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What Lies Behind “Summer Scars”
By Julian Richards, director of Summer Scars
(from Newport Beach Film Festival 2008)
It was after watching Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky that I became aware how decisions we make in our life could be directly influenced by the culture that we consumed during our youth.
So, if Dario Argento is responsible for the type of girls I date, who can I blame for the films I choose to make?
Critics were quick to draw comparisons between Darklands and The Wicker Man, as they were between The Last Horror Movie and Man Bites Dog, but recent comparisons between Summer Scars and Stand By Me have raised more questions than they answer. |
Summer Scars is based on a true-life incident that happened to me during my childhood. When I was 11 years old, my friends and I would spend our weekends in the woods, playing war games and letting our imaginations run wild. Our favorite spot was called Devil's Drop; two muddy embankments leading to a narrow stream with a fallen tree across the top. Think King Kong and you should be able picture it.
One Sunday morning, we were building a dam in the stream when a man appeared, dressed in a combat jacket and sporting an air rifle. If we tried to escape, he shot at us, his aim getting closer and closer, until one of us was hit in the face. Eventually he got bored and let us go, but it was a terrifying ordeal, one that still resonates when I hear about massacres like Virginia Tech.
So, whilst I agree that my earlier films owe a debt to previous icons of genre cinema, the same cannot be said for Summer Scars...
Or can it?
I often become aware of the influences on my work after the fact, and it was during a festival screening of Summer Scars in Sweden that I made a connection between the football sequence in Kes, in which games teacher Brian Glover bullies Billy Casper, and the scenes in Summer Scars where Kevin Howarth terrorizes the kids. Somehow, the spirit of Kes found its way into Summer Scars, as did the core ingredients of British realism that personifies much of Ken Loach's work (non-actors, available light, hand-held camera).
So, maybe Cameron Crowe is right, that we are, ultimately, products of ourenvironment, and, as much as we try to blow the monkey off our shoulder, there is often no escaping the forces that have formed us. -MPM |
Photos courtesy of the filmmaker.
Movie Synopsis:
Six fourteen-year-old children skip school to play in the woods, but some hot-rodding on a stolen mo-ped changes the fate of their day. They crash into Peter, a disheveled loner, who is delighted to have a group of kids to hang out with. First he gains their trust by joining in their games, but then his behavior begins to change. Peter uses what he has learned about the kids against them - bullying the alpha boys, belittling the weaker ones and saving his worst for the only girl of the group. The gang realizes too late they are being held prisoner and, when Peter acknowledges he has gone too far, they are forced to embrace the dark side of human nature if they are going to survive the ordeal. View trailer
North American DVD release September 30, 2008; distributed by Danger After Dark - TLA Releasing.
Awards
BAFTA Nomination - Best Film
BAFTA Nomination - Best Newcomer (Al Wilson - Screenplay)
BAFTA Nomination - Best Titles (Craig Wilkinson)
Best Director - London Independent Film Festival
Best Actor - Austin Fantastic Festival |
Julian Richards - Director/Producer
After winning the British Student Film Festival 1990 with his National Film School graduation short Queen Sacrifice, Julian Richards was hired by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment to write the unproduced screenplay Calling All Monsters. After several years directing television drama for BBC and Channel Four, Richards wrote and directed his debut feature, Darklands, a supernatural horror that won six awards, including a Melies d'Argent for Best European Fantasy Film 1997. In 2001, Richards directed conspiracy thriller Silent Cry, and, in 2003, he produced and directed cult sensation The Last Horror Movie, which won 16 awards, including Best Film at NYC Horror Festival 2004. In 2007, Richards produced and directed Summer Scars, which recently won two British Academy Awards as well as Best Feature at Santa Cruz Film Festival. Kevin Howarth - Lead Actor
Since graduating Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Howarth's film work has included six feature films: The Big Swap, Razorblade Smile, Cash in Hand, The Ghost of Greville Lodge, Cold & Dark and The Last Horror Movie, for which he received best actor awards in New York, Buenos Aires and Montevideo film festivals. In 2007, Howarth won Best Actor at Austin Fantastic Festival for his performance in Summer Scars. Howarth recently played Kansa, the nemesis of Wesley Snipes in the upcoming horror/western Gallowwalker. Summer Scars has screened in 38 festivals, including Austin Fantastic, Hollywood, Oxford, Newport Beach, Santa Cruz, Another Hole in the Head, Houston and Boston International. Summer Scars is the first in a new wave of nihilistic thrillers involving British youth. Others include Eden Lake, Donkey Punch and Better Things. Please also see MPM's movie review. View websites:
http://www.prolificfilms.freeserve.co.uk/
http://www.jingafilms.com/ |
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