Skinless

I should start by saying that The Ballad of Skinless Pete is not for everyone. Horror fans that prefer the bigger budget stuff, such as The Conjuring, are probably not going to get this film. For the rest of us horror fans, particularly us that grew up in the 70's or 80's, are going to probably love Skinless Pete. I know I did after just seeing it.

Skinless Pete is the tale of Pete Peele, a doctor working on a cure for cancer. After discovering that the cure for cancer might be in the belly of a parasite, he decides it might be a good idea to test himself with it as he is dying from some form of skin cancer. Much to the chagrin of his close friend, Alice, he injects himself. At first it would appear that it worked, but after a while Pete starts to change into something and before you know it, people start brutally dying.

Does this story sound familiar? It should as it is clearly inspired by The Fly. Having said that, director Dustin Mills makes the film his own having directed, edited, scored and produced. I think what is so impressive with this film is the fact that it was apparently only made for 2000 dollars.

Skinless Pete is, at its core, a pure tragedy with its storytelling. With only a handful of actors in the film, the two leads, played by Erin Ryan and Brandon Salkil, has a surprising amount of on screen chemistry. But I think that Ms Ryan pretty much stole the show. She was convincing and by the end of the film you just feel crushed with what she has to endure. But Mr Salkil did a very good job as well. As Skinless Pete, Salkil had a wonderfully creepy style that was genuinely unnerving at times. Matter of fact, he was downright scary at times.

This is the area that some people might have issues with, and that is the films special effects. For me, it all works very well. The SFX are grisly and downright disturbing at times. To give an example, Pete melts a mans face off and as his face is melting off, Pete proceeds to rip off his lower jaw. Even when I saw it I said aloud, "Man! That's just sick!" For people that can't see past a films low budget though, I really think some people are just going to be negative because although very disturbing, the SFX are low budget. I loved them as there was a couple of times where even I was disgusted.

To end this review, The Ballad of Skinless Pete is a rare movie in 2013. It looks and feels much more like an 80's film, but with a few modern day innovations. It's obvious that director Dustin Mills has a love for the films he grew up with and for the horror genre. Let's hope he keeps coming out with films of this magnitude as horror of late has grown a tad stale with the saturation of ghost films and zombie films.

Independent micro-budget director Dustin Mills rips off David Cronenberg's The Fly something rotten for Skinless, chucking in a smidge of The Incredible Melting Man for good measure. Working with what must be a fraction of The Fly's catering budget, Mills delivers a cheap and cheerful concoction of bargain basement gore effects and gratuitous nudity that should prove moderately entertaining if you're not averse to no-frills homemade horror.

Brandon Salkil plays the Seth Brundle character, geneticist Peter Peele, who tests his experimental cancer treatment on himself; initially successful, the treatment ultimately has unexpected side effects, Peele's flesh liquifying, the scientist turning into a hideous deranged monster. This is not good news for Dr. Alice Cross (Erin R. Ryan), the woman Peele is obsessed with...

The majority of Mills' $2,000 budget appears to have been spent on fake blood, KY jelly, and latex - the film is very goopy. I can't imagine much was left in the coffers to pay the performers, so one assumes that the cast are all friends of Mills happy to muck in for free, which would explain the less than stellar acting. Not that great performances are necessary for this type of thing: Mills aim is to deliver plenty of splattery effects and to get the women in the film to strip off, and he succeeds in both.

In the grand scheme of things, Skinless is not great -- extremely derivative (Salkil even twitches like Goldblum) and technically crude -- but considering the amount of money that the film was made for, it's a marvel that it is as entertaining as it is. A movie to crack open a few beers to...

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

I foolishly thought I would be able to have this movie on in the background while I worked on another project. How mistaken I was; I couldn't stop watching. The actors and actresses went above and beyond to make this an unforgettable film. There were some very creative elements at work in this production. I can't believe this movie was shot for a mere $2000.00. The actors must have worked for free. Talk about dedication to your art! Someone give this director/production team/actors and actresses some real capital to work with and let's see what else they can come up with that I'm sure will be as entertaining as this little bit of cinematic joy. It proves that a substantial budget is not required to make a great film. I recommend this one for its sheer creativity alone!

For the amount of money Dustin put into making this movie, I have seen nothing comparable! It was easily the best low/no budget movie I have ever seen! I'm honestly not trying to hype this movie for Dustin, I'm trying to tell people that this is seriously worth your time. If you are into low budget horror at all, you will LOVE this film. If you aren't, this film may just be what gets you started on it. If you like blood, nudity, gore, nudity, blood, or nudity, then you will definitely not be disappointed. The acting is stellar for local actors as well. Erin R. Ryan and Brandon Salkil put forth more effort than a lot of people I've seen in huge Hollywood films. I'm not saying they should win an Academy Award, but they put forth a lot of effort.

Please do yourself a favor and at least rent this movie. If not, buy it digitally or physically. I've seen it 4x since its release not even 2 weeks ago and it is still awesome! :)

Low budget which isn't a bad thing but this was just plain boring, horrible acting and bad special effects. Don't waste your time.