[Scarce]
Plot:SCARCE is quite simply a grueling frostbitten nightmare that depicts the horrifying fate of three snowboarders trapped at an isolated mountain cabin. "How will anyone find you when you've been eaten?"

Cast:Thom Webb, John Geddes, Jesse T. Cook, Steve Warren, Gary Fischer, Chris Warrilow.

My Thoughts:Saw it when it was "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and "Wrong Turn", and "Timber Falls", and "Lake Dead", and...well you get the picture.

Review:So someone decided to make an indie horror movie called "Scarce", which is basically about three guys who are on their way back from Colorado and end up stranded in rural Pennsylvania in the middle of a snowy blizzard. Can you guess where the film goes from here? If you guessed that during their search for help, they stumble upon some crazy, loony, cannibalistic backwoods types, then you get the gold star! And so begins another exercise in futility, where it's city kids versus backwoods lunatics.

I think there's some secret club out there where indie directors are giving marching orders on what to make for their first feature film. And are pretty much told...."hey, you can't go wrong with a movie about killer rednecks eating the flesh of teenagers." Maybe I'm wrong about that, but yes...you can go wrong with a storyline like this. Why? Because it's been done like a trillion times! The directors/writers Jesse T. Cook and John Geddes try to make it slightly different though, from other crazy killer-hillbilly films.

Attempt number one..they have the movie and the teens peril set to the backdrop of a raging blizzard. Attempt number two, they don't allow the teens to just get stranded. But instead have them spin out and crash, an event which critically injures the leg of one of their friends. So they now have no other option but to exit the vehicle and go seek help. But the writers also fall into many cliches with the movie. Like how the teens are sidetracked from seeking help due to being too overly curious about a certain cabin, which ultimately leads to major trouble for them.

And then also the stupid idea of leaving their injured friend behind while they go look for help. Because we all know if a one-legged person were to encounter a bear or rabid coyote in rural PA...They'd do okay alone..."sigh". And then cliche number three, the locals all being "in on" the plan to mutilate these kids, but the kids being too naive to pick up on it. So there's just as much here to annoy someone, as there is to intrigue them. The villains are certainly different though, which is the films one positive. They aren't demented and deformed.

Just demented. Basically they look like the typical white male rural types, complete with bad teeth and zombie-esque bags underneath their eyes. But when the two kids return to their vehicle, only to find their friend missing, and soon after....run into a local man...that doesn't stop them from accepting food (human flesh) and drink (moonshine) from the man. Cliche number four, never eat anything from backwoods types.

So the movie follows the normal numbers of stupid city kids being preyed on or upon by backwoods types, only in this film the writers really do their best to draw out the suspense and intrigue of the situation. We know the kids are gonna get the big "swerve" sprung upon them eventually, but it's just a matter of when. And I have to admit, the scribes of the film do a great job in holding off on the wolves stepping-out-of-their-sheeps-clothing moment, until they really feel the viewer is ready to accept it.

But the backdrop of snow-covered ground and trees does give the movie a somewhat different tone and feel...when compared to films like "Wrong Turn". But when it's all said and done, the film is still the same old, same old. The kids are same old, same old dumb. The villains have the same old, same old look and motive. Which ironically enough ties in with the movies title. And even the ending fails to escape the cliche storm as it not only contains a stomach-turning twist which anyone could've seen coming, but also pisses you off to no end with how stupid the sole survivor is.

"Scarce" does have some good blood and gore though, and I guess if you can overlook numerous cliches and a stale storyline because you get tons of violence thrown at you, then more power to ya. I on the other hand found "Scarce" to be the same old stuff, wrapped in a snowy new package.

Positives:The snowy backdrop was something wonderfully new.

Negatives:Cliche story, cliche twists, ultra-dumb characters.

Overall:One out of four stars.





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