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Let me say right off the bat that Eric (ICE FROM THE SUN) Stanze's
latest movie is like an unexpected fist to the face. Or having a tooth
pulled, realizing midway through that the dentist is high on crack and
using a pair of rusty pliers... grinning with glee...
SCRAPBOOK will assault you personally, and if you think you're one of
those jaded horror fans that's seen it all... THINK AGAIN. The only
thing that comes to close comparison is Jim VanBebber's short film from
long ago, ROAD KILL.
The plot, like most classic horror movies, is brutally simplistic and
free of needless exposition. The viewer is just thrown into the mayhem
and forced to endure the insanity, along with the victim. Meet Clara
(Emily Haack), who has had the misfortune of being kidnapped by Leonard
(Tommy Biondo), a serial killer that has been at it for twelve years.
Through flashbacks, we see that Leonard grew up with family members
(apparently a brother and sister!) successfully molesting him as a
child. (This five minute sequence from a child's point-of-view is ultra
sick yet technically slick in the grand tradition of HALLOWEEN.)
Obviously, this trauma has left Leonard a bit touched as an adult. He
likes to take video and Polaroid pictures of each victim's anguish and
also have them write in his crazed scrapbook, which he's planning to
take on THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW when's he eventually caught and (in his
mind) becomes a celebrity. He views himself as an author and killing as
merely the way to completing his masterwork.
The bulk of the movie is set in Leonard's isolated farmhouse and is
basically a test of endurance for Clara (and the audience). At first,
Leonard seems like a bad actor from a chintzy Todd Sheets video, but
gradually he becomes more and more despicable and so real that this
reviewer found himself punching the TV screen trying to knock the freak
out! He starts with rape and moves into other tortures when Clara tries
to fight... like shoving her into a trashcan and pouring milk all over
her, leaving her to bake inside there under the hot sun all day long.
Imagine that smell…
There's the usual cat and mouse game as Clara attempts to escape
(unsuccessfully) a few times, and also the local neighbor that stumbles
into the killer's lair only to be 86ed by the madman. The suspense
levels are taut through all of this rhetoric, but the real eye opener is
when Leonard can't get Mr. Happy up for business and breaks out the wine
bottle as a substitute...
At this point you're either going to turn the tape off and smash it or
(jaded horror fans) at least take an intermission to get some air. How
far a filmmaker goes to explore cruelty is always the subject of many
debates, and this movie leaves just about nothing to the imagination,
pushing that controversial envelope to new extremes. At times, you feel
like you're watching a snuff film... there's a scene involving a
videotaped rape that gives you the same revulsion as the famous home
invasion scene from HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. The effect they
created here by crinkling the video footage up, and probably taking a
magnet to it as well, is a brilliant and unsettling touch.
I won't give the ending away, but fortunately, Clara sees Leonard's
weaknesses and uses them and the scrapbook against him in a last-ditch
effort to save her life…
Lead actors Tommy Biondo (who also wrote and co-produced) and Emily
Haack really get into their roles and make you believe they are living
this nightmare. Biondo does a great job of taking the word "loony" south
of the border and Haack takes her talent to bold extremes to show how
nasty violence towards women really is. Stanze directs with a sure
reign, wisely letting his actors improvise a lot of sequences that add a
realistic feel to the narrative. The music score by Brian McClelland
adds an eerie ambiance to the already hostile atmosphere, and kudos to
producer Jeremy Wallace for putting such a solid technical package
together.
Obviously inspired by classic movies like THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
(right down to a great homage shot where Clara falls to a barn floor
looking at body parts, and the wacky radio shows audible in Leonard's
lair), SCRAPBOOK delivers the goods and ups the level of depravity a few
notches for future movies of this nature.
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