Scarred (DVD)

Like a female Leatherface or Buffalo Bill, the villain in Scarred just wants a little face time. She’s a speechless, hideous creature who lives off the land in an isolated area of the woods and has obviously never come in contact with a comb or a mirror. But hey, she’s a woman and apparently she’s got her vanity, because every time she spies a pretty camper, she slices the victim’s face off with a hunting knife and plasters it over her own.

In the beginning we’re introduced to a dysfunctional family who’ve decided to go camping in hopes of bonding, but wind up boning (dad and new trophy wife get busy; brother makes it with sister’s best friend; and sis plays twister with the park ranger), getting drunk, and of course losing their lives.

There are tons of clichés in Scarred and unfortunately it’s not even a self-aware homage to the slashers of yore, but it moves along at a decent clip and doesn’t skimp on the gore. The killer is given a reasonably plausible motive for her homicidal tendencies (as explained by the ranger around a campfire in the dead of night, naturally — and shown in flashback, of course), but she’s not terribly memorable or particularly scary.

This straight-to-disc slasher is not a great movie by any stretch, but having reviewed hundreds of such flicks this year it’s not even close to the worst I’ve seen. It’s a worth a look if you like the killer-in-the-woods theme and you’ve already seen everything else in the video store.

= = =

Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson