Skillhouse

This 2025 film by Josh Stolberg with a brief appearance of the rapper, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson... just really bombed. Its storyline and satire seems very-aimed towards Gen Zers and committed to social media, live streaming and content makers. Its location was a typical, non-descript "Hollywood", L. A. mansion guessing to set the storyline in a place of celebrity worship.

All characters are just so vapid, that each when killed off - makes viewers feel apathetic with every gore, ultraviolent scene. Its gore effects are a combination of CGI, probably AI with some practical effects. It offers nothing new and plays like "Johnny-come-lately" to the idea of "slasher" genre and social media. Even late Y2K-era Reality TV-inspired and primal ether-streaming era "Halloween Resurrection" (2002) featured TV-iconic Tyra Banks and rapper, Busta Rhymes seems avant garde (pre-social media culture) compared to this. Maybe with the participation of Jackson, the director could have its narrative involved an strong Hip Hop cultural element.

Most of the theatrical releases are connected with Fathom ticketing. This expensive service tends to give these baseless intros with actors or the director. Or if one's lucky a "behind-the-scene" segment is inserted after the film end credits.

I say... unless you aren't into the "influencer" subculture (or an avid fan of 50 Cent) and not a clueless Gen Zer, maybe avoid this flick. Wishing I could say that this film is "so bad that it's good!" but it's not. It offers plot twists but these only work with some decent acting chops, none here.

Supposedly some of the killed off cast members are known popular content makers like Bruce Hall but none that I "really" recognize even follow (ol' skooler here). The only strong actor in this entire film, is the occasional TV actor, Neal McDonough! He helmed the role of a questionable police officer and often remembered from comedic appearances in TV shows like the late 90s "Just Shoot Me".

In the end, the storyline seemed to be lost in between trying to be a Black comedy or "Meta" or "Slasher" genre Horror. Hopefully, some viewers will find this entry as entertaining material but unfortunately upon observing its film reviews reveal it's actual merit.

"Skillhouse" begins with Carter Swick and his sister Lauren filming a video for a social media platform called "Triller." They are attacked and it is a media sensation, but three months later the attacker is back and this time he has kidnapped ten people for his "Social Media Game"...

"Skillhouse" is another in a long line of "Psycho kidnaps influencers and makes them compete for "Likes" for their lives" movies. All the typical tropes are here -- incredibly annoying characters that we hate from the get-go, a psycho who can somehow control time and space, long rambling speeches about "This is not real life" and "Is this what you want to see", thousands of people watching without calling the police, "rules" that change on a whim, etc, etc... And I'm not sure the writer really "gets" social media, if you watch the movie you will definitely say, "No way in real life that person got the "least views" of that entire group."

On the plus side, though, the body count is impressive with some gruesome kills, and only a couple of shoddy CGI effects to hurt the set pieces. Overall, there's nothing really new in "Skillhouse" and there are plenty of better "Influencer Kidnapped" movies out there, but it moves along pretty quickly. Nothing original or special, just sort of "OK."

Skillhouse (2025) is a horror movie written and directed by my close personal friend from Twitter, Josh Stolberg and it was okay.

Positives for Skillhouse (2025): The concept of this movie is pretty good and I got a lot of mileage out of it. The kills are surprisingly good with some good practical effects. The acting from the cast is pretty okay for the most part. And finally, you can get some dumb fun entertainment from this as a dumb horror movie.

Negatives for Skillhouse (2025): The dialogue from some of the characters is rough to listen to. The characters are just meat bags who you want to see die in brutal ways and you can't root for them. And finally, the movie feel limited by its low budget.

Overall, Skillhouse (2025) is an okay enough but very entertaining indie horror movie that you need to turn your brain off to enjoy.

Skillhouse fits the bill for an all around decent and entertaining watch - imagine influencers trapped within a mansion in LA Saw style with 50 Cent as the Jigsaw figure, it's as awesome and hilarious as it sounds.

Dialog and acting aside some nitpicking scenes of underwhelming responses is nothing to complain about. Kills, gore and progression isn't terrible nor a complaint either. The pacing is akin again, to saw, characters getting picked off, some suspense on who's next and thensome with some pretty successful comedy thrown in. Overall nothing entirely unique or groundbreaking, but works heavily with the content it aims to tackle - that being a dark, comedic whodunit with Saw tropes sprinkled about. Watch this film if you want something to laugh at, something to enjoy with some friends or something to bluntly enjoy; 50 Cent as a Jigsaw, despite his recent attempts to sue is worth watching. Post credit sequence and all.

Skill House arrives as yet another indie horror project clawing its way into a limited theatrical release via Fathom Events, hoping to join the growing list of low-budget gems tapping into our digital age paranoia. But while films like Spree, Stream, and Dark Game found ways to blend horror and online culture with raw energy, Skill House stumbles over its own premise with frustrating execution and a lack of, well... anything to root for.

The film centers on 10 top-tier influencers who wake up in a hellish streaming nightmare, kidnapped, trapped, and forced to participate in a brutal, live streamed social media survival game. It's the kind of setup that screams modern slasher gold: commentary on fame obsession, influencer culture, and viral notoriety, with blood and body count to match. Unfortunately, the execution is more cringe than clever.

Right from the start, the movie kneecaps itself.

Before the first frame even rolls, a well-meaning intro by director Josh Stolberg and one of the stars essentially spoils the ending. In a genre built on tension, misdirection, and surprise, this was a huge misstep-especially for a theatrical experience where the unknown is half the thrill. It's a head-scratcher of a move and sadly, the movie never quite recovers from it.

The characters? Disposable and annoying-by design. You're not really supposed to like anyone in Skill House, and that's part of the point. These are influencers engineered for maximum social media toxicity. But unlike the Netflix reboot of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where hating the cast made their deaths gleeful crowd pleasers, here it just results in apathy. There's no rooting interest, no investment, no memorable personalities just a series of TikTok shaped placeholders wandering from trap to trap.

A good slasher lives and dies on three pillars: the killer's look, the quality of the kill bait, and the kills themselves. Skill House fumbles two out of three. The killer's mask a clumsy, derivative riff on the Brandon James mask from Scream: The TV Series, feels like an afterthought. The kills? Outside of one genuinely creative and brutal moment (which I won't spoil), they're largely forgettable. I had to genuinely think back to recall any of them, which is never a good sign for a film promising carnage.

The dialogue is intentionally obnoxious, playing up influencer stereotypes and Gen-Z speak, but it wears thin fast. The script introduces some interesting ideas a global audience watching the bloodshed, other streamers reacting in real time, the commodification of violence but none of these threads are explored with any real depth. You can feel the influence of better films like Stream and Dark Game, but Skill House doesn't carve out its own identity. It's less a love letter to horror and more a mashup of viral culture buzzwords with blood spatter.

Skill House is not offensively bad, just frustratingly forgettable-a missed opportunity in a time when horror needs bold voices with something to say.