Skew

There really isn't a whole lot to say about Skew. The entire film is a budget PoV single camera piece in the same style as the Blair Witch Project. While the Blair Witch Project did has some generally creepy scenes, Skew really does not. What it does have are a lot of dead scene that drag on and on.

The plot is centered around a camera which seems to be able to mark people who are about to die. Only the film's protagonist and cameraman, Simon, can see the blotches which obscure the faces of those about to be killed. Once it becomes apparent to Simon and his friends that something is terribly wrong with the camera, a considerable portion of the rest of the film are just scenes where Simon's friends try to get him to stop filming and Simon makes really lame excuses to keep filming.

The film isn't even 90 minutes long, but I wasn't even half way through it by the time I started to feel like it was just dragging on way too much. To cap it all off, there's a lame plot twist at the end which most people will see coming from the start of the movie. Yes, it's that predictable.

The only thing that I find interesting about the film is that fact that it's quite short yet drags on and on, making it seem like a much longer movie. I don't know if this originally started off as a short film project, but I feel like that's the only way it ever could succeeded. Cut out a solid 50 minutes and make it a short film. It might be more watchable then.

I really enjoyed this movie as it keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what kind of creepiness is going to jump out at you next! Most thriller/horror movies out there today are solely into shock value, rampant with gratuitous gore. Skew doesn't rely on over-the-top gore to scare you, it succeeds in doing so with great camera work, creepy images and freaky incidents. What starts out as a fun road trip becomes a gradual descent into the hellish unknown. You really feel for the two main characters in this film, they are likable, and yet the terror surrounding them seems beyond their control. Unlike most movies today, Skew really makes you think. You'll be trying to figure out what's going on all the way up to the very end. And then the reveal is splendidly disturbing.

I just caught this on The Horror Channel and I'm somewhat perplexed what it was doing there . As the threadbare story unravels the possible horror element is people having distorted faces that led me to believe that I might be watching something along the lines of John Carpenter's THEY LIVE where a special camera alerts the viewer to alien infiltration and a scene of violence at the end but I doubt if SKEW is about alien invasions

It's also a very boring film like so many lost footage movies . One can understand low to no budget producers using this format since it requires little money for expensive cameras , film and a star cast but many of us consider the art of cinema as telling a visual story and these type of movies usually revolve around realist situations that are so realistic you could easily make the same film on your I-pod

In short this is very banal seen it all before stuff with guerrilla film standard production values . Unless I missed something it's not a horror movie and I'm very sceptical about other comments stating that you have to watch a couple of times in order to get it . I strongly doubt if I'll be watching this again

In the wake of found footage greats like Paranormal Activity, Grave Encounters, REC., Cloverfield etc. a movie like Skew automatically makes you have high expectations for it and be extra critical of it but I can thankfully say that Skew came pretty darn close at being in their league. The movie does have a pretty slow build up introducing us to three friends Simon, Rich and Eva on a road trip to a wedding, everything seems fine and dandy but tension soon builds when Simon starts seeing strange and unexplained images in his video camera that he brings along that makes faces of strangers that they encounter on the trip distorted and soon after tragic accidents involving the strangers that they meet occur. This movie has suspense throughout and an involving story filled with twists that will have you guessing and scratching your head til the very end but that is the film's major problem that there is more questions than answers and is one of those films that makes you come up with your own conclusions which I hate and is a shame because this movie had so much potential but the story seems unfinished. There are a few scares here and there and a lot of creepy and chilling scenes but nothing major enough to make you lose sleep over it but this movie is mostly story/character and suspense driven but then again an unknown movie with unknown actors and a limited budget it's pretty darn impressive and a gem even though it needs a little bit more polishing and fixing up the loosen ends. Overall it's like The Blair Witch Project meets Shutter meets Final Destination without the gore meets Tape but without any true, memorable scares and too many plot holes it makes you think what could of been especially with an intriguing and unsettling premise but it's definitely worth a look with patience and an open mind and low expectations. 6.6 out of 10

I first saw Skew at the Mississauga Film Festival. This is a psychological thriller/horror film that has found a new voice in its "found footage" sub-genre. Skew kept me wondering and waiting for more. The acting is good. The character of Eva is especially strong, haunting the audience with her wide eyes. The effects are subtle and work well in the grainy home video 4x3 ratio. Sometimes the scenes felt a little too long, but there were enough scares that I was compelled to see it again when I was in Manhattan for the Manhattan Film Festival. This second time I concentrated on the story and picked up on clever plot points that I missed or didn't seem to matter on my first viewing. Pay attention, this film is coming from a new direction that will side-swipe you.