City of Scars (2010)

Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum and kills the parents of a young boy as he killed the parents of Batman in the past. Determined to take revenge, Batman fights against anyone that tries to ... See full summary »

Director:

Aaron Schoenke

Writers:

Aaron Schoenke (screenplay), Aaron Schoenke

Stars:

Kevin Porter, Paul Matthew Miller, Madelynn Rae

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kevin Porter	...	Batman / Bruce Wayne
Paul Matthew Miller	...	Joker (as Paul Molnar)
Madelynn Rae	...	Harley Quinn
Jay Caputo	...	Arnold Wesker / Scarface
Katie Joy Horwitch	...	Detective Montoya
Christopher Parker	...	Detective Allen
Dylan Voorhees	...	Young Boy
Hunter Gordon	...	Young Boy
Guy A. Grundy	...	Zsasz
Tess Kielhamer	...	Black Canary
Carlos Baca	...	Arkham Guard
Nicole Klepper	...	Arkham Nurse
Jason Koesema	...	Arkham Doctor
George Meyers	...	Gotham Cop
A.C. Carter	...	Ferris Wheel henchman

Storyline

Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum and kills the parents of a young boy as he killed the parents of Batman in the past. Determined to take revenge, Batman fights against anyone that tries to stop him as well as evils of underworld Gotham. After all those battles, Batman questions his own psychological problems and tries to find a solution.

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Plot Keywords:

batman character | joker character | gotham city | dc comics | based on comic book | 

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Genres:

Short | Action | Crime | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 June 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Betmen: Grad ožiljaka

Box Office

Budget:

$27,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bat in the Sun Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min (original)

Color:

Color (High Definition)

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Fanarchy (2015)

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Soundtracks

City of Scars (Dance Mix)
© 2010
Performed by Madelynn Rae
Written and Produced by Sean Schoenke

User Reviews

Excellently produced, if it ultimately ends with a whimper

A child's parents are brutally murdered, similar to what happened to Batman. The man behind it is the recently escaped Joker, who, along with Harley Quinn, are treated to one of their most hauntingly creepy depictions ever, and not only of this medium(counting The Dark Knight). Best moment of it? He's sitting by a mirror, we don't see his face, and he is mumbling incoherently to himself. You gotta see it to believe how effective it is(and note that this is currently available on YouTube). The performances in general are great, with only brief exceptions. Bruce Wayne's alter ego has a rock-hard face and a spot-on voice(see, Bale? This is how it's done), and his narrations has him questioning if he's doing the right thing, something too many fan films forget. Unfortunately, those portions do suffer from occasional uninspired writing and bad reads. On the whole, the script is marvelous, if I can't for the life of me make sense of the moral(best I can tell, it's frankly a complete betrayal of the canon of the hero, and I can never stand that, if you want something different, make a new one, don't change something established to fit what you want if it goes directly against it), and the ending is, as someone in this notes, anti-climactic. The production values are quite high, with several large locations(a carnival, and a totally absolutely in no way not at all utterly gratuitous strip club with tons of cleavage, skin and butt shots), dozens of extras, and nearly flawless cinematography, make-up, props(the one obvious thing is the grappling gun, which might as well be neon colored), filming, editing and lighting. Action is sparse(I'd call this a thriller, genre-wise), well-choreographed, swift and really hits the mark(the hand-held camera is arguably excessive). The tone is relentlessly bleak throughout. There is a lot of disturbing content and a little bloody violence in this. I recommend this to comic book readers, as it will satisfy many of them(and it includes a few more well-known characters from there than it needed(I'm not sure Black Canary is even identified in it, though I know who was supposed to be her), without any of them being out of place, forced in or poor adaptations of the source material(suits, personalities and basic appearances)). 7/10