• Straight to Video
• Director: Jesse T. Cook, John Geddes
• Written by: Jesse T. Cook, John Geddes
• Running Time: 93 minutes
• Language: English
• MPAA Rating: UNRATED
• Cast: Steve Warren, Gary Fischer, Chris Warrilow, Thomas Webb, John Geddes, Jesse T. Cook, Stephanie Banting, Gavin Peacock, Matt Griffin, Jaclyn Pampalone, Jackie Eddolls, Steve Vecchiola, Melanie Brown, Ted Lye, Jason Derushie, John Cowan, Earl Haggard, Murray Knowles, David Lever, Kevin Doner, Leigh Nash, Jeff Derushie, Robert Greb, Jacob McNeil, Rod Thomas, Rachel Chartrand, Beth Armstrong, Samantha Thomas, Olivia Bessel, Cindy Crossley, Steve Barrett, Matt Wiele, Chris Rutte, Charis Chattell, Chris Struggle, Brian Cook, Devin Pearson, Jeff Garland, Tom Sigsworth, Jared Baldwin, Amanda Ayers-Clements

Five years from now, if somebody brings up the movie “Scarce”, I’m sure the first thing that will flood my brain will be a big frigid blast of crispy whiteness. For sure, the sweeping monochromatic landscape on display here stands so far out, that it practically becomes its own character. It rides along with the characters in the first half, strands them in the next, hides them a bit later and then plays games of endurance with them in the end. We like the snow and we marvel at its beauty, but we also know that she’s a vicious little sucker with a nasty bite, something the characters in “Scarce” soon discover. Not that the audiences come away untarnished either, as before they even realize it, they are swept up in the sheer visceral quality of it all.

I guarantee for anyone watching, the final fifteen minutes, when the central characters are trudging into knee deep snow wearing only T-shirts and boxer shorts for agonizingly long stretches, you’ll be wishing you had a fireplace to shrivel up next to, or at least a warm cup of java to sip. The stabbing bleakness of this frosty winterscape takes on a certain heightened veracity as the actors themselves endure actual hardship, including near frostbite, in their effort to put across the most honest and brutal portrait of survival. Growing up in the same part of Ontario, Canada where this film was shot, I can fully appreciate the ardour and devotion that went into bringing this film to reality as the winter of 2007, the year this film was filmed, was the coldest and bleakest in my memory. “Scarce”, for all of its faults and problems, absolutely and unequivocally captures the cold, harsh realism of winter.

Even though many of the parts might look the same, this isn’t your typical ‘stranded motorist on a lonely road stalked by cannibal’ movie. The decision to incorporate a wintry backdrop, and all of its beauty and adversity, into the story; gives the piece a certain visual, creative and artistic oomph that so many films of this ilk just lack. And even when the film starts to run out of steam in the final half hour, relying on cliché and twaddle to keep things moving, you’ll still find yourself unable to turn away from the sheer power of the visuals. While “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre”, the film that seems to have inspired this, at least on a fundamental level, seemed to capture the feeling of the deep South in the middle of a sweltering summer, “Scarce” seems to be an inverted re-imagining of that idea. Though this re-tooling is something that isn’t easy to forget.

Following a drug and alcohol fuelled party at a Colorado ski lodge; three vacationing snowboarders from New Jersey, Owen (John Geddes), Trevor (Jesse T. Cook) and Dustin (Thom Webb), suddenly find themselves lost in Pennsylvania during a snowstorm. In their haste to get home, and with the main highway shut down, the boys have taken to crawling along the desolate icy backroads looking for a way out of Hicksville. A pit stop at a tiny out of the way diner quickly sets the film’s malicious tone, as a group of vile, phlegm-hawking rednecks (note George W. Bush’s picture plastered prominently on the wall) remind the three friends that they aren’t welcome, and that they should move along. One kind spirit at the rest stop does momentarily point them in the direction home; however, a close-up of the kind man’s face suggests sinister intentions. Ah yes, we’ve been here before. Our three boys are in heaps of trouble. Far from deliverance, the trio quickly find themselves careening into a road-closed barrier, thus rendering their car useless. Trevor is badly injured, forcing Owen and Dustin to traipse up the road in the middle of a whiteout looking for help. They find it, sort of, in a looming wooden house, which they spot off in the distance. Nobody greets them upon their arrival, so the boys bust in and attempt to find a telephone. It isn’t long before the grandfatherly owner of the house arrives, shotgun in hand.

