DVD REVIEW: SCAR TISSUE / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: SCOTT MICHELL / SCREENPLAY: SCOTT MICHELL / STARRING: DANNY HORN, CHARITY WAKEFIELD, KENNETH COLLEY, DANIEL FRASER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
It’s been a while since the last Saw film, leaving us in a period of filmmaking where grim, bleak police procedurals are relatively few and far between. Well, the subgenre feels a little redundant when you can just switch on your TV for an episode of Criminal Minds or The Following – cop thrillers every bit as scary and gruesome as the horror movies they themselves are informed by. Enter British effort Scar Tissue, in which a young fellow finds himself stalked by a demented serial killer long thought dead and buried.
The Hollyoaks-after-dark style filmmaking gets you a cast of pretty young things trying to solve a fairly confusing murder mystery while the stubbly, useless cops serve only to get in the way or wind up either kidnapped or dead. What us Brits do manage to bring to the table is a surprising level of gore and some brilliant, uniquely English swearing. Nobody does inventive swearing quite like the Brits, and Scar Tissue doesn’t disappoint in that respect – it’s potty-mouthed script saving the day from its less than accomplished TV-level actors and mostly dull story. It does liven up towards the end, in a twisty and halfway clever finale which makes some entertainingly bizarre decisions.
Most bizarre of all, however, is the appearance of comedian (granted, your mileage may vary on that one) Tom Rosenthal in a fairly decent sized role. His performance isn’t enough to warrant seeking Scar Tissue out, but it’s an interesting curiosity in an otherwise clichéd and overly dark thriller. Just don’t go expecting any Friday Night Dinner level laughs – his character and performance are played straight, unintentional laughs aside. It’s still better than Plebs though.
While it’s not on a par with those it imitates, it’s at least made tolerable by some good gore, great swearing and a surprise Tom Rosenthal. So very charmingly British (in the dour, gritty tradition rather than a Downton Abbey kind of way), it’s like a Saw movie as filtered through Eastenders. Which is to say that, like the end credits of our most enduring soap opera, it’s a bit duff (duff, duff, duff).
Special Features: None
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