Skeleton Lake

Which is a hard hitting drama, in the same mould as 'Southern Comfort'. Quite brutal in parts and concerns a crazy Vietnam vet, holding out in a forest and slaughtering anyone who dares tread on his territory. A well worn scenario but one that is worth telling over and over. Some excellent action throughout but i get the feeling iv'e seen it somewhere before. The low score here seems mighty harsh and 'Battleground' is a well made, exciting film.

I'm going to keep this very simple. Imagine you have never had a creative idea in your life, so you watch Predator and decide it's so awesome you're going to remake it, except you don't have a monster, a jungle, special effects, actors, soldiers or talent. This is what Battleground is, a poorly hacked together rip off of Predator (with a bit of Hobo with a Shotgun). Scene for scene, line for line, Battleground tries to wear Predator's shoes and what is baffling to me is how so many people involved in the making of this film could have gone along with it. Was this really how the director wanted it? And they actually spent money to make this? Congratualtions, you've made it that much harder for real film makers to get funding.

The movie sucks you in with what looks to be a good story. Later you find out the point is dead people you didn't care about anyway. Had they bothered with a few more shots they could have saved this film.

That's the saddest thing here, with just a little thought this could have been a good film. A few of the characters should have been better developed and provided a back story that made sense.

A desperate gang of violent criminals rob a bank . Escaping they lie low in a wooded rural backwaters . Preparing to leave they find themselves being stalked by an unseen foe and fighting for their lives

There's something rather confused about this film at a production level . It does confound expectations and I immediately thought I might be watching a Tarantino wannabe where some desperate criminals falling out amongst themselves then having to pool their resources against a supernatural foe . It does have a RESERVOIR DOGS feel to it for about five minutes then turns in to something along the lines of PREDATOR or SOUTHERN COMFORT . The problem is the plot turn of the villains being hunted down by a deranged Vietnam veteran is played far too soon so any potential surprise or suspense is soon lost . The idea of men being hunted in an unfamiliar hinterland seems to have bored the production team and therefore need to bring in a different element - one of torture porn with a scene stolen from THE DEER HUNTER

I don't want to totally condemn the film out of hand . It's a Canadian low budget get feature ( The Canadians accents are noticeable when characters say " About " ) but it's far from the worst film broadcast on The Horror Channel . The technical aspects such as cinematography and editing is more than competent but does show a rather clumsy approach to the storytelling almost as though the production team are very unsure what type of film they're making and has an underdeveloped feel . It's probably summed up by the title of the film which according to some sources is either celled BATTLEGROUND or SKELTON LAKE

Dear Mr. Mckay II.

Although it is quite obvious that the movie in mention is not good at all (sorry to say that)...

I have one question and one suggestion though.

Q: Why didn't you blew up the ambulance after bank robbery when robbers switched cars? It is once classic cliché that you should'v definitely use.

S: Please, find something else to do, but don't, I beg you, don't make any more movies.

Yours truly Hazy Davey from Sydney