User reviews

Today I watched Scarce (2008), directed by Jesse T. Cook and John Geddes, a film about a group of snowboarders on vacation. During a snow storm they are forced to seek refuge, but little did they know they are safer out in the storm. The people who grant them refuge are cannibals, surviving on what they 'hunt' throughout the winter.

Overall a pointless film with a very slow start, but the effects were cool, especially because it was on a low budget. I mean, of course I only watched it for the blood; I wouldn't sit down and watch a film with that premise if I were looking for an intellectually challenging experience.

This movie is a rare gem in the movie world. It is the first work of a young film making duo that has actually made it to theatres and now on to DVD with wide distribution. Kudos to the writer's/producers for this remarkable feat in itself!! The movie itself... alright, it's not the best movie I've ever seen, but it is Definitely not the worst either!! (Open Water, Last Winter... come on, those were horrible!!) What we get to see here is the rudimentary offering from a couple of real guys with a common dream. The production is good, the effects are excellent, and the rest of the movie really isn't bad. Sure, there are some "cliché" aspects; crazy amounts of profanity, seemingly pointless nudity, (did I just say that??) and the acting is certainly not 'A-List'... but the end result is a raw work of art that if nothing else leaves us wanting to see where these guys go from here. At the VERY least, one has to appreciate the countless hours of hard work and determination that lead to the reward of this DVD. How many small town folk can say that their movie made the big screen?? SCARCE may be a rough around the edges inaugural offering, but I for sure can't wait for the next one!!

This is the bastard son of Hostel and some stupid random cannibal movie. Bad acting, worse plot. The story is chock full of dumb clichés, weak plot points and stuff that just plain doesn't make sense. Characters behave in ways that only if they were written really badly would. Pointless shots of the bad guys being *bad*. The ending was a joke right? No one would actually make that dumb of an ending. Oh wait, I watched it, it did end like that. I have to say the effects were pretty good, it was gross and the gross was nicely done. Just not worth watching for that alone even if you are a grue hound. Stay away from this stinker.

Yikes!

Another low budget Indie depicting backwood folk whom like to eat unsuspecting (idiot) victims. Not exactly a breathe of fresh air, but at least they shot it in the snow, I'll give'em a few points for that... Writer / Director's Jesse Cook and John Geddes have obviously watched their share of 100's of better films with this same story-line, but figured they'd better make their own (and thank God for that!)... "Scarce" is just that, scarce is any real creativity, originality or acting talent (wait till you get a load of the dinner scene... Duh!). Their big name actor is Steve Warren, whom appears to be making a living as a movie extra, and it shows in his lack of acting ability . In fact, no-one in this film has any acting experience and it shows though-out this unpolished turd. On a good note, the gore is admirable but unfortunately we have to sit through mind-numbing stupidity in order to see it...

Save yourself the aggravation...

I can honestly say this is by far the worst movie I have ever seen and I have seen probably 10 times more films than others my age as a film professional.

It had no chance from the beginning, as it's script was consistent with the overall badness; not clever, no shape, no depth... It wasn't scary. It was just gross. Even the fake blood was done badly. The camera work and print quality was as bad as it gets too. It seemed that every instinct one would naturally have in order to make a good film, this filmmaker chose the opposite position, perhaps thinking it would make his work "original". In a world where it is difficult to be originally "good", he has achieved unmatched originality at being "bad".

Steve Warren, the star, is as creepy as he needs to be, but he has no room to make this thing stink less. The two young men co-stars were competing to see how far to one extreme to the other they could go with their emotional tones, from flat to overly animated, as if a lesson in what NOT to do.

One would think if it was so bad, one would at least be entertained by it in some bizarre way, but no, it was unbearable, impossible to watch, and sadly, I always watch a movie from beginning to end. In this case, I may need years of therapy to recover.

I can say there is one thing this film could do well; it can reduce your appetite. So, dieters, go for it, daily and get skinny.

well i saw the trailer for this movie and i Had to watch it. so this morning i sat down to what i thought was gonna be a brutal realistic horror movie. But what i got was a laughable Ulli Lommel type movie. now people r spouting that the gore in this movie is amazing, and u know what its actually quite good. but honestly thats where the compliments end. the acting was so awful i wouldn't believe the director would finish a take with his actors and actually thought he got the shot. in my opinion i would rather never made a movie then make one horrid horrid horrid acting. i TRIED to just let the "acting" go and just focus the movie as a whole, but it was so bad i couldn't. i ended up skippin along the whole way just to get to parts with NO TALKING. it baffles my mind how anyone would let this piece of cr*p to be made, but even more so that some people actually LIKED IT. the only positive about it is the gore. now i am a gore hound, but even that could not get me to somewhat enjoy it.

so in closing the movie sucked, the acting was even worse and if u liked it u might wanna check out all the works by Ulli Lommel, specifically BTK Killer.

