Visible Scars Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Visible Scars Blu-ray Movie Review

It Came from . . . Where??

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 15, 2013

Visible Scars has the unsettling quality that one used to get from exploitation films shown in less reputable cinemas before horror films went mainstream with Halloween and Friday the 13th. At moments, especially in its disturbing first act, it feels like something you shouldn't be watching, as if writer/director Richard Turke were inviting a little too much enjoyment from his viewers of evil acts, without the stylized overstatement that serves as quotation marks and lets you know "it's only a movie". Turke eventually gets around to more traditional horror tropes, but by then you're so thoroughly drawn into his world that these overused gore effects have recovered some of the impact they had when audiences first saw them in the Seventies. That's a neat trick, and it's probably one of the reasons why Visible Scars won Best Picture at the 2012 Shockfest Film Festival. Bypassing a theatrical release, the film has gone straight to Blu-ray and DVD.

Much of the effect of Visible Scars comes from Turke's awareness that he's dealing with a sophisticated, post-Scream audience that knows genre conventions as well as any filmmaker. So, for a long time—much longer than I would have believed possible—he toys with the viewer's expectations, then abruptly changes direction. Just when you think you've settled into the pattern of a Michael Myers killing spree, you're abruptly diverted into the possibility of alternate personalities, like the first Friday the 13th or Psycho. Lest you get too comfortable with that notion, there are tempting elements of I Know What You Did Last Summer's long-simmering revenge plot and Scream's bad boyfriend choices. And there's always the possibility of spirits that can't rest; it might be that kind of movie, like all those Nightmares on Elm Street.

One should know as little as possible about the plot of Visible Scars before an initial viewing. Indeed, the truly spoiler-allergic should skip this entire section of the review, as well as the "official" write-ups supplied by the filmmakers at their website and on the back of the Blu-ray case. For those unwilling to try the film on faith, I have attempted to make the following description spoiler-free.

In 1993, a misogynist low-life named Mike Gillis (Tom Sizemore, who hasn't been this dangerous since Natural Born Killers) kidnaps the infant twin daughters of a drug addict and part-time hooker, Becky Comfort (Hanna Hall, who played the young Jenny in Forrest Gump). Mike's wife, Claudia (Carol Abney), has been nagging him for children, and this is his way of silencing her. But Mike warns Claudia that the sudden appearance of two children would be difficult to explain; so the kids must be permanently confined to the basement. Claudia, who is an abused wife and grateful for any concession, complies.

Eight years pass, and Claudia has gone. It's just Mike and the two girls, whom he has raised to be utterly dependent on him in their remote cabin in the mountains outside San Bernadino. He appears to have cut off all contact with the rest of the world. When the film leaves Mike and the two girls, it is unclear whether any of them will survive and, if so, who.

It is now present day. (In a few years' time, director Turke may regret that he didn't specify a date, because the film only works if "present day" is 2010.) A troubled young woman who goes by the name of Stacy Walker (Jillian Murphy) is driving into the mountains near San Bernadino, having abruptly left behind her dog (whom she never leaves), her roommate and her boyfriend without explanation. She has strange marks on her body, which are briefly exposed when the sleeves of her sweater ride up, and she hastily pulls them down. She tells everyone—a waitress at a diner (Gwen Holloway), an overly inquisitive park ranger (Kevin Brief)—that she is going to her uncle's cabin to be alone and think.

When Stacy reaches the cabin, she is tormented by dreams and sightings (or are they visions?) of mysterious figures and by children's voices that may be real or imaginary. Hiking in the woods, she encounters a hippy couple in a makeshift encampment, Judy (Jules Hartley) and Sal (Connor Dylan Wryn). They tell her that no one comes around here anymore, because the woods are thought to be haunted by something "bad" that happened ten years ago—the stories vary—which makes this an ideal place to grow weed. Stacy stays with them for the night, but when she's awakened by more nightmares, Sal is gone and Judy tells her to go back to sleep.

Meanwhile, Stacy's roommate, Kelly (Deja Kreutzberg), has become increasingly concerned by her friend's odd behavior. When Stacy calls with instructions for her dog's care, Kelly forces her to provide a general location, but receives strict instructions not to reveal Stacy's whereabouts to boyfriend Brad (Jonas Fisch). But when Brad arrives, caring and concerned (maybe a bit too caring), he wheedles the information out of Kelly and prepares to depart for San Bernadino. Kelly insists on accompanying him, as does her boyfriend, Chris (Timothy Ryan Cole), who is afraid to leave her alone with the handsome Brad (whom Chris doesn't trust for an instant).

