I have been on a kick of watching found-footage horror films recently, and after watching what I thought was all I could find on Netflix, I happened to stumble upon this title. The picture was littered with rave reviews, which was enough to convince me that it was at least worth checking out.
I enjoyed the first two Paranormal Activity movies (haven't seen the third yet), The Last Exorcism annoyed me, and I don't even know what to write about Grave Encounters. My biggest complaint with these types of movies is that there is too much that is similar - I realize that there is only so many ways you can go, but there's no need to have the lead character who wants the "documentary" to go on no matter what, a swinging chandelier, or someone getting dragged by an unseen force is every found-footage movie about the paranormal.
Boy, was I glad that I watched Skew ... it avoided enough of those recurring elements that it could be considered - dare I say - creative.
The basic plot revolves around three friends on a road trip. The main character is seemingly obsessed with using the video camera, a source of increasing annoyance to his two friends. Along the way, the main character begins to see strange things through the camera, and strange things begin to happen to people who are seen on camera. The tension builds and builds until you are assaulted with a mind-twisting ending that, in my opinion, can stack up against any other twist ending out there.
The acting is much better than most of this genre, the "home movie" element feels very natural, and the few jump scares that are featured a more than enough to get your attention right away. I felt that some scenes dragged on a bit long, but it's not bad enough to truly annoy, and actually adds to the "home movie" feel.
Usually, the use of a musical score and other scary movie tones used on post-production irritate me (if this is truly "found-footage," there wouldn't be any background music, would there?) But in this case, the sounds used at the end amplify the effect ten-fold. And the ending - WOW. There will be those that won't be able to figure it out, and I admit that I am one of them. But the movie was that good that I am looking forward to watching it again to figure it out.
For fans of this genre, I highly recommend this movie, even if only to see something that is a little different. If you're not already a fan of the genre, this movie won't make you one. But that being said, this is one of the better movies I've seen the last couple of days, and I haven't been able to get it out of my head yet.
