I love Amazon Prime's dedication to making sure the full range of trash cinema is cataloged and made available for your viewing pleasure.
Enter "Scalpel", a little gem from '77 that takes the term 'lurid' and seeks to provide the best possible example of what that means.
The plot is this: A plastic surgeon living in Georgia is cheated out of his father-in-laws will in favor of his estranged (and now missing) daughter. Through a quick series of cicrumstances, a stripper with a pulverized face lands in his lap and he determines to fix her face to exactly resemble his runaway daughter so he can have her claim the inheritance and cut him in for half.
Now, a couple of interesting things; this movie LOOKS like a horror film, but really isn't, it's actually a Lifetime movie (ok, more like 80's Cinemax) that depicts Georgia's 'southern society' scene in a fairly charitable light. The entire film is shot in Georgia with southern actors, so the accents are on display, which is kind of nice. But you don't see too many Antebellum Society movies anymore (Eastwood's "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" as a notable exception).
The lead guy is from another age, as in, just past cro-magnon. He looks like Kee-Rock from "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer", and frankly acts like it. I mean this dude is a MUR-DER-ER, as he (spoiler) has murdered 2 people already by the time you meet him and proceeds to murder one more and attempts to murder two others before the end of the film. Straight-up killer.
I will say this: For its faults and sort of bizarre setting, it's actually oddly compelling in as much as you DO want to see what happens, even if you feel like you might need a shower afterwards.
It's no masterpiece, but it is kinda fun.
2.5 out of 5.
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