Guilty Girl Pleasures. (Scarred, Fingerprints). Reviewed By Brian Kirst
Two modestly recent direct to DVD pleasures are femme centered delights – well, delights for those with less than discriminating tastes, obviously. Scarred. 2005. MTI Video.
A teenage girl, her brother and best friend are forced to go on a family trip where they must deal with true horrors – like their dad making out with his much younger bride – oh, and that murderous woods child with the half burned off face.
While slightly nonsensical (For example, how does the hunky forest ranger know all about this legendary woods boogie but never encounter her until the night of the film – despite her obviously rampant taste for pure female face?), Scarred does get extra points for its reflection on female beauty and for having lead (and frequent indie horror goddess) Julian Berlin do the truly unexpected in her final confrontation with the ‘monster’. Also, while most of the special effects are of the ‘let’s just throw some blood on their faces’ variety, there is a truly knee clutchingly nasty, drawn out encounter involving one of the female leads which should rate high on all IKEA Gore Counters throughout the country.
Fingerprints. 2006. Image Entertainment.
Returning to her relocated family after a stint in rehab, a young teen girl finds herself haunted by the ghost of a long dead schoolgirl. As she investigates the history of the child, our trembling Nancy Drew discovers many a bloody body and that local history may be lying. Could that tragic bus accident that has shaped her new home town never have never really happened?
While there are some sharp set blood pieces featured here (including a suspenseful, long tuned death for a former major player in a school room),Fingerprints is truly notable for reality star Kristin Cavallari’s from the back booby shot and for the awesome performances of some celluloid veterans including Geoffrey Lewis and Lou Diamond Phillips. True honor must be given though to Sally Kirkland whose take on an eccentric neighborhood lady is both oddly spooky and subtly fun at the same time. In fact, Kirkland proves, without a doubt, that ripping up the screen is sometimes a very good thing indeed.
