SCAR 3D

Buckets of blood and loads of brutal violence but predictable, dull and derivative. (Review by Billy Suter)

Okay, here’s an obvious question – why make a horror movie in 3D and then take so little advantage of the coming-at-you format? That’s what’s got me scratching my head about Scar 3D, the latest R55-a-ticket (at Gateway) offering for which one requires those plastic Clark Kent-like glasses.

All that expense to make the movie with 3D technology and what do we get? A teenager holding her bra out towards the audience, a scalpel inserted into a mouth (admittedly a wince-inducing moment) and, um, somewhat less frightening, a pig-shaped cuckoo clock with a snout that peeks out towards us.

That’s about it. Talk about a waste of time and money.

And that’s not all – Scar 3D has the added disadvantages of clunky dialogue, cardboard characters, lousy unknown actors and a slasher storyline that’s not only tired but makes little sense, the script offering no motives for its killings.

There’s gore galore in torture-porn scenes that seem the norm with slasher movies since the likes of the Saw and Hostel series, but there’s little here that’s really frightening.

For the record, the silly story centres on a washed out woman, Joan (Angela Bettis), who sports a small, neat chin scar which she got from a horrifying incident in her small hometown. Now, 16 years or so later, Joan returns home to spend time with her cop brother (Christopher Titus) and her teen niece, Olympia (Kirby Bliss Banton). But, of course, there’s evil in the air – and no sooner does Joan arrive home and memories of how she got her scar are rekindled.

It all dates back to a handsome mortician having kidnapped her and a friend and then tortured both until one of them gave the word for him to kill the other. Joan, of course, escaped with her life. Now, as poor Joanie gets into a right state over all the bad memories flooding back, youths start disappearing and yes, you guessed it, a copycat killer goes on the loose.

All eyes, of course, turn to the seemingly increasingly unhinged Joan, who has to do all she can to prove her innocence and find the real killer …

The film has its buckets of blood and loads of brutal violence, but it’s predictable, dull and derivative, with an ending that falls flat on its face. Spend your hard-earned cash elsewhere. Rating 3/10 - Billy Suter