Scar 3-D (www.the-usher.com)

Returning back to her hometown for her niece's graduation, Joan Burrows (Bettis) is still filled with fear after escaping a serial killer when she was the same age as Olympia (Blanton). When some of the local teenagers start to go missing, Joan becomes sure that the killer, Bishop (Cotton) has returned. The problem is that he is dead and the authorities won't believe that he could have escaped death to return to kill again.

The Hollywood horror movie is becoming a frightless, unscary barren wasteland for horror fans of late but can technology come to the rescue?

Once the purveyor of quality horror fare, Hollywood has lost any essence of originality over the past decade. With 70s and 80s classics of the genre been remade, European and Far Eastern cinema seen as the only source of new material but the American version are never as good and the only original horror plot to come out of Tinsel Town, the torture horror of the 'Saw' and 'Hostel' movies now been copied to death, the idea well for Horror is definitely drying up. Can technology be the saving grace for the genre however as the return of an old favourite could bring the fun back to horror, 3-D.

Seen as a bit of a gimmick in the 60s, 70s and 80s, the old version of 3D with is red and green/blue lens saw everything from a great white shark (Jaws 3-D) to Freddy Kruger appearing in three dimensions. The technology has advanced however and now we have the polarised lenses, which have been utilised in Amusement Parks for over two decades, and new theatre technologies that can now be viably fitted into your local multiplex. This technology has been embraced by animation and most importantly the horror genre but unfortunately 'Scar 3-D' doesn't really push the technology as far as it can go.

For 3D to work, you need to have scenes were something seems to pop out of the screen and the horror genre is one were you should have many a chance to do just that but unfortunately 'Scar 3-D' doesn't do this. Following the current trend of 'torture horror', the story is a simple one that should have had plenty of opportunities for knives, scalpels and other instruments of death to be stuck out of the screen but unfortunately, the filmmakers do not do this. With a cast of unknowns and a story that is an amalgamation of many other movies that have come before, the film's only chance at having a unique selling point is the 3D but they fail to use it.

'Scar 3-D' is a wasted opportunity. While the story is average and the acting is poor, this doesn't always matter when it comes to horror if the killings are gory and the scares are plentiful. Unfortunately the movie doesn't have any of this and even the introduction of the 3D technology can't hide the fact this is a poor horror movie and another example of how poor American horror cinema is at the moment.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Widescreen 1.85:1 Anamorphic with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the 2D transfer is good. The 3D version of the movie is also included but this works on the old system of blue and red lens glasses. The effects works quite well at home on an LCD/Plasma screen but because of the limitations of the film itself, it doesn't really use the technology to the best of its ability.

BONUS FEATURES

Trailers
Previews of 'The Broken', 'Hatchet' and 'Black Water'

OVERALL

The complete lack of special features will come as a major disappointment to fans of the film. The inclusion of the 3D version is good however but the lack of any other special features is disappointing.

DVD

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2008