Scrapbook

Released by: Sub Rosa Studios
Released on: 3/18/2003
Director: Eric Stanze
Cast: Emily Haack, Tommy Biondo
Year: 1999
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The Movie:

Tommy Biondo (of Ice From The Sun) plays a maniacal serial killer named Leonard who abducts women (presumably because of some bizarre experiences we see him go through during the first couple of minutes into the film) and, as he tortures and rapes them, forces them to contribute to the scrapbook that he keeps. His latest victim is Clara (Emily Haack of The Undertow in her first role), who he brutally rapes and keeps locked up in his house, which is out in the middle of nowhere. Eventually, Clara begins to play along with his delusions and hopes to be able to make her escape.

That's the story in a nutshell. If I go any closer to divulging how the story ends it would totally ruin a good portion of the impact of the movie and I don't want to do that to those who've never seen this minor masterpiece of depravity.

Did the Guinea Pig films make you squirm in your seat? Did I Spit On Your Grave make you want to take a shower when you were done with it? Then Scrapbook will make you want to curl up in the fetal position and scrub the filth from the pores of your skin when it's ninety-five minutes are finished. Stanze and company take us into some pretty filthy territory here and the cameras do not shy away from anything.

The star of the show is Haack as Clara. Stanze skillfully uses quite a few close ups to capture the honest fear in her eyes, which are quite pretty and very expressive. Her performance is quite genuine and ultimately quite believable and I can only imagine how tough it would be to play this role. She's pissed on, forced to felate her captor (in a scene that comes oh so close to being actual hardcore), stuffed into a garbage can and doused with milk, and continually beaten throughout the film. The films commentary track reveals how much of her performance is acting and how much is reality and at times, it sounds like things came dangerously close to being more than a little too close for comfort.

The late Tommy Biondo (who sadly passed away shortly after the film was finished) is almost equally as impressive as Leonard thanks in no small part to some sufficiently sleazy looking wardrobe and his manic facial expressions that effectively portray anger and angst without being so over the top that it becomes comical (which is more often than not how it goes in the low budget arena when you're rarely working with professional actors).

The third star of the set though is uncredited - the sets. Whoever scoped out and secured the house and barn that the film is shot in has to get some credit for the films success, as a lot of the dirty, perverted atmosphere that the film captures so well is due to the locale in which it takes place. It's also adorned with rotting fruit, pornographic pictures, creepy Polaroids all over the walls, and just a general, overall feeling of uncleanliness.

The movie is not perfect though. There are a few moments where the dialogue feels too loose and spontaneous and it shows that they weren't really working with the best scripting in the world and some of the corpse props are obviously papier-mí¢ché. But such are the down strokes of working on such a low budget feature. The cinematography, performances, and overall feeling of ill ease are enough to recommend Scrapbook to those who don't mind challenging and harrowing filmmaking. It's certainly not for everyone and the realistic sexual violence will turn a lot of people off (and rightly so) but there's no disputing the effectiveness of the film and that's quite an accomplishment.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Scrapbook was shot on video and it shows. Whether or not that's a bad thing is simply a matter of personal preference. Some people won't watch anything shot on video, some people have no problem with it. Personally, I think for this production, that shooting it on film would have resulted in an over-polished final product that wouldn't have had the same impact than what we have here. That being said, there is some edge enhancement on this transfer that stands out in a few scenes that, had this not been here, would have made the presentation look better. Other than that though, it's not a bad looking job. Colors are pretty good and there aren't any compression problems apparent.

The sound mix here is serviceable, though not outstanding. The limitations of the film are audible in a few spots (the mic noise as the camera rolls around on the bed during the first scene comes to mind) and in a couple of scenes it's a little hard to hear what's being said. Adjusting the volume solves the problem, but then you'll be turning it back down again during some other more intense moments in the film. Overall, for a shot on video production, the audio quality is average.

Director Eric Stanze, Producer Jeremy Wallace and star Emily Haack are on hand to provide a full running commentary over the entire feature. We all know commentaries can be hit or miss but this one proves to be well worth listening to. A lot of the film was improvised and made up on the spot and they give us quite a bit of insight into how much of it was planed and how much wasn't. Haack also relates how she felt about certain harsher scenes as they were being filmed and how she reacted to Biondo's performance. Stanze lends his insight into some of the more technical aspects of the production - why certain shots were chosen and how he feels they came out, while Wallace lends some interesting anecdotes throughout (he mentions at least three times that he had to look away while on set during a couple of different scenes).

There's also a 'making of' feature included on the disc. All of the key players from the cast and crew are featured here and it's an interesting look at what appears to have been a fairly tough shoot.

Finally, there is a text bio of the late Tommy Biondo, two trailers for Scrapbook, and trailers for two other Sub Rosa/Wicked Pixel releases included as well.


The Final Word:

The word 'disturbing' is thrown around a lot when describing genre films. All too often, it's used carelessly. Scrapbook though, truly deserves that label. It'll get under your skin and you can't wash it off.