Customer Reviews

Scarce

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The acting is really bad so please do not expect to watch this and get real emotion...most of the emotion was rather flat and the pace is very very slow. Nothing seems to happen for a while. A group of friends go to a party, they drink, get stoned, hook up with a girl and pass out. The friends wake up the next morning and start driving home, more driving, driving in heavier snow while the friends perform a flat wooden dialogue. After a while the friends to pull over and eat...then they get back in the car and drive. Nothing much happens until they meet Ivan and thus ensues a predictable series of events. Yep, there is gore. No, there is not any edge of your seat suspense.

Where to begin...

Well, It was "SCARCE" and boring in the beginning but when it decided it pick up it was full speed ahead.To the person who's review said there wasn't enough gore , Are you kidding me ?

This movie will satisfy the most avid splatter or slasher fan.Trust me when I say there is plenty of gore.

I, being a huge lover of the cannibalistic redneck Slasher sub Genre was surprised that I had never heard of this movie before ,so when I read the synopsis thought ok sounds good.

It was very entertaining that's for sure.There were a lot of Gay S&M undertones involved,one scene showing this fat emfeminent redneck playing with a D*ldo and waving it around one dudes mouth then trying to poke another that was hog tied in the behind with it..

Some pretty crazy stuff going on.The effects were good and there were a lot of Gross out moments.If you discard the first 30 or so minutes it was a well crafted, clever The Hills Have Eyes meets Deliverance Meets Shredder Slasher..

Three friends cross the path of a group of dedicated meat lovers, in the snowy back country of Pennsylvania, in the suspense thriller Scarce (2008). A low budget independent production shot in mostly in Canada, the film plays out mostly seriously, but has a dark humorous edge that begins to wear thin after a while. Major spoilers follow, so proceed as you will.

After vacationing in Colorado, snowboarding buddies Dustin (Thomas Webb), Owen (John Geddes), and Trevor (Jesse T. Cook), are headed back to New Jersey, when they hit bad weather someplace in Pennsylvania. The group follows directions from a man in a restaurant, and wind up crashing their car. Trevor has severely injured his leg, so his friends trudge off in the snow to find help. They arrive at a cabin owned by a fellow named Ivan (Steve Warren), who drives them back to their car, where they find that Trevor is gone. With bad weather on the way, the two men accept Ivan's invitation to stay for the night.

Things turn nasty the next day, when the two men are ambushed, and imprisoned in Ivan's cellar. There they meet Ivan's ghoulish masked partner in crime, Wade (Gary Fischer). The captors both dearly love the taste of fresh human flesh, and intend to eat their captives. Already a prisoner is their buddy Trevor, who has had some of his flesh sliced from his back, to provide for his friend's dinner the night before. Ivan and Wade decide to finish off Trevor, and he is shot, hung upside down, bled out, butchered, and cooked for dinner.

After being tortured and abused, Dustin and Owen are turned loose in the snow to be hunted down. Barefoot and scantily dressed, the chase through the snow is unrealistic, but still the most exciting thing about the film. Fortunately Ivan is a terrible shot with a rifle. Dustin is recaptured, but Owen has the good fortune of finding their wrecked car, where he gets on some suitable clothing, and grabs a handgun. Returning to Ivan's cabin, Owen wastes a ton of ammo gunning down a third member of the cannibal group (Chris Warrilow), while Dustin takes a chunk out of Ivan. Unfortunately for Owen, his wastefulness with ammo literally comes back to bite him.

Besides acting in the film, John Geddes and Jesse T. Cook co-wrote the screenplay, and also co-directed. Featuring a crazy hermit in a cabin, Scarce has a basic plot that is executed fairly well, with the violence being fairly restrained until the end. Since there aren't many kills or a lot of gore, suspense becomes an important factor, but with the villains, especially Ivan, overplaying their roles to almost comical extents, some of tension is drained away. For a cast with mostly limited experience, the acting is passable, although often cartoonish when the writing gets heavy handed. The ending is quite grim, with the food supply for the winter apparently in good shape, but the hero makes some dumb decisions that contribute to his fate. The themes found here will be familiar to fans of the backwoods terror genre, but the snowy winter setting may make for an interesting change of scenery.

The DVD has an informative making of featurette, and credit is certainly earned by the cast and crew for braving the elements in making the film. John Geddes and Jesse Cook provide an informative and intelligent commentary track. The DVD is not subtitled.

Scarce is the story of three guys, traveling across country, who get lost and wind up in hillbilly hell. You might already be saying, "Okay, I've seen this before." But wait! This one actually has some qualities (if you can call them that) that make it stand out and take a respectable place on the must-see list of such movies. While the title may indeed be scarce, it is certainly one to seek out.

Scarce gets off to a good start with a naked man drenched in blood, running frantically through the woods, attempting to escape something or someone unknown. From there, the movie switches to a lame party scene, loaded with goofy dialogue and behavior that insults even the most brainless party-going types we see in such movies. At the party, the fast women are too fast, and the libido-loaded men are sometimes ironically too slow. Sex and nudity are there just for the sake of being there, and fan service is the likely goal. Judging from the credits, the director knows what he's doing here and intends every bit of it. Some characters from the party are even named "Gratuitous _______ #1 and #2" in the credits. I'll leave it for you to discover what goes in the blank.

After the brainless party scene, the movie speeds up again and makes up for the slow time earlier. It's as if the viewer is suddenly watching a different movie. The tone becomes more serious, and the actors even seem to act better, or at least more "professional". Yes, after the party, it's full speed to the slaughter!

