That was an excellent one.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

When you see the name Forrest J Ackerman and Fred Olen ray then you know that you are in the Drive-in atmosphere. And let me say, that's exactly what we are looking at. It's made in the middle of the slasher heydays but it isn't really a slasher. Why Fred gives away the decapitation in the beginning is still an unsolved question because it almost the best part of this flick. What's weirder is the fact that before the begin credits you have only a score combined with the images. Once they start talking you're in for bad sound and bad editing. Some parts were filmed without extra light which gives you too dark images. Some parts of this flick is filmed on bad reel, other parts are better, it's just like they used different reels to add it on the DVD. The effects are sometimes ridiculous like the pop up of the Indian ghost with white eyes but others are done well. The scalping is done really good and the beheading is also okay. But overall you have to take a lot of talking before the movie really starts going. It reminded me a bit of the story of Evil Dead, here they use some Indian sticks to wake up old spirits and they get possessed by them killing their friends. This is a pure example of what Drive-in is all about. It's watchable still today if you're looking for old horrors but don't expect too much of it.

Gritty, low-budget horror film from Fred Olen Ray. A group of teens on an archaeological dig disrupt the angry ghost of an Indian. One member is possessed, and by the end of the film, the cast is pretty much dead. The first half takes a while going nowhere, but a certain feeling of dread hangs over each shot of the film, and helps things move along a little bit smoother, especially when nothing is really happening. The murders come quick and are quite bloody, something this movie is known for. The special effects rank as pretty good, to just plain cheesy. The acting is passable and the characters are not a pain to watch. The film was shot on a pretty creepy piece of land, and it keeps the story moving. The movie is pretty flawed though. Scenes are shown out of order, creating confusion to a basically simple story. Some of the action takes place in complete darkness, which is just annoying. The video print I saw many many years ago was basically unwatchable at times. The DVD release is cleaned up but still pretty bad in spots. For the basic horror fan, this is fine for a view. Two And A Half Stars.

I'm not trying to be a dick, but I have no idea why I've seen so many good reviews of this retarded film. There is really almost NOTHING going for it. I saw a few people post about the "soundtrack"...It's the same damn music looped over, and over, and over, and over (get the point?) for the first 30 minutes of the film. It actually becomes comical at one point - then it becomes really annoying. SCALPS isn't even in the "So Bad It's Good" category...It belongs in the same category as LUCKER: THE NECROPHAGOUS as an "It's So Boring I'm Half-Asleep" film. I'm not gonna spend too much time on this mess of a film...so here goes...A bunch of dumbass's dig around on some Indian land - a bunch of boring stuff happens, then there are a few decent kill scenes. THE END...I like schlock and goofy films, but I don't think anything happened of any interest in the first fifty minutes of this film. No, I take that back, there's some weird guy in a lion (tiger, leopard, whatever...) outfit that I never really understood in the beginning, and some old guy cuts his own throat with a knife because he's "possessed" or some such sh!t...after that you have a bunch of boring nonsense about guys with bad beards and girls with bad hair hanging out in the desert somewhere. When things FINALLY start to happen, there are actually 2 or 3 "decent" (and by decent, I mean there's at least some blood, and an above-average throat-slashing...)kill scenes, and I think all of one set of tits in a scene that is so dark, that even if they DO look good, you can barely see them. This one was just way too dull for my taste and can only recommend this to real Z-grade schlock fans or people that might wanna pull a MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000-style commentary through the film. 3/10