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There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

When a group of friends in Wales decide to cut school and hang out in the woods, they meet a drifter who will change their lives in the shocking true story, Summer Scars. Writer/Director Julian Richards claims that this actually happened to him as a child. At 67 minutes long, this is one of the shortest films you will ever see and still it felt like it was too long. What happened was unique and defiantly worthy of a film, but it seems to me like Richards decided to tell the entire truth of what happened in painstaking detail. What this film needed was some fiction thrown in to make the story more interesting and to space out the events of what happened. As for the cast, it was almost completely full of newcomers, some of which were horrible, but others like Darren Evans, showed some real skill and a bright future. The only veteran actor was Kevin Howarth, who played the drifter and he was terrific. The veteran horror actor really showed us in a short period of time, what this guy must have really been like and he was really amazing. It's the performances of Howarth and Evans that make this short, creepy film worth watching. Summer Scars was an interesting story, but jumped around so much and had a hard time finding direction. For long periods of time nothing happens, but when it finally does, it comes at you so quickly that you're just confused. I liked this film, but with the story they had to go with, if they had had a better cast, and spread things out a little more, Summer Scars could have been so much more than it was.

(Spoilers) One of the several derivations of this movie is clearly the superior "The Boys Club" (Canada,1997), in which three somewhat younger boys, about 14, encounter in the woods a wounded man who manipulates them in brutal fashion similar to Summer Scars through lies and flattery. In the process of derivation, however, the director of "Summer Scars" has lost the original's tightness of story -- in fact there is almost no plot development and little character development. (At one point, one hopes the director is creating a character in crippled Ben whom we can cheer for, but inexplicably, he wastes the opportunity, choosing instead to plod ahead with his predictable agenda of mild sensationalism.) Thirdly he has neglected to cast, or could not afford, child actors with adequate experience, which results, among other things, in the greater part of the dialog among the children being indecipherable. On the DVD, this is complicated by the fact that there are no subtitles. The viewer might wonder if there are no subtitles because no one can figure out in fact what was actually being said.In the case of derivative movies, one would hope to introduce improvements over the original, not defects.

When six high schoolers skip school to play in the woods, they come across a mysterious drifter named Peter (Kevin Howarth). At first, all goes smoothly as Peter joins in with the kids' games. Soon, however, he turns and begins to play with the kids in more twisted ways. As the day progresses, Peter starts playing his own games. . . until he goes too far. . .This really is a difficult film on which to comment. From one view, it seems that it's a very uneventful story about a crazy guy screwing with some kids. On the other hand, however, it's an interesting and chilling look into a madman toying dangerously with a group of adolescents in order to teach them a series of lessons. 'Summer Scars' will definitely the type of film that will evenly divide the viewing base between boredom and intrigue, but I'm definitely leaning towards the intrigue. When looking at the film from a technical point of view, it's very good. The script is fantastic, though, as I said, seemingly uneventful. The dialogue flows well and maintains a steady realism throughout, and the realism is enhanced by some good performances from the kids and a great performance from Kevin Howarth (from director Julian Richards's previous film The Last Horror Movie). The direction & cinematography utilize the forest setting well and, even when the group is just sitting around for a period of time, never rests with exploring the area visually. Adding to the atmosphere visually, the lack of a soundtrack really helps to keep things downbeat and believable (think No Country for Old Men). On a deeper level, the film attempts to play almost like a real-world fairy tale. . . do something wrong, reap the consequences, but still come out better (mentally) when it's all finished. In the end, 'Summer Scars' is not for those looking for a plot-driven film with any real amount of action. It's a character-driven thriller that toys with the minds of the youth (and the viewers) and focuses more on lessons of morality than violence and action. If that's what you want, give this one a look.Final Verdict: 7/10.-AP3-

Anyone who recalls misspent summers of youth will understand well how a single day can echo down the years. Like the similarly resonant stories of Rob Reiner's Stand by Me, or much of Shane Meadows's work, Summer Scars captures fragile youth at a turning point, with cracks opening up to the darker adult world.Six friends bunk off school to spend the day in the woods. Armed with a few cans of beer and some very inadequate barbecue skills, they're free to do just what 14-year-olds do best: show off, swear, fight and spend the day just hanging out together. The first reel of Julian Richards's low budget drama is spent solely in the company of these six. Like most real kids they're certainly no angels, and might qualify as 'hoodies' in a cruder film.Riding a stolen moped around the bumpy woodland paths, two of the gang collide with a lone adult, Peter (Howarth). They fear the worst, and leg it from the scene, but Peter is unharmed and soon emerges to join the group. Attention turns to this unknown quantity, and the focus of the group shifts. Peter seems to be 'down with the kids'. He's sympathetic, and is soon leading the gang into new scrapes.But Peter can't be pinned down – one minute he's offering life lessons to his young charges, the next he seems more sinister, playing divide and conquer, and easily exploiting tensions by turning friends against one another. As the afternoon wears on, events take worrying turns, and it appears Peter's agenda may be closing in on the gang.This low-budget indie thriller makes all the right moves with an engagingly 'real' cast of youngsters. Never patronising and edgy throughout, it's a heartfelt picture of fragile adolescent faiths.