The performance of Steve Warren (who plays Ivan) is what really makes this movie stand out, in my opinion. From his first appearance, smiling proudly with rotten teeth, we know we're in for a treat. This guy is creepy, even when he's trying to be "normal". I'm not sure if it's bad acting that coincidentally works for this character, or if Warren does it all with the calculated finesse of a seasoned professional. In any case, he nails the part from the start. This guy is a true caricature of a rotten-toothed, down-home hillbilly, naïve only in outward appearances. He has the stereotypic behind-your-back stare of a killer down to an art, as well as the fuax-normal behavior you'd expect from a backwoods deviant up to no good. Yes, this guy personifies a sense of dread about what's coming, from the moment he shows up. From there, it's hard for audiences of this film to be disappointed.

Refreshingly, after the opening party scene, there are no more people doing anything particularly dumb. The deviants do what deviants do, and the party-going guys do what all party-going guys do when they get caught by deviants. They start acting like they have some sense, or at least develop a maturity about trying to escape and avoid death. (Yes, it's amazing what a little selfish drive to survive will do to even the most witless of party fiends.) As a matter of fact, the later realism is an effective, ironic contrast to the moronic behavior earlier. It somehow makes the movie seem even more real, for better or worse. For example, while the victims are running for extended time through actual snow, they are also actually barefoot and half-dressed, falling in the snow, and surely also as cold as they look. The viewer can nearly feel the pain in such scenes. Yes, I actually felt cold just watching it!

As for ironic contrasts that increase impact, there are also the dry but obvious doses of dark humor throughout. For example, Ivan's line about the ultimate fate of his victims (repeated just before the credits role) is an example of the darkest of cult-film dialogue. This line alone is likely to live on for some time in the minds of most viewers. I won't repeat it here for more than a few good reasons.

As for the expected blood and gore, there is more than plenty. Yes, the gore is even gratuitous here, in as much as it can be gratuitous in such a movie. There is cannibalism, as well as graphic depictions of what cannibals do to prepare a meal. We don't just hear the cleaver chop; we also see what it chops. Yes, the scenes linger on the gore, letting the viewers soak it in, whether they want to or not. There are also various acts of deviance that I won't go into here for reasons of decency as much as for avoiding spoilers. I'll let you discover those for yourself.

Scarce is unsettling too many times to count, but, of course, that's how such movies are supposed to be. Without being unsettling, deviant, and gory, what value would there be? Without all that, it would be just another movie about a bunch of rotten-toothed deviants who sit around and just think about being rotten-toothed and deviant. Or, perhaps I should say that it would be the only such movie. I say seek out this "scarce" gem of a movie! If you're like me, you'll be glad you did.

If you keep your expectations in check, this might be a worthwhile rental for the horror fan. Three snowboarders somehow find their way to backwoods Pennsylvania during a snow storm and wind up in the cabin of a pair of hungry backwoodsmen (not to mention a few ornery townsfolk). This, of course, results in more than a few gruesome scenes, a brutal chase, and a race for survival. If you enjoy the exploits of rural cannibals, you know what to expect, and generally this fits the bill without any frills. The filmmaking and scenery is above par for a limited budget, and the scenes do provide enough realism to make even the most avid gore hound cringe. The acting, at best, is wooden, though the cabin owner does have a certain creepiness to him, and a brief scene in a local eatery is loaded with enough distasteful characters to whet you appetite for what is to come. You'll find few suprises here, but the film is a good reminder that big bucks are not necessary for cheap thrills.

I absolutely loved this movie! I Dont know what else to say. Watched it 8 months ago, and still cant get it out of my head. Steve Warren is a creepy looking dude, and played the part of Ivan perfectly. The filmakers here are amateur, but dont stop there, these dudes made an awesome flick! Be sure to watch the making of the movie given in the special features, very long and detailed. I walked away after watching the making with nothing but respect for the crew and for their passion of filmaking. Give this one a watch for sure.

Sure its low-budget, and it starts off a little bit lame, but its setting you up for what is going to happen. I like the backwoods hillbilly horror movies. This one is not too over the top like some others; its very feasible. They are not inbred mutated monsters, but just normal people who decided to get away from the city, live off the land, and during though times they developed a taste for human flesh. They now lure unsuspecting outsiders to their land and...well...eat them, but not before spending a couple days chit-chatting and getting to know their "meat". Its pretty good. Its kind of nasty, when the guys first arrive at the house they are offered some disgusting looking soup, and little do they know they are eating their friends back meat! hahahaaa

You can just sense the bitter cold in this movie where the actors actually romp around in the frozen outdoors - no fake snow in sight. The gore was okay, but I wanted more. One unique feature of this movie is that the ones tortured and captured were all male, turning the tables on the usual screaming helpless busty women.

On the surface this looks like another piece of pure thoughtless crap. Not the case. Once we get passed the cliche, egghead acting of the opening party sequence, the acting and writing is pretty good. The film makers obviously love what they are doing and it shows. New antagonists are introduced throughout keeping the story lively and well paced.

There are some funny one liners that made me laugh and I caught myself rooting out loud for the captives a couple times. There is a seemingly minor reveal early on that comes full circle by the end that I had completely forgot about. That's some good film making. The gore is loud, proud and aplenty & not bad considering an obvious low budget.

A very worthy addition to the backwoods, cannibal, survival horror sub-genera. Taking place entirely in the snow! I can't remember that being done before. Sit back, tune out and enjoy.

My mother in law and I watched this a few nites back. All in all, I probably wouldn't watch it again. But it was an ok movie. Started out great, then got a little to fake. Some kids wreck on a snowy road and end up at a cannibal's house. They over do the whole meat thing. I'm glad I watched it and it will remain in my collection. But not as a favorite. Although I liked it enough not to sell it.