In Beaumont, a town near Stacy's current location, Det. Black (Dave Parke) is retiring after thirty-five years on the police force. Black hates the idea of retirement and proposes that he come back part-time to work on cold cases. (His chief laughs.) One cold case rankles in particular. The department never made serious efforts to find Becky Comfort's missing twin babies, because the mother was a prostitute and her sister, Maggie (Diana Costa) kept bringing in tips from her psychic. But Black always believed there was more to investigate. On his final day in the office, he sneaks the file out the door and begins anew. He is helped by a call from the current occupant of Becky Comfort's former residence, who has found some of her belongings buried below the structure.

As these groups of characters converge, strange things begin to happen. Many of them are spooky, some are violent, and a few are downright messy. By the end, there's carnage everywhere, and the few people who remain have yet to put the pieces together.

Visible Scars Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Visible Scars was shot by venerable horror cinematographer Jacques Haitkin, whose work includes the original A Nightmare on Elm Street (and its first sequel), The Hidden and a personal favorite of mine, Galaxy of Terror. I was not able to find definitive information about the shooting format, but judging by appearance and the lack of any credits for film scanning, the movie was almost certainly acquired digitally. (Most indie projects opt for digital today, if only because it's cheaper.)

Echo Bridge's cut-rate approach to Blu-ray works best with a digital source, because there are no finicky film transfers to wrangle. The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray for Visible Scars sports a clean, noise-free and detailed image that, ironically, provides the contemporary equivalent of a Seventies exploitation film. The older look would have been cheap and grainy. Today we're used to documentaries shot on video and reality TV. By lighting spaces for visibility, not people for glamor (although several of the leads are attractive even without special lighting), DP Haitkin conveys the sense of voyeurism that has long been an essential element in the horror and thriller genres. Blacks are solid, which is essential to scenes at night and in dark interiors, especially where poor visibility is a crucial element in creating confusion (or assisting a practical effect). The color palette is muted and naturalistic, without anything too bright or saturated to enliven this world of dark deeds and buried truths. At 101 minutes with limited extras, the film resides comfortably on a BD-25, without visible compression issues.

Visible Scars Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Visible Scars' soundtrack is presented in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, and something is wrong with it, although I can't say whether the problem is in the disc mastering or is inherent in the original mix. The track is mixed at an unusually low level, so that I had to raise my volume level by +5 db above my usual listening level just to hear the dialogue. Even then, much of the dialogue was muddy and hard to make out, as if poor-quality production sound had been used or something had gone wrong during the mixing sessions. Since the rest of the production was professional in its execution, I'm forced to question whether something was amiss in Echo Bridge's mastering and reproduction of the disc.

Sound effects are adequate, and James Eakin III's moody score has decent, though not exceptional, fidelity. Aside from volume and dialogue issues, the soundtrack did not stand out as a disaster, although it rarely rose above mediocre. That would be consistent with Turke focusing most of his budget on effects and actors, but only someone who worked on the film can say whether the track is an accurate reproduction of what the sound team created.

Visible Scars Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Cast and Crew: The only crew member on the track is writer/director Turke. Cast members include Murray (Stacy), Kreutzberg (Kelly) and Parker (Det. Black). The track appears to be composed of several sessions edited together. Turke's solo comments are the most substantive, because he relates the history of the project and how the production was assembled. With the actors, he assumes the role of questioner, eliciting memories of the production and, occasionally, more substantive responses about their approaches to their characters.



• Deleted Scenes: Both short, these scenes were clearly dropped as unnecessary.
• "Mount Falls It Is" (1080p; 1.78:1; 0:53)
• "That's a Skull All Right" (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:36)



• Alternate Ending (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:16): Without giving anything away, I think it's safe to say that this ending is shorter and less satisfying than the one in the film as released.



• Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:02): Clearly not the product of a marketing department, this trailer has been well-constructed not to give away anything important.

Visible Scars Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Although Turke says in the commentary that he initially set out to write a horror film, he also notes repeatedly that Visible Scars is more of a thriller with horror elements. I suspect that's why audiences at Shockfest reacted so favorably. Horror films have largely become rote exercises in fulfilling genre expectations, while thrillers still demand careful attention to story and coherent narrative. Otherwise they simply don't work. Turke, who was making his feature debut, is one of those rare young filmmakers who truly seems to care about telling a good story, even though he's chosen to do it in a deliberately disorienting fashion. The disorientation is purposeful and methodical, and he maintains complete control of it throughout the film. On the commentary track, the actors, ever desirous of more work, repeatedly clamor for a sequel, and there are certainly enough loose ends to pick up. But if Visible Scars is any indication, Turke won't do so unless he can extend the narrative in a consistent and logical fashion—and still surprise us. Now that would be a novelty. Highly recommended, despite the audio issues.