Customer Reviews

Skinwalkers

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

What a great twist on a werewolf movie! Two tribes of werewolves are at war with one another. One group wants a cure for their full moon 'curse', but another clan is perfectly happy having the power that comes with being a meat eating werewolf, running with the pack and howling at the moon. The aggressive clan takes on the more peaceful group and a young boy may be the only hope for the werewolves desperate to end the madness.

Chrissy K. McVay - Author

Werewolves will never be as popular as vampires. They're not pretty, seductive or eerie -- instead they're hairy, messy and presumably smelly.

Despite that, there was still plenty of potential for a cool werewolf action movie... until "Skinwalkers" actually came out. Instead, we get a sketchy, paper-thin plot about bikers who happen to be werewolves, and who (of course) have to kill the foretold Chosen One.

Said Chosen One is a boy who will turn thirteen, around the time that a red moon rises -- apparently this will decurse all lycanthropes, for no reason except that it's prophecied. But Varek (Jason Behr) and his vicious biker gang don't WANT to give up the perks of being werewolves, so they're prowling around to find the child and kill him before his big birthday rolls around.

Tim (Matthew Knight) is unaware of the danger he's in. Fortunately, relatives and friends surrounding him know exactly what he is, and hope to be cured of their affliction. But to keep Tim safe, they will have to battle Varek and his big bad gang, despite vowing never to commit any acts of werewolfen violence.

Yeah, it's pretty much the script for any derivative fantasy story -- there's a lazily-explained prophecy about the Big Savior (nobody ever explains where these prophecies come from), evil people who want to kill him, and good people who are keeping him safe. You'll find all this in "Skinwalkers," and not a lot more.

Instead, we get a lot of werewolves acting crazy and very, very evil. Gore. Bad editing during a rape scene. More gore. Shots of the moon. Shooting, lots of long tangled hair, motorcycles, and sexy women wearing leather.

In fact, that's basically all "Skinwalkers" has going for it -- what little plot there is is incomprehensible, and usually not very well explained or scripted ("I am not human! I am better than that!"). Apparently due to the dearth of plot, the writers tried to throw a curveball late in the film -- all I can say is, I kept expecting the "Star Wars" theme to play.

And the actors do as well as can be expected, given the paper-thin depth of their characters -- Behr does a decent job growling and overacting, but Knight is embarrassingly bad, even for a child actor. The others... well, I have a bit of trouble recalling them, because few of them got to do much.

"Skinwalkers" suffers from a massive overdose of C-movie cheeze, with little plot and even less acting. Not too impressive, unless you just LOVE the idea of biker werewolves.

well, first of all, ignore the first reviewer. obviously that guy gets entirely to deep into his movies. that being said, i thought this movie was ok, i mean ive seen better but ive also seen far worse. The reason i saw it was because jason behr was in it, and he freakin gorgeous! If youre just looking to watch something a little entertaining, go for it. This is not a movie, however, for those of you who need to constantly overthink everything in the film, lol, its just pure cheesy entertainment really. i give it 3 stars because as ive said, ive seen better but also seen far worse. want to see a really good werewolf movie? check out The Howling. a little old school but still pretty good.

One of the best traditional werewolf tales to come along in any medium in ages, "Skinwalkers" - named after a Native American term for human-animal shapechangers - features a rivalry between opposing factions of werewolves (a favorite theme in more contemporary werewolf movies), and centers on a prophesied child who it's foretold will play a major role in the history of the werewolf struggle.

Rather than being an immensely powerful new breed of werewolf, the blood of the child is supposed to hold a cure for the werewolf condition. Hence, he's seen as a blessing by the skinwalkers who fight their condition and a menace by those who relish their lycanthropy. In the world of "Skinwalkers", the lycanthropic condition is highly feral, driven by a ferocious bloodlust and, usually, by radical changes in temperament, especially when the werewolf has consumed fresh blood. In this way it's very different from tales like the "Underworld" movies (which are also great, just in a different way) and most other recent werewolf films, where the creature often retains high intelligence and, while primal, a degree of control over itself. Actually, the 'modern' take is more true to real wolves, while the 'traditional' werewolf is a near-mindless, snarling, frothing, kill-'em-for-the-sake-of-killing, monster. And this is the breed in Skinwalkers, although many of those afflicted with the curse struggle against their other selves, and with the help of non-affected human allies, have found ways to contain the killing fury, including being strapped into specially constructed immobile harnesses before night falls during the full moon.

