by Joel Harley
Released in 2017, Nicolás and Lucas Onetti’s backwoods slasher film What The Waters Left Behind stood out from its fellow Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip-offs (note the lack of space between ‘chain’ and ‘saw’) through an intriguing setting, competent cinematography and an astounding commitment to cruelty.
Returning to the forgotten ruins of Epecuén, Scars follows a touring rock band as they encounter those that the waters left behind… namely a family of vicious rapist cannibals. Now riding solo, director Nicolás Onetti serves up more of the same – more of the same What The Waters Left Behind and more of the same Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There’s even another dinner table sequence, the most egregious of all Texas Chainsaw rips.
What Onetti and writer Camilo Zaffora do bring to the party is a slightly more equitable approach to screen brutality. While the film remains chock-full of gore and sexual violence, this is distributed somewhat more evenly between the film’s male and female characters as though to fend off accusations about their treatment of the women. Misogyny? What The Waters Left Behind hates all of its characters equally (but especially the women).
At the same time, Scars doesn’t go quite as hard as its predecessor, spending less time terrorising its bound and gagged victims… while still spending quite a lot of time terrorising its bound and gagged victims. Confused? Think the difference between a leg doused in acid as opposed to a leg mutilated, chopped off and minced.
This would be more upsetting if Onetti and Zaffora gave us any room to care about their characters, but as it is, they’re screaming cattle, given little to do but die slowly and painfully, chewing on their tiny little gags while the villains bicker and blather. Once again, the setting is wasted, the cinematography surprisingly solid.
Extreme horror fans worry not; this sequel is still a repulsive and objectionable prospect – but Scars is a diluted version of repulsive and objectionable; the same film as they made in 2017, but with just a little bit of its edge eroded.
What The Waters Left Behind: Scars is out in the USA on Digital, DVD, and Blu-ray on July 18th.
