A couple years ago, I caught this late one night on the Halmark Channel, and boy oh boy, this one just made me feel grimy all over, and by the end, I wasn't quite sure how to feel. Scum Of The Earth AKA Poor White Trash part 2 was directed by a fellow named S. F. Brownrigg. A year of two before this one, S. F. directed what I consider to be one of the all-time Horror greats, Don't look in the basement. I would also like to add that I absolutely do not consider Scum Of The Earth to be in the "great" category, although, if you fancy depressing Hixploitation, then yeah, I guess it's pretty fantastic. I'll give good ol' S.F. one thing, he went for filthy, sleazy, and sickening, and that's exactly what he, and we got. Scum Of The Earth begins with a couple, Paul and Helen honeymooning in the woods (yeah, you're right, that's pretty weird). Out of nowhere, Paul is murdered by an unseen killer. The horrified new widow runs off into the woods, right into the backwards drama of a backwoods family, in the deepest, darkest depths of the Texas sticks. After spending just a few minutes with the Pickett Family, and with the stench of incest in the air, Helen wonders whether of not she's safer out there...Meet Odis Pickett: Abusive, borderline-sadistic old drunk, and family patriarch. Just lookin' for somethin' to rape. Odis considers his "house" a suitable place for Helen to hide from the killer.Meet Sarah Pickett: Sassy, vindictive little VD farm, and Odis's daughter. Sarah hates her family, especially her brother, she hates Helen, too. Sarah will do anything for a dollar.Meet Bo Pickett: Inbred man-child, and Sarah's brother, would believe anything he's told, not much going' on with Bo. Everyone hates him, except Emmy.Meet Emmy Pickett: Odis's pregnant, abused, second wife. The only decent human in the Pickett house hold. Sold to Odis by her father, to cover a debt Emmy's a pretty good sport, if you ask me. Possibly, Helen's only hope for survival.Scum of the earth fails in some areas, like with suspense, and a well thought-out plot-line. On the other hand, this film has a distinct atmosphere, probably found nowhere else, not even in Poor White Trash part 1, whatever the hell that is. If you want to really go for raw, crude, politically incorrect Horror, with no sugar-coating, you might not hate this as much as some. Just a big pile of negative. I can only imagine how humid, and flat-out uncomfortable the shooting location was for this. Brownrigg really must have wanted to make movies. Not the best thing the man ever did, but come to think of it, it probably is second best. Hixploitation for those of us with a dark sense of humor. just think of it as Moonshine Mountain's evil twin. 7/10

Helen Fraser (Norma Moore), a pretty (or should that be 'purdy') city girl on vacation with her hubby Paul, flees into the Texas backwoods after finding her spouse dead (having lost an argument with the business end of an axe!). Panic-stricken, she runs into redneck Odis Pickett, who takes her back to his cabin to meet the family: pregnant wife Emmy, daughter Sarah (pronounced Say-rah), and idiot son Bo. But rather than call for help, Odis proceeds to subject Helen to a night of drunken abuse, culminating in rape.And all the while, a murderer lurks in the woods outside, waiting to kill again.Scum Of The Earth (AKA Poor White Trash 2), by director S. F. Brownrigg, may not feature the highest of production values, and might be a mite talky for many people, but with a script that delivers some of the funniest hillbilly dialogue in the history of cinema (this one packs in every clichéd redneck saying in the book), great characters (think the Clampetts, only not so clever), and a smidgen of incest, rape and murder, it's difficult to resist the film's sleazy exploitation charms.Norma Moore does a decent enough job as the woman in peril, looking suitably scared (and rather tasty) throughout, but it is those playing the dungaree wearing, possum eating hicks that really make this piece of 70s trash cinema unmissable. Gene Ross is delightfully odious as Odis, slurping moonshine from a jar whilst slapping his slutty daughter to the floor and threatening his pregnant wife; Charlie Dell, as Bo, makes an extremely convincing moron; Camilla Carr is equally as credible as Bo's loose-knickered sister (I'd buy that for a dollar—NOT!); whilst Ann Stafford, as Odis's downtrodden woman, provides some much needed pathos.Added to this potpourri of Southern stereotypes are several brief-but-nasty scenes of gore (the opening axe-ing, an impalement, a barbed wire garrote, and a shotgun blast to the face) and a truly silly ending in which the identity of the killer is finally revealed; the result is a mighty enjoyable movie that'll have you smilin' like a mule eating' briars.And if anyone tells you diff'rent, don't pay him no never mind!7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

The best thing you can say about S.F. Brownrigg and his films is that he had his own unique style and vision. Few directors can actually claim that. But are his movies really good? They work on a Brownrigg level but when you start thinking about them outside his universe, they really don't hold up. I enjoy Brownrigg's quaint "aw shucks with a bloody axe" quality more than the movies themselves. The same can be said about SCUM OF THE EARTH or POOR WHITE TRASH 2. There's actual attempt at direction and acting here, compared to exploitation films made then or even today but the problem is Brownrigg's treatment is better than the material he's working on. The story in SCUM OF THE EARTH is totally implausible: a big city woman is forced to stay with a family of hillbillies after her husband was murdered, with an axe to his chest, by an unknown assailant. The dramatics are not really believable, certainly after Pick rapes the main character. With characters dying like they're in a Friday the 13th film, woman being raped, etc, you expect people to react in a more worried way but they don't. They stay in the house until the killer reveals himself at the end, who just walks in the house just like that. BTW, the killer's identity is lame.What's missing is atmosphere. It acts like a complete exploitation film (gruesome murders, rape, nudity) but in the end feels more like a grubby afterschool special, with its focus on characters than the horror. Some of the murders were effective but because of the cutesy music, the horror elements were totally nullified. I thought the score sucked the life out of this film.I'm glad I watched POOR WHITE TRASH 2 (the version I saw on video). Like I said before, I admire Brownrigg's style more than his films. He has certainly created his own special niche in the world of cinema. The problem with this film is that there's hardly anything memorable about it.

what? nobody yet commented on this incredible, well-known masterpiece of filmwork? just kidding, this is an all around s***ty, obscure little piece of crap, so i'm not surprised mine is the sole review for the movie. i don't know under what circumstances you might come across this movie and actually consider watching it (people, the title should be enough of a tip off for you), but just in case it happens avoid watching it! this movie did for me what no other has ever had- actually made me feel physically sick. the basic plotline: the heroine's fiance or whatever is murdered in the first thirty seconds, she flees and takes refuge in the home of a bunch of southern redneck type stereotypes ("we got possom for dinner", "he may beat me and sleep with other women but he still loves me", "i seen how you get your extra money sis, you give it to guys for a buck", etc) stuff happens that you won't care about in the least, the characters recite their laughable dialoge and the killer finally and thankfully! kills every last one of them, except i think, our brain dead herione, and I cheered each time one of them bit the dust. even for films of bad movies, the occasional unitentionally hilarious moment doesn't make up for the whole horrible thing, and i still have visions of that old, unwashed, ugly disgusting man parading around shirtless in his overalls for half the movie!