Skinned Alive

A traveling family of sickos, an inept brother/ sister team and their wheelchair-bound mother, Crawldaddy (Mary Jackson of "The Waltons" fame), have their car brake down after they kill a guy. So they stay at the neighbors of an alcoholic ex-cop and continue nonchalantly killing people. Will the cop exorcise his demons long enough to put an end to Crawdady and families reign of terror? Due to the ultimately jaw-dropping awfulness, Will we even care? To be fair the first 10 minutes hold a little promise and the last 20 are OK by me. It's just the endless minutes of stupid slapstick 'comedy' in the middle where the movie becomes a chore to sit through. and what a painful chore it is. The film would have been a good short film. But as it is now, it's not even passable entertainment.

My Grade: D

DVD Extras: Commentary with JR. Bookwalter and David Lange; Isolated music score audio track; 35 minute Making-of; Behind the scenes; camera and wardrobe tests; About the Remastering; Artwork and Stills Galleries; an episode of 'Roomates"; Theatrical Trailer; and Trailers for "Ozone", "Eddie Presley", "Dead and Rotting", and "Hell Asylum"

I rented 'Skinned Alive' under the impression that the movie was made fairly recently. Well, the joke was on me as 'Skinned Alive' is a cheap crap independent movie made in 1989. Apparently, fans were just begging for this movie to be re-mastered and re-released on a digital format, so the director complied. Well, for everyone's sake, he should have just burned the master instead. The collective cast is perhaps the ugliest, most unappealing troupe ever assembled reciting possibly the stupidest lines committed to paper. I love bad B horror movies as much as the next guy. This crap should have been left buried though. There's DVD extras, but I'm not sure why the hell anyone would want "extras" on a movie that appears to be created with the talent of a bowling team who got bored during the off-season. I'm not going to bother to give a plot synopsis, since it would be a waste of time. You could give a monkey a pencil and paper, sit him down in a room for an hour, and he could come up with a better script than this. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Filmed on location in scenic Ohio.

I didn't expect to like this funny and gory horror comedy as much as I did. It's certainly not for all tastes; even though it runs only about 80 minutes (including the long closing credits), the pace is extremely slow and nothing much really happens throughout. The gore effects are cheap but effective. The villains are a really twisted gang: the foul-mouthed, abusive, wheelchair-bound matriarch, the clumsy and slightly retarded son, the sadistic hottie daughter (no nudity from her, though the opportunity does come twice - what a shame!). The "hero" is an alcoholic ex-cop who has to put a stop to their activities implied by the title. All of the acting is amateurish, but at least the actors don't take themselves too seriously and seem to be in on the joke. This film will probably be appreciated only by those viewers interested in low-budget horror film-making. (**1/2)

The title in itself is genius: "Skinned Alive." When I picked this movie up at the video store it was collecting dust in the horror section. I looked on the back of the box and immediately knew that it was a no-budget movie, and most avid horror-viewers know exactly what comes with THAT territory: Bad acting, shotty camerawork, almost inaudible dialogue, annoying keyboard music, and no plot.

This particular movie possessed an exception to almost every expectation that I first had of it. "Skinned Alive" is a movie that should be viewed by any filmmaker, young or old, that is interested in making a horror movie on an extremely low budget, because it is a prime example of how amateur directors can make the best of what they have. It was funny, gory, suspenseful, somewhat provocative, and well-edited. While frequently I find myself fast-forwarding these types of movies so as not to bore myself silly, with "Skinned Alive" I always found myself in eager anticipation of what would happen next. Who would be the next person to get insulted, or kicked in the face? Would the hero end up getting his house back? Surprisingly, not many of the great horror directors have the type of sense that Jon Killough had in his directorial debut when it comes to plot structure. He sets up his characters extremely well.

In conclusion, I was far from disappointed after viewing this random horror rent. It's an entertaining and hilarious presentation that will leave you laughing out loud, and inspired to go out and make your own movie.

This is another sick cheapie from J.R. Bookwalter's stable of enthusiast but untalented horror directors, better known as "Tempe Productions". Apart from his own outrageously gore debut film "The Dead Next Door", Bookwalter's production studio has unleashed nothing but embarrassingly bad splatter-stuff upon horror-loving audiences that have the most absurd and grotesque plots but also the most incompetent means to work with. "Skinned Alive" is entirely Jon Killough's pride and handles about a family of traveling weirdos that turn innocent people into fashionable clothing. After killing a guy near a retarded little Ohio town, their van breaks down and the family (weelchaired mother and her incestuous son and and daughter) has to stay at the garage owner's house, where they unconcernedly continue their killing spree. This movie somewhat feels like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" meets "Mother's Day" but it's neither scary nor very funny. I appreciate the goodwill of all cast-members (Scott Spiegel in particular seems to have a lot of fun) and some of the gore-effects are effectively nauseating. Killough's sense of humor is delightfully twisted and low-budget gore king J.R. Bookwalter makes a small appearance as the Jehovah's Witness (they make such easy preys). "Skinned Alive" is overall enjoyable in a brainless sort of way. Too bad about the terrible – at times downright unendurable – acting and the completely redundant divorce sub plot.