SCAR 3D

For some years now I've felt something of an uber geek recluse, sitting at home in a darkened room with my battery powered shutter glasses on gawping at the TV screen as flickering 3D images spooled out in front of me on 3D (cough) 'collectors' discs of such seminal three dimensional turkeys as Jaws 3D, Friday the 13th 3D and the Creature From the Black Lagoon. And along with many other twitching 3D loving goofs I've dreamed of the day that the 3D movie would make it's official triumphant return to home entertainment.

In recent years, we've started to see a low level rumbling of this return with family fare such as the wholly computer generated romp Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, which mildly sated the need for home 3D fun but there was still no sign of anything horror genre specific. That was until word started to filter through that My Bloody Valentine was being remade for the big screen…in 3D! Having sat in on a screening of the full house opening night of the 3D Bloody Valentine I was happily reassured that the form's return was indeed a resounding success (and if box office takings in the UK were anything to go by we can but hope that we'll see more of the same in time). Amusingly though, was having watched that screening I was assured that it was the 3D format that had been the pull and not the movie itself as was clearly evident by the fact that the film was indeed a full on turkey thats only redemption was the oodles of boobies and gore that jiggled and thrust themselves from the screen in three dimensions…and with the Real D format we at last had a convincing 3D format that was light years ahead of any of its anaglyph (red/blue glasses) or shutter formats.

Giddy with excitement, the 3D horror fan community (myself included) settled back to see what would be next on the horizon as surely with the box office pull of My Bloody Valentine 3D it wouldn't be long before someone else wanted a piece of the action…the wait wasn't long. Paramount in the States swiftly announced and got onto the shelves the long overdue and highly anticipated DVD release of the 3D version of Friday the 13th Part 3 utilising the old school red/blue anaglyph glasses system that whilst by no means as impressive as the new Real D format still had its fun value - unfortunately Paramount seemed to drop the ball with their 3D return with a poorly mastered release that fails to work even with the old format in any way at all (a great shame for what could have been an essential release otherwise). So the ball was passed over to Universal Pictures who announced their own attack on the 3D horror home entertainment scene but not with the easy option of a release of an old classic (hey, not that Jaws 3D wouldn't be welcome) but with an all new 3D splatter opus by way of Jed Weintrob's SCAR 3D.

Plot wise, SCAR 3D sees the very talented Angela Bettis (the future Mrs Sex Gore) play troubled Joan Burrows who soon after returning to her hick home town Ovid, Colorado after a 16 year sabbatical, following being deeply traumatized as the victim of torturing killer funeral home worker Ernie Bishop, finds herself walk straight back into a scenario where the locals are starting to get violently slaughtered in the manner that old killer Bishop had performed previously. Has the brutal deviant Bishop returned from the grave to reignite a killing spree for Joan's return or is there a cruel copycat killer in action seeking to play twisted mind games with the poor long suffering Burrows?

If the plot seems somewhat familiar to 3D fans that have just recently went to see the aforementioned My Bloody Valentine 3D then you'd be bang on the money in noting that plot wise both movies pretty much follow the same path. The key difference here being that for whatever reason the producers/filmmaker have decided to completely avoid the fun trash element of previous 3D movies of using every opportunity to throw or wave something at you onscreen to try for a straight pure horror angle. My thinking here is that when this was being pitched to the money men decision makers it was sold on the grounds of being more akin to being Hostel in 3D as the film plays massively on the whole torture gore scenario throughout and quite tastelessly amusingly so as the killer's penchant is to capture two female victims who he takes turn to torture slowly asking each victim in turn to ask him to kill their friend otherwise he will torture them some more. All the violence is not only gleefully portrayed onscreen in close up but with the added touch of three dimensions giving it that edge of guilty pleasure for any splatter loving horror fan viewing.

The 3D itself, being the main pull of interest to genre fans outside of Angela Bettis' appearance to appease fan boys such as myself, actually works incredibly well for the home viewing format (especially so on a large format LCD TV screen) - in fact so much so more than Paramount's failed attempt at home 3D with the recent Friday the 13th Part 3 release. Utilising the old red/blue anaglyph glasses format (the DVD comes packaged with two pairs so you and a friend partner can gurgle with amusement together) it is of course not going to give you the dizzying heights of 3D perfection that Real D gave folk at Bloody Valentine screenings but layers the images nicely throughout. Perhaps for some the fact that the movie doesn't go all out with the pure entertainment value of thrusting 3D images at the screen will be a bit of a disappointment but for fans of the format that simply want to enjoy some straight faced torture violence in three dimensions with Scar 3D you really cant go wrong.

It's an absolute pleasure to see a release like Scar 3D from a major player such as Universal for the home entertainment market. Sure, like My Bloody Valentine 3D, it's by no means a quality movie but for fans of the 3D format, and specifically so horror fans, this is a very welcome release that I hope we see much more off in the coming years. 3D horror has returned, get the popcorn and beers out and get ready to rejoice!

Review by Alan Simpson