SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Winifred The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

milosprole9 So, it's about six people where they go to the Californian wasteland to dig up around in an Indian burial ground for artifacts, and then they unleash the evil spirit. The spirit possesses one of the group and begins slaughtering them one by one. The plot sounds similar to The Evil Dead, right? It also reminded me on The Hills Have Eyes because of the location. Since The Evil Dead is successful low-budget horror film and well done, but is Scalps also good? No, it's not at all! It has a bad editing, ugly cinematography, terrible makeup, bad acting and ridiculously bad dialogues and lines. I didn't care for any character, they weren't memorable. I liked the ending though, it was a bit creepy. The plot is interesting, but this movie could have been MUCH better.I'm fine with it that it's really a bad movie, but it's somehow enjoyable and I could give it a 5/10, but it's way slow for filming while driving etc., so I gave it a 4/10.

BA_Harrison A professor of archaeology (played by '40s Superman star Kirk Alyn, in his last ever screen appearance) sends six of his college students on a field trip to the desert where they desecrate an ancient native American burial ground, much to the annoyance of an ugly Indian spirit called Black Claw, who possesses one of the group and proceeds to kill off the rest.Director Fred Olen Ray blames the distributors for ruining Scalps by messing around with the editing; but even if this wasn't the case, I still very much doubt that the film would have been much cop, given its predictable plot, lousy pacing, lack of scares, and crappy performances from a cast of nobodies (apart from Alyn, the only other recognisable name is renowned monster movie aficionado Forrest J. Ackerman, who is clearly there to plug his latest book, Mr Monster's Movie Gold).A few semi-decent gore effects—including a slashed throat, a grisly scalping, and a juicy decapitation—make the second half of the film marginally more interesting than the uneventful first half.3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 4 for IMDb thanks to the hilariously bad animatronic lion-man, which was apparently one of the things added by the distributors against Olen Ray's wishes.

Woodyanders A group of college students find themselves being terrorized by the lethal spirit of the evil Black Crow (Richard Hench in grotesque make-up) while digging for artifacts in an ancient Native American burial ground.While this film suffers from sluggish pacing, a drawn-out opening act, and the unfortunate fact that the distributors recut the movie with flash forwards that give away the fates of most of the characters well in advance (thereby undermining any real tension this picture might have otherwise had), writer/director Fred Olen Ray nonetheless still deserves credit for making nice use of the desolate desert locations, maintaining a grimly serious tone throughout, doing a solid job of crafting a brooding gloom-doom atmosphere, and delivering plenty of nasty gore that includes a brutal scalping and a juicy decapitation. The acceptable acting from the competent cast holds the movie together, with Jo-Ann Robinson in particular a definite stand-out with her sweet and appealing portrayal of the perky D.J. Moreover, there are nice bits by Kirk Alyn as amiable old duffer Professor Machen, Carroll Borland as Machen's huffy superior Dr. Sharon Reynolds, and Forrest J. Ackerman as the bumbling Professor Trentwood. The cinematography by Larry Van Loon and Cynthia Webster makes occasional effective use of a dynamic hand-held camera. The shuddery synthesizer by Drew Neumann and Eric Rasmussen hits the skin-crawling spot. No classic, but worth a watch for dedicated fans of 80's low-budget indie fright fare.

Scarecrow-88 Director Fred Olen Ray has admitted that his movie, Scalps, concerning an evil Indian warrior spirit, Black Claw, who takes over the body of hunky Richard Hench who, in turn, begins murdering his fellow college classmates/friends in gruesome ways after excavating the ancient artifacts from a burial ground near a sacred area called the Black trees, was badly tampered with by rude investors("The guys from New York")making the entire experience an incomprehensible, incoherent mess. Ray, through great trouble, has tried to assemble a film in it's entirety using what materials were present, but Scalps(..sent to numerous foreign distributors who themselves edited footage out and into Scalps), he admits, is still an improper version of what he set out to accomplish. I thought the film itself was rather dismal, but his audio commentary was both fascinating and enlightening as he thoroughly explained the painstaking process he went through attempting to bring this film back to it's complete form. The photography(..Ray proclaims that he at least worked with 7 or 8 DP's)is often really ugly and the cast doesn't help the director out. From start to finish, the film is a trial to sit through. The pacing drags at a snail's pace, and the dialogue can make your ears bleed, but perhaps the writing is hampered by those who say the words. The Black Claw spirit carries the facial features of a grotesque witch you might find in a Grimm Fairy Tale storybook. The gore often delivers the goods, specifically the scalping scene and slit throat which gushes blood. There's also an impressive oozing bullet wound to the forehead as well. There's an unpleasant rape scene where Richard Hench's possessed Randy throws his girlfriend down, ripping her shirt and bra, while forcing penetration as she cries out in horror. Ray mentions in the audio commentary that he didn't want to create such a scene but wanted to distribute this film into theaters and that "the guys in New York" demanded nudity during the rape. I thought Forrest J Ackerman's cameo, plugging his MOnsters mag, was shameless and inappropriate(..and it was clear that Olen Ray doesn't exactly condone it in retrospect). Carroll Borland(..the *vampire* protégé of Lugosi's Count in Browning's MARK OF THE VAMPIRE)has a minor scene as a college dean furious with anthropology professor(..played by former Superman Kirk Alyn)for breaking certain rules regarding artifacts he possibly confiscated illegally. My favorite scenes in the film feature skeletal remains left burning in the sun as either a rat or desert tarantula crawl about over it. The history behind this film is far better than the product presented, but Scalps is a definite example of what can happen when a directors work is butchered by others. The beheading is rather limply presented. The music alternately works and/or is tiresome.