Hunt for the Skinwalker

Just watched over half of this documentary and are having to have a break from how dull it is. Really disappointed as we were looking froward to watching this since it was teased. Most of the documentary so far (just over an hour in) is basically a long trailer explaining things they are going to show you... but then never show you. The wording is long and poetic rather than factual, the testimonies are called evidence when there are no photographs or footage to back it up and while these testimonies are being monotonously read out the on screen footage is of people walking in slow motion or random shots of grass. Annoying camera work with annoying scripts. So disappointed. There's little else I can say about it. Literally nothing has happened in this documentary.

Tedious documentary about a group paid by a very rich guy to investigate reports of spooky goings-on at a Utah ranch which he owned for some years.

If you can handle the overly dramatic music and inappropriate BIG WORDS POPPING UP ONSCREEN RANDOMLY, then the rest of the presentation is passable. I imagine the investigators purchased their 'Doctor' titles online because their conclusion is that their lack of any vaguely plausible evidence is down to the "entity" being conscious and deliberately hiding itself and any evidence. There are a couple of locals interviewed who are encouraged by the interviewer to agree that what they have seen must be supernatural or extraterrestrial. These would have made interesting 3 minute YouTube clips.

But the highlights are the nonsense one-liners spouted by the narrator and participants, here are my favourites:

"Imagine a place between shadow and substance" "This is a hunt. A hunt for answers to unformed questions" "I was like you... until I wasn't" "We used dogs as bio-sensors" "We live in the middle of some other kind of intelligence" "A chainsaw vanished while being used" "The high strangeness of these kind of objects" "Frequently things would happen just off camera"

And then Robbie Williams turns up desperately wanting to believe. These people have too much money and too much time on their hands.

Only for complete braindead suckers, or for those who love a laugh at/with the paranormal documentary genre. The truth is out there, but you won't find it here!

Skinwalker Ranch is an incredibly interesting topic worthy of a feature documentary. Unfortunately Hunt For The Skinwalker is a very disappointing, disjointed, and flawed attempt.

The archive footage and interviews with George Knapp are, for the most part, excellent. Anyone familiar with Knapp's work should know what to expect, and it is incredibly disappointing that relatively little of this film is made up of the video footage.

Outside of this? The director has a fascination with the most mundane aspects of the area surrounding Skinwalker Ranch: UFOs. And while UFOs may be of interest to a lot of people, the fact there are much more interesting and strange recorded aspects entirely ignored in the newer footage really lets it down.

Another thing that lets the film down is the direction and editing. The simple lack of awareness to even consider a better mic on his camera is the least of his problems. He is overstated in wanting to present himself as more than he is when he could have shown himself as a better director if he simply constructed an 80 minute film from the aforementioned archive footage. Reiterating the points made by Knapp and the archive footage repeatedly after every scene made an already badly paced and poorly edited documentary into an outright slog.

Also, Robbie Williams turns up. So there's that for anyone who wants to change some lyrics to reflect the sinister occurences, because seeing Stoke's own Robbie as a possible skinwalker is...great. 'It's time to move cows' bodies' etc.

This movies for you! Just like a cold hand job this movie promises suspense action and real findings just to leave you blue balls and a total desire to shoot your television. This piece of trash will waste hours of your time with by hyping you up for nothing.

I can tell this project was a labour of love for the director. And for someone who hasn't read the book, this would be a good documentary to check out if you are interested in the subject. But despite the mentions early on in the film of 'how much has happened since the book was written', they barely touch on any of that. There is maybe about 10 minute of material a little past the midway point of the film that is anything new. While it's nice to actually see the property, there's plenty of ways to see it now on YouTube. Other than that, it's just endless witness stories, and really not much else. I am disappointed that I paid (and the price I paid) to see this as it doesn't remotely live up to the hype. The only reason I am giving it the rating I am is because for someone not expecting new information or wanting to read the book, it would serve as a good introduction to the topic. Though a fairly boring one.