I watched SCARCE last night and I thought it was a great film. Simple story, three guys go on a snowboarding trip, crash their car in the middle of nowhere(the whole country is in the middle of a snow blizzard). A strange guy turns up to offer help...but he turns out to be a hunting cannibal!

All in all, this was just up my street, it had a good atmosphere, the acting was OK, and if it's gore you are after - look no further! The Brothers Gore have done a superb job on this.

I have read a few negative reviews on this on IMDb, one said the gore effects were bad...are you blind!

This is and Independent horror film, and one of the best I have seen. The guys who made this Jesse T Cook and John Geddes, wrote, directed and starred in this...kudos to those guys. Didn't Peter Jackson start like that with Bad Taste!!!

Brilliant effort a strong 7.5 out of 10

I finally was able to track this movie down. I had read a lot about it on the web and it sounded really cool. Snowboarders fall prey to cannibals in the woods. Sounds like my kind of movie and it I was not disappointed. It started out a little slow but picked up in the middle and didn't let go. For a low budget indie film it had really good gore effects. You could tell a lot of hard work was put into making this. I mean I don't know if I could run around the in the dead of winter in Canada in nothing but a t-shirt and boxers. When I was watching that I could feel the cold. Over all, a good horror movie with plenty of violence and gore! I would recommend this to any one who is into horror movies.

By all accounts, "Scarce" should bore any avid horror fan to tears. It is a plot we have seen over and over and over again, and in the end, offers nothing new. However, the film does so many things well that it ends up being an enjoyable slasher film that is better than a lot of stuff I have seen make it into theaters lately.

The film starts badly. In fact, I rolled my eyes more than once and was prepared to shut it off. We see a bunch of college aged guys at a huge party drinking, trying to get laid and spouting of some bad dialogue. However, this only lasts for about five minutes, when we flash forward to the next morning. We meet our three main characters--all typical college guys--who are heading back home from a short vacation of snowboarding in Colorado. They banter back and forth during the drive and eventual hit a huge snowstorm in Pennsylvania. They stop at a diner, where the have an encounter with some locals after asking for directions. Obviously, any horror fan knows where this leads, as the directions they are given are bogus and they end up crashed in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard. In the crash, one guy breaks his leg, so the other two venture out to find help. They get to a cabin where they meet up with a seemingly friendly local who offers them food and place to stay. Well, turns out (surprise!) this local is actually a cannibal, who, with the help of a few of his buddies, kills travelers and harvests their meat to make it through the scarce winters.

The film is the combination of so many films I have seen from, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to "Hostel" to "Wrong Turn" to "Calvaire." However, the production is top notch and the filmmakers know how to create tension and suspense using wide camera shots and angles. Additionally, our protagonists actually are pretty likable, and though they make some dumb choices, we can't help but to root for them. The gore is pretty well done and plentiful enough to satisfy gore hounds. We get chopped up bodies, slit throats, decapitations, and shotgun blasts. The setting of the film is foreboding and I really did "feel" the cold, particularly the last 10 minutes of the film when our main characters are running for their lives during the wind and snow in nothing but their boxer and T-shirts! It is a scene that is many ways reminded me of the highly stylized and effective final scenes of the French film "Calvaire" and I think is done equally well here.

My biggest qualm with the film is that I HATED the ending. Too many recent horror flicks are using this "twist" to be different and effective, when it is actually becoming a predictable cliché. I was actually pretty invested in the two main characters and really wanted to scream when the film ended the way it did.

Maybe I am becoming too soft in my reviews, but I actually enjoyed this film quite a bit and highly recommend it, despite the low IMDb rating and reviews here. If you can get past the beginning (and the end) of this film, it is a very well done and competently directed film that ends up being a lot better than it had any reason to be.

FrightMeter Grade: B

I recently watched this flick online and let me tell you, it was pretty awesome. Some excellent kills and chase scenes. This movie sort of reminded me of Wrong Turn and Shredder. It had the snow boarding part, like in shredder, then it had the cannibalism part, like in Wrong Turn. It also had a pretty decent storyline about a group of friends who are stoked for a weekend of snowboarding and partying, only to be stranded in the mountains. When they come across a lodge, they decide to seek shelter, only to be stalked by a group of vicious cannibals. If you aren't a huge fan of extreme violence and gore, then might want to skip out on this flick, but I do recommend it to other hardcore horror fans.

