Skeleton Crew

Found this very cheap at a convention so I was alert to see a really bad movie due the price. Luckily this wasn't that bad after all even as many people are tearing this down to the ground. I liked it but you must take it with a smile. Is it a real horror, yes and no.

A crew is out at an abandoned asylum to shoot a horror flick. But what they found in the basement are some films with snuff on it. The director is addicted to those flicks and when the shootings doesn't go that good after all he slowly changes into a mad director wanting to make a snuff. And when he finds an 8 mm camera he decides to kill his crew while shooting and making his own snuff.

I admit, it takes a while before things go wrong but the snuffs being watched is creepy and does show the horror. It's when the director goes out to kill that the real horror and gore comes in. It's a low budget flick and it shows here and there but overall when you don't take it all to serious it's a rather mediocre horror flick.

One to see while necking a brewskie with your friends, and you will all have your smiles but if you think to take this serious then you will hate it.

Gore 2/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 2,5/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 1/5

I wondered why i had never heard of this film and its directors and after watching the film for the first thirty minutes i understood why that is the case. This film is absolutely ridiculous with horrible delivery of the lines, amateur actors and on top of that it has very little plot. The film started of pretty good and it was quite promising but the grin-worthy English accent ruined it. It's so painful and i just couldn't resist a feeling of mutual shame.

I think it should have been made in Finnish completely or with broken English and then dubbed over with professional sounding voice actors.

It's also noticeable that the film falls apart just after 15 minutes. All the ideas got wasted and probably there was a lack of imagination involved or they didn't have a script at all.

It doesn't look as if the movie had 1 million budget. It could have been made for about 50 000 euro at most. I've seen many professional looking low budget films and if 1 million budget was correct i'd have to say that it was wasted completely.

For its merits i could say that it may be the one of the first really trashy, gory and "tongue-in-cheek" films made in Finland. That's just about it all. There's nothing original about it and many film directors have done it better. In fact this is even worse than some Uwe Boll films.

In overall this film is trash and completely avoidable.

a man and a woman are in a car crash , and look to find help,, eventually they get to a "hospital" or so they think, it's really an old asylum , dark decrepit and full of mystery. once there I can't remember which but one of our characters get's helped by the doctor , while the other isn't seen for awhile. after some time goes by, our victim realizes what is happening but it's all to late, the whole staff is in on it... but what our 2 characters don't get yet is that it's a movie being filmed by the staff, they are acting filming and directing a movie of their own, based on some supposedly real life going on at the Sanatarium many years before hand, where there was a doctor that went absolutely mad. if this isn't bad enough,, our director goes into this one room and find some secret footage from the vault, and sees the doctor performing weird surgeries and the like,, and he slowly is transformed into the afformention mad doctor,, I liked the movie it wasn't near as bad as people make it out to be,, it's good campy horror at it's best for a direct to video production.

I actually quite enjoyed this little flick. Then again, I rarely go in to any film with expectations. Tonight, all I wanted to was low budget horror. This turned out to be right up my alley.

• cheesy overdone acting (but not so bad that it wasn't at least convincing)
• horror story with at least a little gore
• low budget
• pro equipment
• standard horror tropes (sex, killing, blood & gore)

While I enjoy low budget horror, I have a hard time with anything that looks like it was shot on an iPhone or a home camcorder. Not that I won't watch them, but I prefer tighter looking camera work with the 35mm grain.

All of the above is true. This is not a masterpiece, but I enjoyed the story- unique, and different than I expected, especially the ending - as well as the fx, which were not top notch but were adequate. The direction was fine, as well as the post production. One thing I noticed in many of the reviews was a lack of understanding.

***THIS MOVIE IS MEANT TO NOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. DON'T QUESTION IT!***

So many bad reviews, saying "that couldn't happen...that's the stupidest thing I've ever seen...no way it would go like that." It's not meant as a fully serious film, especially since the script has so many subtle nods to other b-class horror movies and directors. Don't question why...don't look at the holes in the story...don't do anything other than sit there with your choice of adult treats and enjoy.

Personally, I wish it had been more gory, but that's just me. They could have really souped this up and easily gotten away with it, but whatever.

It's worth a watch, for sure, especially if you have Amazon Prime. It's free.

1) Get a million dollars 2) Assemble a cast and crew 3) Rewrite a script. Repeat. Repeat again 4) Procure some film/video and lighting equipment 5) Locate a current/old or abandoned asylum 6) Make movie 7) Read reviews on IMDb 8) Try again

This movie would have worked much better if the video makers went deep into XXX territory. One reviewer suggested a spoof. Hmmmm. Maybe. Anyone agree? Makes more sense that way. And there were hints of spoofdom...but spoofs are hard to pull off. The Naked Gun series and Scary Movie series were very funny movies.

But then they had lots of talent too.

NIGHT: INSIDE ASYLUM

The Director is watching a "found" snuff film from former denizens of the asylum. He becomes what he beholds. Shouldn't an alert siren go off with the klangon bells like on a destroyer, signaling "battle stations".

I think Skeleton Crew is best labeled as an OK B movie, get for drive-ins where you can make out during the movie. Or, was this totally tongue in cheek. Has anyone talked with the director. No special features....which would reveal his intent. This would have helped.

There are plenty of old,decayed, abandoned asylums everywhere and aspiring filmmakers. I am sure we will see many more ASYLUM films.

UPDATE: I did some thinking and decided it is a SPOOF. Why? Everyone seems to be doing a tongue in cheek performance. And at the end of the credits a guy makes a satirical comment. The director is over the top. Europeans love to dish back our own culture to us. And they often do it in a very subtle manner. And the "found" films try to one up our version of horror films. That's why there is confusion for us on this movie.

Did anyone catch the reference to Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM. One crew member gets skewered by a huge spear at the end of a camera, which films his agony. In PEEPING TOM, the killer does the same thing and uses a tripod with a mirror attached. I think it is all a spoof on several films, including the stormy weather and accident that propels them to the asylum (this has been done many times). So if you look at as a spoof with European sensibilities and as a B movie, it is OK. I may even rent it again, as I ony paid 25 cents for rental due to a special.