SCARS (2016)

Scars (2016)
Directed by: Sean K. Robb
Written by: Sean K. Robb
Starring: Danielle Cole, Eric Regimbald, Matt Wells, Neale Kimmel

SCARS (2016)
Written and Directed by Sean K. Robb

After being saved from a beating, Scarlett joins forces with saviour Scar to brutally dispatch married men for kicks.

Horror thriller SCARS is one of those movies that seem to men-bash for either a) the fun of it, or b) because it empowers women. Either way, as a female I am insulted and disgusted by films like these, that have little plot and think it’s okay to go around killing members of a certain sex for no reason other than a hatred for the opposite sex and the “because it’s easy and we can” attitude.

When we first meet Scar, she’s living with a brutish boyfriend who treats her like a slave. It seems she’s finally had enough and proceeds to smash his requested bottle of beer over his head, and defends herself in the furious aftermath by reaching for a kitchen knife and plunging it into him. You can sorta see why she’d be brassed off with men though this one in particular. Her visit to her father’s house ends up being one uncomfortable scenario where she spits in his face and trashes his lounge, coming off as quite the psychotic brat she is with her father doing very little to provoke such a reaction.

On the flip side, we have Scarlett – a seemingly well-to-do woman, nicely dressed with a modern, furnished apartment who’s only source of income seems to be from the lucrative blackmail business. We see her dine with a string of married men, whom she’s been having a fling with, before giving them an ultimatum – give $5000 immediately in cash with a further $2000 a month otherwise the wife will be informed of their affair and shown all the texts, letters and photos shared between them. Whilst some have clearly bit the bullet and granted her request, given her comfortable lifestyle, others haven’t taken to it quite as well. One in particular isn’t so chuffed about how events have played out that he decides to give her a beating on the way to the ATM, which is when Scar comes in to ‘save the day’, if saving the day means plunging a knife into someone like a crazed baboon. Where most people would shy away from being ‘rescued’ by a lunatic, it doesn’t take long for Scarlett to warm to Scar and the two become embroiled in a relationship involving nightclubbing and stabbing men to death because it’s easy to get away with.

The plot isn’t the only thing that SCARS suffers with. Cringeworthy characters, poor performances and a lacklustre script also add to its failings as well as as scenes and shots that linger far too long showing very little of interest, contributing to the painfully long running time of 1 hour 48 mins. This is only topped by the constant news and opinion coverage of the war in Libya in 2011 leading up to the death of Colonel Gaddafi. These broadcasts appear in most segments of the film where a television is playing with the audio drowning out the dialogue of the characters, so much so that you can’t even hear what the characters are meant to be saying. Is there a correlation between this movie’s plot and Gadaffi’s Libya? I was trying to hard to find one but nope, I can’t exactly see it, unless it’s that both share the idea that many people are being killed with no-one held accountable.

SCARS is a chore to watch from beginning to end with nothing very likable about any of the characters involved, even lacking the style of Julia which had a similar premise but was better thought out and backed up despite my particular niggles with the film’s plot. SCARS feels like a tired assault just because, as Scar says, “killing guys is easy”.

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