Bring Me a Skin for Dancing In

I had recently had luck with some films like Oddity and All You Need Is Death, so I was hoping for something of a similar caliber, but unfortunately this just doesn't quite compare. There's uniformly poor acting, cheap visuals, and some hilariously over dramatic music that punctuates nothing much at all I'm afraid.

Intermittently interesting witchcraft/folk horror movie set in an isolated cabin. Begins earnestly but meanders to a mean-spirited ending. I was surprised to see this wasn't a first feature, as most of the film is awkwardly staged and the dialogue scenes are poorly paced. Still, there are some creepy images and the film's heart is in the right place, at least for the first hour. Great title, too.

The cinematography for Bring Me a Skin for Dancing In, is beautiful. It is superb in all of the films Chris Shane Sanders does. The musical track suits it well, building up suspense, lingering on melancholy, hinting at danger to come--or utter horror.

The first thing that really stood out to me was the acting of Bhasker Patel who plays David. He is flawless.

All of the actors did fine jobs. Though they had tiny parts, JP Gates and Hans Hernke shone as "a couple of drunks." They shine in everything they do.

Chris Sanders actually frightened me with his menacing facial expressions.

I cannot finish without mentioning the special effects toward the end of the film. They were dementedly delightful.

I enjoyed the movie and the excellent performances.

----Sara Marie Hogg, author of macabre fiction.

Bring Me a Skin for Dancing In follows Helen on a much-needed cottage retreat, after the loss of her twin sister. As is often the case, the locals are up to no good and Helen gets dragged into a world of paganism and witchcraft. A countryside holiday and some witchcraft? Sounds like a good time, I'm jealous!

There were a few continuity things that distracted me (the Neurospicy curse 😫), but they didn't ruin my overall enjoyment. The ending had very weird "Society" vibes, which made me chuckle and I liked where the story ended up. The film is very contained, mostly set in the cottage, but I would loved the story to have delved into the locals a bit more. Really leaning into the folk horror and what goes on in small, rural villages.

Following the death of her sister, a woman is sent away to a remote cottage in the wilderness to help get over the incident, but after arriving a series of strange incidents cause her to believe that she's become targeted by a special cult looking for her to be their next sacrifice.

Overall, this was a fairly fun and enjoyable feature. One of the finer aspects present with this one is the generally impressive setup involving the trip out to the remote cottage and how her presence there involves her in the strange cult. The initial arrival at the cabin and the meet-up with the strange owner and her even stranger daughter starts things quite well with sending her out to the location to rest and recharge following her sister's death and coming across the creepy owners. Though given that prominent and ever-present sense of warmth and familiarity, the veneer of malicious intent behind everything makes their greetings and introduction feel all the more mysterious during these interactions. That all sets the film up for a solid bit of supernatural-tinged charges the more this carries on. Knowing that there's a nice bit of suspense throughout the cottage with the initial setup and mysterious objects disappearing around her that offer up clues as to the locals' intentions, the whole thing reeking of old-world mysticism and supernatural beliefs offer a nice bit of groundwork for what's to come. The gradual reveal of the whole operation being a front for the type of occult pagan ceremony that's in store for her during this section allows for some chilling confrontations throughout here which offers up the kind of the setup necessary for some great escapes throughout the house as she tries to continually get out of the house to safety and stop their plans, making for some solid positive points here. There aren't too many factors that hold this one down. Among the main drawbacks to the film is a rather bizarre and seemingly useless storyline beat about a flashback involving the presence of the father turning to a series of controversial measures to try to make sure she's safe from others as a child. This comes off as nothing more than an excuse for an extended cameo from the performers involved in the scenes which has little context for what else is going on around the film, given that it's built mainly on how the series of revelations impact her in the future which is somewhat unnecessary for how it gets included here. As well, there's also the low-budget limitations that arrive here that look quite obvious, especially the gore and bloodshed with the CGI effects being immensely underwhelming and taking the viewer out enough here to be the main drawbacks to this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

Very little happening here - it's folk horror with sign of neither "folk" nor "horror". The title only becomes relevant right at the end, though be warned, it's not much of a "skin". Some nice nastiness with grotty things in jars and digging up graves in the woods, but alas, they're all too brief. Kind of feels like it's trying to be a DTV remake of Robin Redbreast without the intrigue, challenging script, and atmosphere. Soundtrack was a bit of a let down also. I don't like being so negative about an indie production, but there's only so much credit I can give to a movie where practically nothing happens, I'm afraid.