Scalps (1987)

The Worst Film Ever

Sorry, this movie sucks

A lot of fun.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Mapi Galan is drop-dead gorgeous. In spite of the stereotypes, less than stellar acting and incredibly bad special effects makeup, I rather enjoyed watching this film.

I'm a big fan of the late Bruno, and had been looking forward to seeing this film for ages. I was hoping for a crazy, no-holds-barred sleaze and violence-filled Western along the lines of the 'Edge' novels put out by New English Library in the 70s and 80s, of which I'm also a big fan. I think the problem here is I was expecting too much. I may have seen a cut version, I'm not sure, but the violence wasn't anywhere as strong as some of Mattei's other films - a couple of scalpings, a quick bloodless decapitation and the torture scene with the hooks. The version I saw ran at 96 minutes. Having heard how violent this movie was, I was a tad disappointed.But I wouldn't like you to think I'm just some uncouth gorehound, so what of the rest of the movie? Well, it's a very thinly plotted revenge movie, performances are very hammy and the dubbing, as always, doesn't really help matters. There's a few bits of dialogue that will make you chuckle, but nowhere near as much as 'Rats: Night Of Terror' or 'Hell Of The Living Dead'. I was bored in places - the movie falls between two stools, not really funny enough for true camp value but not striking or brutal enough to shock. The whole feel of the film, apart from a few gory moments and a bit of rough dialogue, seems like something from the 50s or 60s rather than 1987. The score is more akin to a 50s American Western rather than anything Morricone-inspired - indeed, the whole thing doesn't feel that 'spaghetti' to me.Not bad, worth seeing, but I was disappointed. In its favour, there's a couple of decent twists right at the end and Mapi Galan's a pretty girl. I think I should seek out 'Cut Throats Nine' for something a bit harder-edged, perhaps.

Guy must've gotten a poor bootleg copy .. that's what you get for being cheap!! You should get the DVD.. Excellent color, no dark scenes and some nice scenic shots... It's a western.. in the revenge mode.. and you could easy plug Yul Brenner, Lee Van Cleef, or maybe even one of the better cowboy actors into the lead role and it would've done big box office.. Again.. not a bad movie at all.. It's not RATS but what is?? What I didn't like... and I'll agree with the reviewer about.. is the Confederate uniforms.. they had been through as war... but their uniforms were brand new clean!! All white and fresh.. The torture by meat hooks scene was rough.. in a Man Called Horse sorta way..

Not a bad one for Mattei. Released at the same time with White Apache, and according to rumors with more input by Mattei (who apparently directed most of this film) than on White Apache.Lots of bad dialogue of course, but that was more or less expected. The music was for certain parts quite good, in the vein of older spaghettis but during other parts awful with more modern (whatever) flavor.The film was certainly watchable, much better than, for instance, Zombi 3 which he "Co-directed" when Fulci was away for one or other reason. Mattei also tried here for some parts (usually in vein, though) to create this into a some kind of 'drama' film which was not so successful.I have no idea about which version is uncut and which one is not, the version I saw was on Greek video.If you find this one somewhere, check it out. It's not that bad as it is rumored to be (depending on your tastes, of course). I enjoyed it anyway.