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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely Atrocious, June 13, 2005
This review is from: Skinned Deep (DVD)
After reading several reviews praising this film, both here and elsewhere, I had to check it out. Luckily for me, I only rented this flick. However, I still feel the cost of the rental was a total waste.
Skinned Deep opens with a grisly death scene involving an older gentleman in his car on a dark, desolate road. From there, we cut to an entirely different scene and meet the Rockwell family of four, off on their vacation. When they get a flat tire and are forced to seek the help of some of the all-too-willing-to-help locals, things take a turn for the worst. As it turns out, the locals are one large family of mutants with a taste for blood and vengeance. Three of the four family members are quickly disposed of. When Brain, or Brian, a boy with a grotesquely large and exposed brain, takes pity on Tina, a teenage girl, the family decides that he can keep her. Brian begins to fall head over heels for Tina, and the family decides to incorporate her into their twisted, blood-thirsty clan. It's up to Tina to find a way out alive.
Skinned Deep comes off as a poorly done, bizarrely twisted Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip-off with a lot more gore. However, the mutants are extremely far-fetched, to the point of being laughable, and the effects and gore are as well. The acting is simply atrocious, with the exception of the part of Tina, Warwick Davis, and some of the smaller roles. The audio is positively horrible, and the script is no better. Though some of the ideas seemed somewhat original, the plot was too convoluted in places, and several tangents detracted from the uniqueness.
I've always loved a good horror film, even many low-budget ones, but this has to be one of the worst films I've ever seen. If you really must see this for yourself, then rent it, because Skinned Deep is certainly not worth the purchase cost.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I couldn't believe my eyes., May 29, 2006
This review is from: Skinned Deep (DVD)
Me and my friends are really into terrible horror movies, and this one had us rolling on the floor, our sides splitting open in pure, unadulterrated glee. This is one of the worst written, filmed, edited and acted movies i've ever seen, but what makes this movie spectacular is that through some fluke, all of this bad multiplies itself into a wonderful piece of comedy. In my opinion, the film climaxes when Brian, a lonely member of a sick family, has a day dream about running through new york city, completely naked save his large brain and work boots. We watched that scene through seven times and could not stop laughing. I highly recommend this film to anyone who has a sense of humor and an afternoon or evening to waste. Your life will never be the same.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Destined for cult status!, May 23, 2005
This review is from: Skinned Deep (DVD)
The Rockwell family of four board their minivan and head cross-country through the desert for a family vacation. All is well until they get a flat tire and are forced to stop and find help. They end up in this little roadside diner where Southern hospitality prevails. The old pleasant lady working at the diner invites them over to her house for supper and the family accept. Big mistake. The house is occupied by a bunch of homicidal freakshows. Within minutes they slay the entire family leaving only teenaged Tina alive. They trap her in a small square room, making Tina wonder why she is being spared her life. Simple: They want to make her a part of their family.
Make no mistake about it: Skinned Deep is dirt cheap. The acting for the most part is horrendous, the audio quality is awful and the special effects are laughable at best. To illustrate how cheap the effects are: early in the movie there is a scene where a madman uses a jackhammer to smash through what is meant to be a car’s windshield. Closer inspection however shows that the jackhammer is really tearing through a sheen of cellophane wrap, you know the type we use to pack lunch sandwiches with! But director Gabriel Bartalos is clearly onto something bigger here. I’m not sure where or how he thinks up these things, but there is enough oddities and twisted situations to make anyone shake their head in disbelief. His house of horrors puts Rob Zombie’s to shame as do his freaks. We get a guy with a gigantic 2-foot-high brain on top of his head, a carnivore-like freak with hooks for hands, 3-foot-tall Warwick Davis and a mild-mannered grandma.
It’s not like we haven’t seen this kind of stuff before. Like many other modern-day horror flicks, Skinned Deep lifts heavily from classic 70’s horror such as TCM and The Hills Have Eyes. Other notable influences are The Road Warrior (!) and Mother’s Day. But trust me, you’ve rarely seen an imitation done as well as this one. What makes Skinned Deep so great? Oh, let’s see. First there’s the unrelenting pace that never lets up, then the ridiculous over-the-top gore squirting all over the place and other assorted wild absurdities that even a horror vet like myself had never seen before. If anything this movie is worth the price of admission just to see a makeup-free Warwick Davis hurling plates across a room while screaming at the top of his lungs and finishing it off with a celebratory jig. Priceless.
I can’t get over the fact that I managed to rent this baby at Blockbuster and in an uncut version no less! If you’re a b-movie fan who loves gore and offbeat humor you owe it to yourself to watch this. I even recommend buying the sucker. This is redneck horror at its best!
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