That the werewolves's changes are almost completely dictated by the moon phases is another difference from the more versatile, change-at-will, werewolves from many other recent films. Although in some circumstances it seems the change can be triggered during daylight hours, it's rare and seems to carry a high price. The limitation of the transformation to certain nights also accounts for why the werewolf characters are sometimes armed with guns during the day, ignoring them at other times for the more 'natural' way of claw and fang.

The prophesied child is already alive and is unaware of his nature, as is his mother, who've been being secretly watched and looked after by an alliance of 'good' werewolves and normal humans, who eagerly await the boy's thirteenth birthday, when he's supposed to begin fulfilling his destiny. That birthday is fast approaching and the 'bad' werwolves are closing in, targetting any known members of this 'alliance' to try and ferret out the boy's whereabouts.

A detailed sense of characterization, good performances, strong special effects, and frequent innovation have amped up what could have been a good but run-of-the-mill tale into something better. This is one of the best 'classic mode' werewolf movies not just recently, but of all time, and a sadly under-seen and under-rated horror gem.

Evil biker werewolves plan to murder a 13 year old boy reputed to be the 'savior' of the good werewolves who will cure/end lycanthropy. The bad guys kill and torture people and the good guys struggle to protect and hide the chosen one.

I admit I love werewolf movies, but there needs to be some plot and something more to watch than just people being tortured and killed in awful ways. I admit I couldn't finish this film. It was really that bad.

Werewolves and vampires are my thing. I love movies and books centered around those genres and so my interest was peeked as this is a werewolf movie and contains two of my favorite actors: Jason Behr (Roswell) and Sarah Carter (Smallville). Unfortunately this movie did not meet my hopes for it. The writing on this movie was good but was not portrayed correctly through the lack of special effects (those were some of the worst werewolf effects I have seen since The Howling), the rating (what kind of werewolf movie is PG-13?) and the terrible acting by the supporting cast. I believe this could have been a great movie in the right hands. So it is my conclusion that due to low to no budget and poor casting this movie didn't have a leg to stand on. I couldn't bring myself to give this movie a bad rating due to the fact that I did like the storyline but it was far from a good movie. Sometimes I wonder if directors and producers actually watch their own movies, because I am not sure how some movies get released.

What started as just an action movie turned out even better. I have to admit I don't like horror movies but this one was great. The special effects were wonderful. The acting was much better than I expected. I have to say I watched it because of Jason Behr. He did not disappoint me. The young boy in the movie was also a terrific actor.

Wow. This one was about as bad as they get. I found the premise to be somewhat enticing, seeing that werewolf films seem to have died out and it would be nice for something refreshing in the genre...but this movie did absolutly zilch for me.

The movie is so contrived and uninspired that it actually falls flat from right out of the gate. This is one of those films you will see on the sci-fi channel that you wind up watching and regretting one Sunday afternoon when you have nothing better to do.

The acting is sub-par and I agree that some of the more familiar named stars are wasted in this poor example of a monster movie. The only redeemable aspect of Skinwalkers would be the actual quality and "look" of the film itself. The movie has a very high quality visual look to it, which helps a lot with actually VIEWING it...but it is still a bomb. seriously, i wouldn't waste my time buying this or even renting it. Wait till it airs on basic cable if you feel the need to see it.

I shines a new light on the lycanthrope legend. Instead of becoming a mindless hunter. You must feed on human blood to become a true predator. But there are a few who protect humanity and restrain themselves at night to keep from feeding. The story is rich and the acting is decent. Not a bad piece of film. But not your average Gore fest you might expect from a werewolf movie. It is PG-13 after all. But they do a good job of keeping true to the genre without gore. A great film for werewolf lovers but not a gore fest.

What makes this just okay story worth watching are the cool werewolves designed by Stan Winston. Wish there was more to say, but just about sums it up.