Pelt

The B-horror movie seems to be going away. Long gone are the days of picking up a couple of "scary" movies from your local video store, buying some beer and inviting friends over to pick the movie apart. Today's B-horror either tries to be B-horror(thus losing the charm) or is so terrible and boring that there is nothing to make fun of. This film is the best laugh I have had in a while. It is just interesting enough to keep you keep watching and although I feel it does make fun of itself purposely on a couple of occasions, it is just serious enough to get the laughs going. For a B-movie to be funny, the golden rule is that the audience feels that the director has a masterpiece on his hands. No spoilers here: but the best laughs come from the bar scene in the beginning of the movie(particularly the "John" character), then later a female who keeps having a pain and describes it in detail, a certain character's sleeping apparel, the best stereotype of a yuppie jock in horror movie history(seriously) and the flying ax. That is just to name a few. Invite friends over, pour some refreshments and enjoy. This is as good as it gets for horror fun at the film's expense.

Pelt was a throwaway for me, a way to kill a few hours while doing something else, and I almost turned it off after the first five minutes, but I'm glad I stayed with it. Ultimately I put aside what I was doing and gave it my full attention.

Those who tuned out after the first five minutes can hardly be blamed. The movie tries very aggressively to make you dislike the characters in the opening sequences, which is inexplicable as the most effective and memorable horror movies set up the victims as real people so that you actually care about them (think "Audition"). Very bad move making the girls obnoxious cock teases and the boys frat-boy jerks -- I guess this was done to make you want to see them killed? To lighten up the savaging to come? Definitely a misstep, as the movie has lots of work to do to overcome that initial distaste -- it really opens like a revenge of the nerds type scenario, except without the nerds, only with the arrogant popular and beautiful snots.

But I hung with it and it quickly evolved into a tight little stalker flick, the characters shedding their one dimensional arrogance and actually assuming fairly human traits -- surprisingly human in fact. Of course the conceit of the plot is nothing new -- the stalkers are your typical back woods stalkers, and they are even doing what hick serial killers seem to most aspire to, but that doesn't really matter.

What matters most in a movie like this is watching a person or a small group be hunted and trying to deal with that situation, trying to survive. This movie does that remarkably well, and once the action begins will keep you engaged and interested, with more than the normal share of jolts.

I wouldn't be reluctant to suggest that you just skip the first 15 minutes of the movie altogether, as it's aggressively loathsome, and I suspect that's the reason that the movie has such a terrible rating. It might be a 3 for the first 15 minutes but it quickly becomes an 8 once the action starts.

"Pelts" was a typical "hot twenty-somethings go into the woods and bad things happens" film. It was decently-made and could have been effective.

HOWEVER... the filmmakers made a huge miscalculation. During the 30 minutes of "character development," they made the protagonists -- three girls and four guys -- among the most revolting group of assholes I have ever seen on film. I am not kidding here, guys, it's one thing to make characters so revolting that you're rooting for the bad guys to kill them. Usually, that's because they're just annoying and we "know we're in a movie." But when you put characters out there that are so mean and sickening that you are rooting for the people they interact with to BECOME killers and kill them, you've done something special.

If they re-shot the first half hour and made the group more likable, this would be a FAR better film. But alas, we are left with that we have.

Also, to paraphrase the late Gene Siskel, "In a film like this, we deserve some nudity." The girls are hot, but remain fully clothed. And just to sort of "rub it in," the hottest girl -- Amber Bollinger -- does have a nice tank top on, but half-way through the film covers that tank top with a large bulky shirt which she wears for the rest of the movie.

Sheesh.

Not a great movie pretty boring all the way through but I've seen some worse ones I bought this movie with a 10-hour films and most were not memorable. It was very much like the wrong turn they even stole the section where they were in this Tower they moved this black boy up inside the tower that couldn't walk only to move him back down didn't make a lot of sense they didn't use their heads and some mad Men was trying to kill them very forgettable story in line but I have seen worse. It's very easy to make a stereotypical horror movie now nobody has any creativity this was just a bunch of blood and killing that really didn't make any sense and add to the story.

1st watched 12/30/2021 - 3 out of 10 (Dir-Richard Swindell): Standard slasher film with standard beginning where a bunch of young free-for-all's get drunk, high, and plan a hike and time to stay in the woods. And, of course, there are sexy women - who are pretty much out to do no good, and than become part of the hunted. Why these type of movies continue being made and financed is beyond me, but I digress. The hunter is a huge axe-wielding type that has a thing for peeling the skin off some of his victims(Aka. Pelt). Since the characters are standard slasher film fare we really don't care about them. They try to make you care with a couple scenes where the music gets sympathetic-like, but it doesn't work. There are a couple interesting escape areas like a Ranger's post and a close-by highway but unfortunately neither are really used to their advantage by the hunted. I really don't have much else to say about this other than to avoid it. The acting wasn't terrible for these films, and the direction was not anything unique or special - we've had stories with crazed axe-wielders so that wasn't unique either. Actors....please stop taking these jobs, and portray something people would care about.