I saw this at the Toronto Festival of Fear (Fan Expo) this year in August 2008. I was super excited to see it because I kept seeing the trailer for it at the Anchor Bay booth. I was not disappointed. Great amount of gore and some really awesome shots. It's a perfect Anchor Bay title and will fit in perfectly with some of the stuff they've already released. I'm excited for this to come out on DVD! I also enjoyed the plot of the movie. The script was pretty good and got the point across. I really enjoyed that. And I REALLY liked the death scenes. The amount of blood and gore was PERFECT. That's my favorite part of a movie. Good job, guys!

I picked up this movie at random in my video store, based on the cool cover and the interesting plot. What I got was a cool little flick about cannibal woodsman laying siege to a group of people who's car breaks down on a snowboarding weekend. The movie has some good suspense, memorable bad guys (especially the crazy older dude), and a freaky killers mask that ranks up there with the creepier masks in horror. The movie has some great gore, and pretty good acting for a low budget movie. If you are looking for a good Halloween movie night flick that you haven't seen before, check it out, it's a good gore flick that will keep you entertained.

So,a long while back i decided not to write reviews on here, but after reading some of the other reviews, i had to put my thoughts in. First off to those negative reviewers saying the blood and gore was poor or fake, you sound kind of ignorant, if you watch "the making of" in the special features, it was real blood and such that they used from a meat packing plant. Yeah now your complaint just doesn't work.

As for the movie itself, no its not all that original but for a low budget horror flick this was surprisingly well done, I can tell everyone behind this film really put in the effort. The acting was pretty decent and the film keeps you interested. Sure there's some slip ups and its by far not a perfect movie, but no movie is perfect and if perfection is what you are expecting from a horror movie then then you might as well stop watching them, because no movie will EVER be perfect. I am glad i gave this movie a chance and I'm adding it to my giant movie collection of over 400 movies, give this one a shot, the worst that could happen is you don't like it, right?

I'm giving this a 7 on a scale of 1-10 as a lower budget film, not comparing it to big mainstream films, but only compared to other low budget horror.

Beginning with a fully nude bloody guy running for his life from someone, we fast forward to three guys at a party (to help the requisite tit shots along) which they leave the next morning to head back to New Jersey, but thanks to faulty directions they get stuck in the middle of nowhere in PA. Needless to say, the backwoods locals don't take kindly to strangers around these parts.

One can easily tell that both Jesse Cook as well as John Geddes have a definite love for the genre and that enthusiasm bleeds through in this film. That alone allowed me to overlook many of the flaws of the movie which included (but not limited to) a slightly disjointed story, unoriginal plot-line & performances that were pretty shy of stellar. However the gore was pretty well done, and yea the blood does flow at a good pace in this film. Plus just the mere fact that the actors would run around in that bitter cold with not much on shows a lot of dedication.

Eye Candy: Stephanie Banting, Rachel Chartrand, Beth Armstrong, & an extra get topless

My Grade: C+

DVD Extras: Commentary with Writer/director/producers John Geddes & Jesse Cook; second commentary by production and Set designers Cody Calahan & Gavin Peacock; a Making-of documentary that runs an hour & 22 minutes; and a trailer for End of the Line

I did not know this was a Canadian film until I read some of the comments on this page. This is rather important since you can usually smell a Canadian film from a mile away. This movie was well executed with all great staples of crazy redneck genre. It has rednecks, blood, torture, gore, fear, a chase scene, a creepy cabin, cannibalism and much much more that will keep the genre fanatics satisfied.

The acting was rather imbalanced but pretty good with the villains being rather talented and the victims being kind of amateur but all is fine when most of their lines were replaced with screaming and pleading. The setting was creepy, a remote cabin surrounded by snow and forest.

The film doesn't really bring anything new to the genre but very few of these types of movies do. Settings might differ between forest and desert or the sanity of the rednecks in different films might be varied but all these movies follow the same, but entertaining, formula. The formula works. If you like crazy redneck films or you are just looking for an evening of depravity, watch Scarce.

Just to note, I have noticed that people who give bad reviews for these types of movies on IMDb almost always say ' I am a huge die-hard fan of exploitative horror but....' (or something similar) and then they start analyzing it like you would analyze 'The Red Violin' or 'The Notebook' . Please stop bashing movies just because you wanted to see a drama or a romance. I don't go and review 'Finding Nemo' saying stuff like 'not enough entrails' and 'unrealistic, fish don't talk'.

This horror movie is very lousy, badly done but worth. It is not boring despite the common scheme, already seen one million times before. It is simply a slasher taking place in the mountains, with poor acting, terrible dialogues and overall directing. My grand ma would have done better in terms of acting and holding a camera, but curiously it works anyway. I have already seen far far worse than this. I guess it was not even destined to movie theaters but DVD or streaming instead. For horror goers only and very easy to please. You can watch it whilst vacuum cleaning your living room carpet or sitting on the toilet throne.... More fun than horrific though.