewer to side with the heroine, as they're arguing for the right cause, but this is done in such the wrong way that it finally gets too much and those scenes are annoying to watch and just make the film a chore to sit through when they're on. Those also hurt the film due to it's length, as this one could've really been stretched out a little longer. The fact that it doesn't even make eighty minutes is something of concern, as there's a little more that could've been done to make the film a little longer without it feeling stretched out at all. The confusing way it ends is something else, and when viewed, it will be obvious what is being criticized since it's easy to spot and makes for a rather head-scratching moment. These few areas here are what keep the film down.
The Final Verdict: While this one isn't that terrible as far as slashers go, the incredibly long period of time in between activity is what hurts this one the most. See this one only if you're a hardcore slasher fanatic or have a need to see trashy films, otherwise there's much better ones out there to see rather than this one.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language, Brief Nudity and Rape