CMRKeyboadist
I ended up with this movie through one of those cheap Brentwood Video 4 pack releases. I had a really hard time sitting through this movie the first time around but the second time around was what made it all worth while. This is an early release from some of the guys that brought you Evil Dead and other titles in the eighties. Usually, these movies are pretty bad and this one is no exception but all these movies are a lot of fun, you just have to adapt to the poor taste of this kind of film-making.A group of 3 people are on the road killing random hitchhikers to use their skin as leather. They end up in a little town where a huge bloodbath takes place.That's it. That's the storyline. Nothing new here but this film is still a lot of fun even if it is a badly done film. The gore effects are hilarious, especially a scene where one of the killers gets blown away with an uzzi. Scott Spiegal is about the only actor in the movie who actually places his part halfway decently. The rest of the actors are just atrocious.All in all, I enjoyed this movie and will probably watch it several more times before I get tired of it. 7/10 stars
Coventry
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.
darren-rees2
I am a fan of horror films. I especially love bad horror films. The kind of bad horror films that you feel the need to defend when your mates ask 'what the hell?', or your girlfriend accuses you of being a weird sicko for liking 'this crap'.Bad horror films are great.Imagine asking some random 10 year old kid to write a script for a film, then just expand the A4 page of script to 4 A4 pages of script by adding expletives. Then, take another 10 year old kid, and give them a video camera, showing him the record button. Next, take 5 adults off the street, hand them the 4 page script, and bundle them into a room together. Give them 3 mins to learn their lines, then: Lights, Camera, Action.Finally, record a kid playing (badly) on a toy synth, then overdub the film with this 'soundtrack' so you can't hear the audio properly. Do this experiment 100 times, each time with different people off the street. Pick the crappiest version of those 100, call it Skinned Alive, and send it off to the duplicators.If anyone claims that this film has any redeeming features, it is just a trick to get some poor other fool to waste 90 mins of their life watching this tripe.Please, head my advice, and avoid this flick. You have been warned.
cjhancocks
I still can't tell whether this film is serious. It's called a horror on here but it must be a black comedy. It absolutely hilarious! The effects are awful and so is the acting and the story line but put together it all makes one funny film...if you don't have a good sense of humor then probably give it a miss but if you do and you like gory films this is fantastic! It's similar to the Evil Dead series if you like them. The murders are gory and bloody and very unrealistic and over the top with victims surviving through shootings and stabbings and wounds healing between shots and blood stained clothes suddenly becoming clean. I found this film hysterically tacky and awful.
AD