Luckily for the boys, the old feller, Ivan (Steve Warren), a pale, emaciated guy with yellow teeth, is of the kindly, soothing sort. Think Andy Griffith, folks! He’s an affable chap with a calming, charming demeanour, and it isn’t very long before the boys and the audience alike are easing into a comfort zone. He agrees to take the boys down the road to get their friend, however, things go from really bad to downright strange when they discover that Trevor is gone. “He’s probably at Wade’s,” Ivan assures them. As a storm brews just over the horizon, Ivan hurries the boys into his truck, promising to take them to Wade’s place tomorrow. Apparently he lives just up the road. For now, however, it’s time to play befuddled guest to Ivan’s gracious host. Even though food is scarce this time of year, Ivan assures them that he has just gotten a fresh kill. Over games of chess, and plates of that fresh-slaughter stew, Owen and Dustin find themselves getting tipsy on Ivan’s sour old school moonshine, which he fittingly nicknames ‘Malarkey’. The next day, upon hearing radio reports that a fresh storm is moving in; things continue to veer off into incongruity, kick-started by a terrifyingly prophetic dream and later, the discovery of a tape-recorded message – warning of a fresh storm to come. Ah yes, Andy Grifith becomes Ed Gein in a blink of an eye, as Ivan’s true and sinister character suddenly materializes in a pair of shocking scenes. Sadly, he’s not alone in the house, as we soon discover. It seems the neighbor Wade (Gary Fischer) has been the house the whole time, and before long, he and Ivan are assessing the value of their guests... er, catch. “We have enough meat here to last us the winter,” Wade bellows.

The ending, involving a cat and mouse game between the hunters and the near-naked prey through a snow-blanketed forest landscape, is downbeat, predictable and ultimately disappointing, but it doesn’t hinder the film’s audacious first half. Granted, whatever problems I had began with the arrival of a couple characters almost 60 minutes into the movie. See, I firmly believe that if Wade and, later, another character named The Slob had never been introduced, I’d have been in my glory. In a way, they seemed to crash the party. For me, Ivan alone drove the piece. His peculiar, duplicitous interactions with the characters; his philosophical take on everything from how to best serve meat to the cycle of life (“Soon you’ll pass right through me and be nothing more than my shit”) were absolutely alluring. Never has a character been so fascinating and authentic. A guy like Ivan, I’m sure, can and does exist, and if anything, this film paints a frightening portrait of the type of dehumanizing isolation that exists in some far backwoods communities - folks completely detached from the social fabric of life and human interaction, left alone to exist on their own devices. It’s understandable and completely believable that a guy like Ivan might exist. Sadly, with the arrival of Wade and The Slob, the film moves into the more outrageous, and thus loses its overall power. Personally, had the film stuck with Ivan and the three boys, it would have been near perfect, instead, it’s swerves and crashes into cliché. Christ, it doesn’t even make a sense why The Slob (Chris Warrilow) would want to purchase meat from Wade and Ivan considering that he has a veritable meat locker in his basement. Wade, looking more like Stone Cold Steve Austin than a malnourished cannibal, isn’t the least bit frightening and I literally groaned when he pulled his Death Mask off. At first, I thought the person in the basement might be Ivan’s semi-retarded inbred child, but nope, it’s a strapping thirty something guy with a typcially trendy facial scar. Far from rural raised, I didn’t buy for one second that Wade was anything less than a big city boy pretending to be a small town hick.  Ivan though, I bought his shtick all the way.

Steve Warren (1993's "Cheerleader Autopsy") has been in over 60 films (including every Tyler Perry production) since getting his start in movies nearly twenty years ago. Interestingly, he’s only been credited for about half of those appearances; something that speaks to film director’s not knowing what they have even when it’s standing right in front of them. It boggles the mind that Warren, with all of his undeniable talent, isn’t a household name yet. His performance in “Scarce” is a revelation, and his future as an actor with five films in production in 2009, is definitely on the up swing. He is reassuring and at the same time, frightening, a trait that I find far more terrifying than a smart aleck with knives for fingers. Across the board the other performances are good to mediocre, with only a few of the actor’s struggling with their delivery. Actor’s John Geddes and Thomas Webb prove themselves devoted to the material, diving into knee-deep snow barefoot. Now that’s balls!

"Scarce” relies heavily on gore, and gruelling torture sequences, to bulk up its running time, thus making for plenty of gross out moments. FX men, The Gore Brothers (Jason and Jeff DeRushie), clearly brought their A game to the production, and the result is exceptional. One particular bit involving an exposed spine is jaw droppingly gruesome... not to mention painful looking. Another sequence where a toenail is removed with pliers, I personally found unable to endure. It’s obvious that these guys were out to make a name.

Overall, “Scarce” is an enjoyable little indie film, one that does a whole lot with not a lot. I can’t wait to see what Jesse T. Cook and John Geddes have in the pipe for their next outing.