Skinned Alive

This is another sick cheapie from J.R. Bookwalter's stable of enthusiast but untalented horror directors, better known as "Tempe Productions". Apart from his own outrageously gore debut film "The Dead Next Door", Bookwalter's production studio has unleashed nothing but embarrassingly bad splatter-stuff upon horror-loving audiences that have the most absurd and grotesque plots but also the most incompetent means to work with. "Skinned Alive" is entirely Jon Killough's pride and handles about a family of traveling weirdos that turn innocent people into fashionable clothing. After killing a guy near a retarded little Ohio town, their van breaks down and the family (weelchaired mother and her incestuous son and and daughter) has to stay at the garage owner's house, where they unconcernedly continue their killing spree. This movie somewhat feels like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" meets "Mother's Day" but it's neither scary nor very funny. I appreciate the goodwill of all cast-members (Scott Spiegel in particular seems to have a lot of fun) and some of the gore-effects are effectively nauseating. Killough's sense of humor is delightfully twisted and low-budget gore king J.R. Bookwalter makes a small appearance as the Jehovah's Witness (they make such easy preys). "Skinned Alive" is overall enjoyable in a brainless sort of way. Too bad about the terrible – at times downright unendurable – acting and the completely redundant divorce sub plot.

As somebody who values and has a rather large collection of low-budget horror films, I can honestly say this is one of the most horrible movies I have ever seen! It's like a thirteen year old wrote the dialogue, and then set up the scenes to look "wicked awesome." Another thing is this movies has no actual concept of reality...I know it's a horror movie, and most stuff in horror movies isn't even slightly based on reality, but when you have people shooting and stabbing people in the middle of the day, in the front-yard nonetheless...well you can't help but feel that either you the viewer are being treated as an idiot, or the film makers themselves are idiots. Even if you were drawn to the movie for the gore, or the cover of the DVD which features a bikini girl with "Skinned Alive" carved in her stomach...JUST STAY AWAY! I have never seen gore so badly done in my life! There are scenes where the bodies being skinned are obviously made of clay! You can actually see the clay bunch up when a knife is plunged into it, and this is supposed to pass for human flesh? You would think that the director or editor would have seen how horrible some of the crap looked, and cut it out, but it's there in all it's 3rd grade glory. There is no redeeming quality to this movie at all. The acting is bad, and the special effects are the worst! Do not spend any money on this movie.

I didn't expect to like this funny and gory horror comedy as much as I did. It's certainly not for all tastes; even though it runs only about 80 minutes (including the long closing credits), the pace is extremely slow and nothing much really happens throughout. The gore effects are cheap but effective. The villains are a really twisted gang: the foul-mouthed, abusive, wheelchair-bound matriarch, the clumsy and slightly retarded son, the sadistic hottie daughter (no nudity from her, though the opportunity does come twice - what a shame!). The "hero" is an alcoholic ex-cop who has to put a stop to their activities implied by the title. All of the acting is amateurish, but at least the actors don't take themselves too seriously and seem to be in on the joke. This film will probably be appreciated only by those viewers interested in low-budget horror film-making. (**1/2)

A traveling family of sickos, an inept brother/ sister team and their wheelchair-bound mother, Crawldaddy (Mary Jackson of "The Waltons" fame), have their car brake down after they kill a guy. So they stay at the neighbors of an alcoholic ex-cop and continue nonchalantly killing people. Will the cop exorcise his demons long enough to put an end to Crawdady and families reign of terror? Due to the ultimately jaw-dropping awfulness, Will we even care? To be fair the first 10 minutes hold a little promise and the last 20 are OK by me. It's just the endless minutes of stupid slapstick 'comedy' in the middle where the movie becomes a chore to sit through. and what a painful chore it is. The film would have been a good short film. But as it is now, it's not even passable entertainment.

My Grade: D

DVD Extras: Commentary with JR. Bookwalter and David Lange; Isolated music score audio track; 35 minute Making-of; Behind the scenes; camera and wardrobe tests; About the Remastering; Artwork and Stills Galleries; an episode of 'Roomates"; Theatrical Trailer; and Trailers for "Ozone", "Eddie Presley", "Dead and Rotting", and "Hell Asylum"

I ended up with this movie through one of those cheap Brentwood Video 4 pack releases. I had a really hard time sitting through this movie the first time around but the second time around was what made it all worth while. This is an early release from some of the guys that brought you Evil Dead and other titles in the eighties. Usually, these movies are pretty bad and this one is no exception but all these movies are a lot of fun, you just have to adapt to the poor taste of this kind of film-making.

A group of 3 people are on the road killing random hitchhikers to use their skin as leather. They end up in a little town where a huge bloodbath takes place.

That's it. That's the storyline. Nothing new here but this film is still a lot of fun even if it is a badly done film. The gore effects are hilarious, especially a scene where one of the killers gets blown away with an uzzi. Scott Spiegal is about the only actor in the movie who actually places his part halfway decently. The rest of the actors are just atrocious.

All in all, I enjoyed this movie and will probably watch it several more times before I get tired of it. 7/10 stars