danielle_shade It has six 14-year-olds playing truant in the woods where they are befriended by a drifter (Kevin Howarth). First he gains their trust by joining in their games but they realize too late they are being held prisoner and when Peter acknowledges he has gone too far, things really get out of hand.I was impressed by the film. Very good performances from Kevin Howarth and the young cast, a thoroughly believable group of teenagers and their interactions are good. Summer Scars is a well acted and frequently tense (most notably the scene with the girl at the end) film.A film that everyone must see!

movieman_kev A group of rebellious kids find themselves in over their heads when one of their gang accidentally hits a man with the bike they stole. The man, Peter (Kevin Howarth, The Last Horror Film, Razor Blade Smile) at first seeming friendly to the gang, has more sinister motivations.I found myself engaged with the film up to a point and Howarth brings a fairly good performance, but the kids, as hooligans, aren't really that likable (not to say that the situation they find themselves in isn't tense, it is) But that coupled with an ending that seemed rushed and a tad bit anti-climatic made the film seem less then the sum of it's parts. Sadly this one is a well-intentioned misfire.My Grade: C- DVD Extras: Director's commentary; A 30 minute Making-of feature; Stills gallery; Original trailer for this film; and trailers for "Dante's Inferno", "Hell's Ground", "Pistoleros", & "the Living and the Gead"

dschmeding The basic premise of a gang of teenagers acting tough and being confronted with real life violence that is the main outline for "Summer Scars" could be interesting for a psychological thriller. We had the subject in movies like Eden Lake where it got carried over the top or in Stuck with the gangsta who shits his pants when having to put his tough words to work. "Summer scars" rather starts out like a modern version of "stand by me" with a group of youngsters going to the woods to have fun with a stolen moped and some beers. The gang is introduced with 5 guys and a girl having some bullying issues, one guy having a crush on the girl and 2 brothers of which 1 is paralyzed and carried into the woods without his wheelchair. 2 of them drive through the woods and hit a guy with their moped who soon meets the gang and introduces himself as Peter. He isn't angry about the hit-and-round and tries to make friends with the group but after some mindless fun his face starts to change. From here on this could have worked out to be a psychological chiller since Peter is unpredictable and unstable. At first he shows the gang tricks, then he plays mind games trying to turn them on each other. But he obviously has issues himself, wears a pellet gun and talks about the army, gets headaches and soon threatens the gang. All this just turns out leading absolutely nowhere... the mind-games are half-hearted, we never get to know why Peter acts so strange and back stories like the 2 brothers and the story behind the 1 getting into the accident that paralyzed him are picked up and dropped while you expect it to be implemented in Peters mind games with the kids. And pretty much everything works out like that... it all just seems an incoherent mess that ends in a silly way like "stand by me". I couldn't pull any message or experience out of all this which leaves this as a real low budget movie shot one a cheap one location somewhere in the woods. I think the actors did a good job but I will have forgotten about all this within a week because the story is just way to tame and bouncing around from left to right with barely any real tension building after Peter turns out to be a little psycho.

dekalog666 This new feature from Julian Richards the director of THE LAST HORROR MOVIE boasts another 'volcanic' performance by Kevin Howarth. It would spoil the fun of SUMMER SCARS to reveal what exactly happens, but this morality tale, which takes place entirely in a forest, is an unsettling film about abuse, mental, emotional and physical. This is a film that has resonance with a youth crime phenomenon in Britain. As knife crime dominates London and teen suicide dominates Wales, the best screen villains are now not serial killers or zombies but contemporary British youth (although In SUMMER SCARS the teens are more anti-hero than villain).The irony, of course, is that SUMMER SCARS works precisely because of this social context, and not despite it. It is beautifully shot and intensely acted, and it's queasy approach to youth culture gives it a fascinating attraction. We've had troubled youth movies in the past, everything from BULLY to MEAN CREEK, but this bold marriage of topicality and slick genre formatting is startling and defiantly un-Hollywood.