Skinned Deep

Gabriel Bartalos, his name only ring a bell as make up and special effects for the great movie Brain Dead by Kevin Tenney. You can find his name easily on movies in the genre but this was his first and last attempt of directing one. What a failure. It all could have been great but I guess he wanted to make a movie about a weird family like in Texas Chainsaw Massacre but what's this. A man with a head as big as whatever. Bad acting and sometimes it is really bad that it almost becomes a spoof. The use of the camera was always the same. Used a thousand times before. Completily zoomed out and then getting close to the action. Gives a weird effect but don't do it the whole time. And using smoke, nothing against it but if you see where it comes from, no no no. The best part is the slashing itself. The killing of the visiting family is well done but the rest of the movie, no acting. For example, when the girl is being tied together, she never screams. It's sad to see but it is also a fact to stay in your own territory.

Troma + David Lynch + Texas Chainsaw Massacre = Skinned Deep

Aside from the lead, Warwick Davis and the guy who played Brain, the acting is pretty much awful. It looks like it was shot on video. The majority of the budget looks like it went to the special effects, (which were decent.) (Considering the director is a special effects artist, this was no surprise.) The, uh, story was a bare-bones Texas Chainsaw knock-off. The dialogue zig-zagged between hilarious and cringe-worthy.

Overall, though, I enjoyed it. I hope it gets some kind of DVD distribution, because I would probably buy a copy. It's just so goofy and weird that I couldn't help but smile through it.

"NO! NO! NNNOOOO! NO! NNNNNNOOOOOOOO!! NNOOO! NO!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!"

This movie starts of really bad like Troma wanted to make a Texas Chainsaw Massacre Rip Off. An incredibly stupid family gets lost in nowhere and meets a creepy family who happen to kill them. Creepy? I meant to write "cheesy"... there's an evil granny, a guy with a huge brain who adopts the surviving daughter, a hyperactive midget throwing dinner plates and a maniac in the vein of House of 1000 corpses with a bear trap in his face (and the subjective view like in "Predator"). Now when this isn't odd enough the movie puts scene on scene which just makes you wonder if this is a satire or a real bad slip on a Maniac-Hillbilly Movie. The gore is pretty rare and reminds of old "Bad Taste" days, especially with the exploding heads. But the humor is just insane in this movie... a bunch of bikers come to help the girl but they are all from the retirement home and call themselves "The ancient ones". Now you get exploding seniors and a senile bum beating up the midget and ripping his head off to play football with it. Sounds insane?? Then meet "The creator", a headless muscle hunk in a strip show style environment where his offspring breeds. He is not just flexing his muscles but also talking some incredible philosophic bullshit. Oh and his crotch sais "dyno-mite"... now guess what the girl finds in it later to launch some explosives and real cheesy FX?!? "Skinned Deep" is an insane or rather schizophrenic movie... it slides between classic horror, total trash (the bum fight reminded me a lot of the "Street Trash" style), over the edge politically incorrect humor like Troma delivers it and a mixture of real bad camera and effects and some pretty decent shots and splatter or explosive effects. One minute you want to turn the movie off, the next you smile because of the absolute insanity of it. The movie ends with the typical "sequel awaiting" finale but tops it off with the credits rolling on the girl screaming for several minutes in an incredibly funny way. I couldn't help but laugh there. If you dig trash with a strange sense of humor you might dig this movie... its different for sure. Anyway I don't know if I want to slap the makers for this piece or shake hands for creating something uniquely stupid that somehow managed to keep my attention till the end. I don't really know what happened here.

Sweet Jesus...

While watching Skinned Deep I thought I was watching a bad movie from the mid 90's - but nope! This 2004 indie flick is so messed up in all departments, I actually couldn't even enjoy it as a so-bad-its-good movie!!

While listed as a comedy horror in its synopsis, I honestly don't think it had the smallest bit of comedy in it during production. Only since its release and ratings do I believe that the word comedy was added to make it seem that all the terrible bits were on purpose.

Taking more than its fair share of inspiration from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; House Of A 1000 Corpses; and Jeepers Creepers - Skinned Deep does have moments where it could have been something sweet, although had it been from a better director, editor and stronger cast! The acting is among the worst I have ever seen - I mean,dreadful - especially the mother of the maniacs, and how the they got Warwick Davis to do this I'll never know!!

The camerawork is also dreadful with many dirty lenses and awful shots, marred once again by the bad editing. Is there anything good? Well, the FX work is very well done, with a great character in the Surgeon General - although they never really know how to use him properly, and Warwick Davis gets to play a mental ADHD fuelled crazed ninja-of-sorts who uses plates for weapons - it has to be seen to be believed.

Skinned Deep is something else! Its confused, its messy, its funny for all the wrong reasons, and for me - its a hard watch because it seems like such a wasted opportunity. And I haven't even got to the biker pensioners yet or that bizarre twisted ending...

This makes Godfrey Ho look like Kubrick!

Skinned Deep is a cheesy Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip off with a fair share of gore! It offers funny characters, a typical Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip off plot and an hour and a half of entertainment! Not only there is no nudity, there is also no sleaze climate. The story is about a family that consists of two fat parents, a young brother and a vegetarian older sister who happens to play the main role of the victim that is tortured by the typical deformed family! This deformed family consists of as usually one person who happens to be an old lady. This old lady also happens to be psychotic , but she looks normal, and a bunch of deformed bastards. One of those deformed bastards actually has a sensitive soul. Therefore, the girl victim takes advantage of his sensitive soul for her own survival interest. Later on, a bunch of funky old people declare a war on that deformed family who has killed their buddy. In a nutshell, I suggest you watch this cheesy flick if you enjoy b-grade cheese cinema! And no! It ain't so awful as the films produced by Troma!