Winterskin

I want to like this movie I really do, but man, where do I begin? There are more plot holes in this movie than can possibly allowed. It's never really explained what time period they're in. Is it 1914 or 2006? The actors accents change frequently and are never very good. The film is gory and grotesque but as the plot unfolds (slow burn) it's just not good. Don't get me wrong they nailed the gore factor which is really one of the only compliments I can conjure up. I feel bad for the people trying to jumpstart their acting careers starring in this dumpster fire.

This movie could have been a blockbuster, if Bentley's role was played by Kathy Bates. Now, don't get me wrong, Rowena Bentley is a superb actress, but in my opinion, not for this part. Southern accent just did not fit her, neither did her make-up. Although a lot of effort was given to produce this movie, sad to say, just did not grab me.

In the first scene, we've got some sort of skinless, crazed ghoul wielding an axe to break a down a cabin door, then he supposedly shoots the occupants, each bullet generating a quick, gushing bucket of blood, then the ghoul crawls from behind the couch growling (apparently people don't bleed to death after being skinned alive, and they can survive in winter conditions). Next, we see a man and his son hunting deer without any weapons. They get separated and the kid gets shot by a crazy old crone (with a bad American accent) and winds up in her cabin. After that, I don't know what happened because I stopped watching the movie (about 10 minutes is all I could stand).

Reads summary, sees movie, in the famous words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, "You lie!"

I know a horror movie should be suspenseful, building itself up to reveal the monster or whatever in a climax then get a good ending out of it, but to mislead their audience to do ruins the experience and feels completely cheap. It sure is much more cheaper than the movie's special affects that is for sure. The acting is awful, the main character to be completely overtaken by the "monster" is... it does not make any sense. Physically it does not make sense, but it has to be put there or else the story won't continue forward. Deus ex machina event right there to the extreme.

If I were to see the movie without reading any summary, I wouldn't be as mad as I am right now since the plot in the movie is completely different than what the summary says. They hoodwinked me, skinned me before my eyes into watching this lie of a film.



The real summary should have been like "Hunters looking for serial killer gets separated in the cold of winter and encounters something they weren't prepared for." Was that so hard to think of? And the cover art for the movie should be replaced too to avoid the lies and confusion the movie causes too. I expected skinless monsters not this crap.



TL;DR: The whole summary of the movie is a lie and the movie itself is as bad too, save yourself the time to do something else. The director of this disaster deserves to be banned from the movie business. Hell, all this lying makes them great to be a politician.

Winterskin is a low budget horror flick out of the UK. I am a fan of low budget horror movies but this one is really not worth the watch. The whole production is subpar but what really drags this movie down is the annoying dialogue and piss-poor acting. It's hard to tell if it's the actor's are ruining the dialogue or the dialogue is making the actors sound amateurish. The fake accents are cringe-worthy bad, and that added to the fact that the film is so dialogue heavy only makes it worse. If you took a drink every time that Ol Agnes obnoxiously says "child", you'd be passed out drunk within the first half hour (and maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing).

The story itself is kind of original and unique but there's a strange shift in the tone about halfway through where everything grinds to a halt and the story becomes complete back and forth dialogue between the two characters and it turns monotonous.

The few effects that are used aren't horrible, but the fake blood looks and flies like dark red water, with a whole 64oz Big Gulp cup of blood spewing from each bullet wound. I realize that it's a horror movie, but that's not how that works at all.

Without going into any details, the ending is pretty weak and not worth the tedious ride. I honestly can't even recommend this one to the hardcore horror fans out there, as watching this one felt more like a chore because of the grinding dialogue and the fact that there are much better low budget offerings out there. Skip it. 3/10