Brief review: "Skinned Alive"

Distributor: Lionsgate



Skinned Alive is a gruesome but muddled horror movie.

In the heart of New York City, a prostitute is killing men in a gruesome manner - first dismembering them and then eating them. Caught in the web of murder are three people: a sad and lonely man named Jeffrey, a call girl with a dark secret, and a lunatic who wants her dead. Jeffrey is about to discover that true love can have a very bloody price.

James Tucker's film is a mixed blessing. The first hour of the 90-minute film goes by quickly and is nicely done. During this time, the film hardly could be called a horror movie aside from quick but brutal killings by an unseen prostitute. The lonely life of the protagonist Jeffrey (newcomer Jack Dillon) is established. He lives alone in his parents house, gets visited every once in a while by his concerned sister, gets soundly rejected by every woman he approaches, and pays for escorts but not for the sex, for the companionship only to be disappointed when they pretty much ignore him before rejecting him as well. As he says to himself, "I would kill myself but no one would care. I'd be pathetic even in death." This sequence works because the viewer begins to sympathize with Jeffrey because he really seems like a decent guy, maybe a little pathetic at times, who hasn't received a fair shake in life for whatever reason. It isn't exactly scary or horrific, but it could have been the setup for a good little movie. Could have been.

Unfortunately, once he begins dating the cannibalistic prostitute, the film proceeds to go downhill, fast. Without spoiling what occurs in the last half hour of the film, let me just say that it is incredibly difficult to buy what transpires. The film undergoes a drastic tonal shift at this point from straight horror to comedy-horror that does not gel with the previous material at all. Not in the least. It is so out-of-the-blue it wouldn't be too far-fetched to believe that the film changed screenwriters and directors midway through production. Alas, that is not the case, which makes the situation even more confounding. To say that the last half hour goes a long way towards undermining what came before it is an understatement.

The acting is good, the film looks decent for a low-budget production but the final 30 or so minutes of Skinned Alive make it difficult to recommend. If you do see it, turn it off at the one hour mark and invent your own ending. It'll be better than what actually occurs, guaranteed.