Scum of the Earth (1974 film)

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Scum of the Earth (1974 film)

Scum of the Earth is a 1974 American horror movie directed and produced by S. F. Brownrigg, written by Mary Davis. It stars Gene Ross, Ann Stafford, Norma Moore, and Camilla Carr. The film runs 84 minutes and was released in English in the United States. It earned about $1 million at the box office and was later re-released under the title Poor White Trash Part II.

Plot
Paul and Helen Fraser stay at a remote lakeside cabin, where Paul is killed with an axe. Helen escapes and finds help at the nearby farmhouse of Odis Pickett, his wife Emmy, their daughter Sarah, and their developmentally disabled son, Bo. The Picketts offer Helen shelter, while dark tensions unfold. Odis drinks heavily and is abusive; Bo and Sarah quarrel and a hex is cast. Emmy reveals she married Odis to escape debt, and that he has harmed her. Helen shares that her husband died in Vietnam.

As events spiral, Odis tries to rape Helen, and Emmy and Sarah intervene unsuccessfully. Bo is killed by a hidden assailant in the woods, and Sarah is later attacked and strangled with barbed wire. Emmy sends Helen toward the lake in a last attempt to help her escape. Odis is killed when a stranger replicates the violence around him. The house is visited by the killer, who is revealed to be Jim, Helen’s first husband who survived Vietnam. He tries to kill Helen, but Sarah, mortally wounded, crawls in and shoots Jim with Odis’s shotgun. Emmy consoles Helen on the porch, and the film ends with Helen clinging to Emmy and life, having survived the night of terror.

Production notes
The film was shot under the working title Death is a Family Affair. It premiered in 1974 as Scum of the Earth and was re-released in 1976 in some markets under the title Poor White Trash Part II, including a Los Angeles release on September 8, 1976. The second release proved more successful at the box office.