A
traveller Dennis Skinner (Ted Raimi) is
running away from a woman stalker Heidi
(Traci Lords) and hides out at a house that has a
room for rent owned by a landlady Kerri
Tate (Ricki Lake) who is having a sketchy
relationship with her husband Geoff (David
Warhofsky) as he is always on the road with his
job as a trucker which their marriage is
questionable on how long they will be staying
together.
Dennis watches Heidi while she sleeps as well as
going out at night picking up prostititutes later
on killing them and then carving their skin with
blades and cleavers using their skin as clothing.
Heidi tries to track him down before Kerri is his
next victim since she has a deadly dark secret
about him from a past encounter.
Good close up shots on Dennis Skinner walking along some water travelling as well
as entering a house and having a conversation with
Kerri Tate about renting the room.
There's many good dark shots with Dennis wandering around the halls of the home as well as
a shot on Kerri sleeping and him staring
at her which leaves an intersting chill.
Some effective arguments between Kerri and Geoff Tate about a
disagreement on having a roomate which looked
like a good dysfunctional relationship as well as
him acting pigheaded towards Dennis when
he introduces himself leaving a nice impressions
with this by not being a good idea.
A good moment with Dennis in a
room with a prostitute by having a brief
discussion with a nice red light shot on them along
with him going into a bathroom and then coming
out without the shot revealing him on what he did
and a nice fearful reaction on her and then
covering her mouth which showed some fair timing.
A good shot on Kerri trying to
carve a turkey before putting it in the oven with Dennis picking up a kitchen knife she
threw and raising it and then stabbing the turkey
and showing her how to carve it with good close
up shots on this.
Great close up shots with Heidi putting a needle in her arm as well as a close up
shot on her screaming intensely. There's also good shots on a hotel manager peeking through a
hole in the wall watching her.
There's a good shot on Dennis coming up
towards
a hooker with good shots on attacking her and a
nice close up shot on him slitting her throat
which looked quite disturbing along with Heidi
attacking him and then a good shot on her talking
soothily towards this prostitute telling her with
icy words that everything's going to be okay as
well as a nice dark shot on Dennis coming
up behind Heidi and whacking her in the head as
well as carrying the hooker away.
There's lots of great gruesome and creepy shots
with Dennis speaking as well as showing
him stripping skin off of this hooker lying there lifeless which makes it
hard to watch but the makers really brought out the
horror in it with his close up camera shots on
all of this as well as showing Dennis wearing the skinned suit after he's done.
There's a good brief moment with an employee getting
aggressive towards Dennis and slamming
him against some lockers after work time for
something he didn't like which looked like a
realistic moment on someone getting angry
against another one looking like a brawl is going
to start.
A good shot on Dennis standing
next to a corner alleyway with a young lady coming up asking
if he's okay as well as a great camera shot on
him turning his head looking bloodied and
answering crazily with her screaming and running
away as well as shots on him wearing a skin suit
speaking goofily while trying to chase her in
which this piece looked incredibly
twisted and corny.
There's another great argumentive moments
between Kerri and Geoff while
he's walking towards his truck to work which
looked believeable that they were close to
separation in which this looked nicely done.
A nice shot on Kerri stading up
near a staircase walking down talking to Dennis standing in the dark near a staircase telling him
he wants to show her what he's really like and
then showing himself wearing a skin suit with a
good close up shot on her screaming and there's a nice shot on him
screaming too.
A good moment with Heidi coming
up to Geoff speaking coldly towards
him when he demands to her why she's in his house
as well as a good struggling battle between them.
There's also a great shot on her removing her
hair and hat to expose herself.
There's a good moment with Dennis talking crazily
towards Kerri while she's tied up with
good shots on her crying in fear and pleading him
not to kill her.
Also great battling moments between Heidi and Dennis against one another with good
camera shots on this too.
Bottom line is that I saw this renting at my local
video store when it was newly out and I was
thinking OOH and AHHH while looking at the video
box cover as well as seeing who was starring in
it but didn't rent it just yet. Then I saw it was
rated a turkey in my video guide. Next when
stores were clearing out VHS tapes only having
DVDs I bought it not too long ago as some VHS
tapes were still surviving at a local store. I
had to admit this film was pretty bad and not
showing a heck of a strong plot in it. It does
have interesting low budget values with the
lighting used in it along with some good
directions and the odd interesting creepy
performances but that's about it which is why I
didn't bomb it and considered it below average.
This film was almost like a tribute to the true
demented maniac Ed Gein on what is going on.
There's some good moments with how this maniac
Skinner was stripping off skin from people. But
when he tries to impersonate them by wearing the
skin I found it a little too corny and extremely
twisted.
The story is very slow to begin with which you
wonder when the terror is going to happen as it
heats up a bit with Skinner staring at the Kerri
Tate character while she's sleeping but
afterwards nothing really happens afterwards but
then he reveals what he does after he picks up
prostitutes which is not for everyone to watch
unless you're into watching all kinds of horror
scene's no matter how gruesome they are.
This film is pointless and a bit
of a bore ripping off elements from flicks like Psycho,
Silence of the Lambs and Texas
Chainsaw Massacre with the skin
stripping scene's since those films were also
borrowed heavily from the Ed Gein psychopath. If
you're in the mood for a bad film with low
production values (This wasn't made on a cheap
camcorder by any means), then watch it but don't
expect it to be anything else than what's
mentioned above.
The acting is half good and half
bad. Ted Raimi (Dennis Skinner) seems to do okay though
as this demented maniac in which he
seemed to portray someone very eccentric as well
as a nerdy type too. He also really knew how to
really talk insanely when he does his crazy deeds
with people's skin. He certainly came across as a
good horror character actor. Good angry expressions in a certain scene which leaves an impression that he's going to do
something deadly to someone else.
Ricki Lake (Kerri Tate) however lacked big time as she
was way too average and didn't seem to
concentrate too well on her role but does well
when she gets into an argument in certain parts
of the film as well as her crying but that's
about it. Her
screaming looked phony in a certain scene too. She's of course better known as a TV
talk show host.
David Warshofsky
(Geoff Tate) portrayed well as a trucker with an arrogant
and pigheaded attitude as well as showing some
tough guys looks which really helped bring out
his character too. He does well with his
aggressions and acting negative. Kinda reminds
you as one of those typical rednecks who are
difficult to live with.
Richard Schiff (Eddie) came across
nicely as one of those sleazy hotel managers in
which he studied his craft well by his nasty type
and perverted behavior. Although he wasn't the
main character in the film he still passes his
job not too badly.
Traci Lords (Heidi) certainly came across as
extremely mysterious and very creepy as a strange
type of woman after Skinner. She
showed good expressions that she is not someone
you want to know and brought her part to life
very well with her cold speaking and acting
almost ghostly too. Of course this film came out
after her success on a brief stint on Melrose
Place even if this was shot beforehand
and became a household name.
There's
a brief breast shots on women that Skinner uses
for his skin suits
A throat is slit.
Skinner slices skin off a woman from top to
bottom which looked very good and grueseomely
graphic. To some who can't handle graphic gore
may want to fast forward this piece.
Skinner is wearing many skin suits.
Eddie the sleazy manager of a hotel is crawling
near a doorway looking half slaughtered.
Two
composers named Keith Arem and Contagion
did the score for the film which sounded typical
low budget cheesy effects but yet it sounded
quite interesting as you can tell they did
different one's each with the low gloomy
synthesizer effects for the really dark moments
along with some groaning effects as well as the
odd high pitched sounds too. |