Scalps
Year: 1983
Director: Fred Olen Ray
Written by: Fred Olen Ray
Threat: Ghost
Weapon of Choice: Arrow
Based upon: none
IMDb page: 
ScalpsYear: 1983 Director: Fred Olen Ray Written by: Fred Olen Ray Threat: Ghost Weapon of Choice: Arrow Based upon: none IMDb page: |
Other movies in this series:
None
The tyranist's thoughts
My notes say that "The first 4 minutes of this is perhaps the worst piece of shit I've
ever seen." I wish I could say the rest of it got better. It didn't. Still, I look back on it
and I've seen worse films. Not many, but there have certainly been two or three.
So there's a bunch of students who think they are "archaeologists" that head out into
the remote desert to dig up Indian artifacts. How stupid could they be? Well, they are
every bit as stupid as you think they are. Naturally, there is a curse associated with the
artifacts and one of them becomes possessed by an ancient ghost seeking revenge.
This was simply, utterly awful. There wasn't a single redeeming quality to this movie.
Even the gratuitous nudity was uncomfortable in that it was associated with a rape. I
just couldn't find anything to like. The script was awkward and poorly thought out, if they
had one at all. The execution was worse than amateur. They should have burned the film
stock and cut their losses.
I can't recommend that anyone see this movie. Ever. It just isn't worth it.
Total Skulls: 23
| Sequel | ||
| Sequel setup |  |
|
| Rips off earlier film | ||
| Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
| Future celebrity appears | ||
| Former celebrity appears | ||
| Bad title | ||
| Bad premise | |
|
| Bad acting | |
|
| Bad dialogue | |
|
| Bad execution | |
|
| MTV Editing | ||
| OTS | |
|
| Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
| Wanton sex | |
|
| Death associated with sex | |
|
| Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
| Characters forget about threat | ||
| Secluded location | |
|
| Power is cut | ||
| Phone lines are cut | ||
| Someone investigates a strange noise | |
|
| Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
| Camera is the killer | ||
| Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
| Victim locks self in with killer | ||
| Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | |
|
| Toilet stall scene | ||
| Shower/bath scene | ||
| Car stalls or won't start | |
|
| Cat jumps out | ||
| Fake scare | ||
| Laughable scare | ||
| Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
| Dream sequence | ||
| Hallucination/Vision | |
|
| No one believes only witness | ||
| Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | |
|
| Warning goes unheeded | |
|
| Music detracts from scene | |
|
| Death in first five minutes | |
|
| x years before/later | ||
| Flashback sequence | ||
| Dark and stormy night | ||
| Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
| Killer wears a mask | ||
| Killer is in closet | ||
| Killer is in car with victim | ||
| Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
| Unscary villain/monster | ||
| Beheading | |
|
| Blood fountain | |
|
| Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc. | ||
| Poor death effect | |
|
| Excessive gore | ||
| No one dies at all | ||
| Virgin survives | ||
| Geek/Nerd survives | ||
| Little kid lamely survives | ||
| Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
| Unresolved subplots | ||
| "It was all a dream" ending | ||
| Unbelievably happy ending | ||
| Unbelievably crappy ending | ||
| What the hell? |