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 torture scenes in the Guinea Pig films make you squirm in your seat while you watched? Did the grisly rape of 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 deep within the pores of your skin when its 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 here is Haack in her roles 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 and do a lot to make us feel for her. Her performance seems honest and 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 near 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. Thankfully, Biondo was able to keep himself from going too far so over the top which prevents his role from becoming 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 movie though is un-credited – 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 Polaroid's all over the walls, and just a general, overall feeling of uncleanliness.   

Upon a second viewing, the technique becomes more evident and it's easier to appreciate the atmosphere and the sets even more as the story is already familiar.

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-mâché. 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. It's not a pretty film, it's not an easy film to sit through either, but it's definitely well done and it'll certainly stick with you long after it's finished - it'll also put you off milk for awhile...

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 a little above average, though again, things do sound better than the last disc with a bit more clarity and a bit more punch in the mix.

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). If this sounds familiar, that's okay - it's not a new track, it was included on the previous release as well, but it's good material and I don't blame the producers for carrying it over. It does a fine job of lending some insight into the production and it does so with a bit of humor but without losing sight of the fact that a commentary should give you a look at the making of the movie.

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. Haack, Wallace, Stanze, and a few other members of the crew are interviewed at length about their experiences on the film and how they came on board to work on the project. A lot of the credit for the film goes to Biondo who was responsible for the idea and for a lot of the research that went into the project to make it as grisly as it is. At almost half an hour in length and with a wealth of behind the scenes footage, this documentary does a great job of complimenting the commentary track, even if there is a bit of repetition between the two.

The Shower Cam segment is the entire, complete shower rape scene that you'll see in the film, presented here in one piece without any edits or cuts. It's over fifteen minutes long in this form and you will hear Stanze giving direction to Biondo in spots - it's nasty stuff. 

One deleted scene has also been included on this disc, presented with music only as a recording malfunction messed up the location recording during the shoot. It's just under ninety seconds in length and in it Biondo chases Haack through the barn with an axe, only to molest her once he's got her in place.

Finally, rounding out the extra features, there are trailers included for Scrapbook, Ice From The Sun, and Deadwood Park.

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