NekoHomey
Purely Joyful Movie!
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Sanjeev Waters
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
HumanoidOfFlesh
"Skinned Alive" is a low-budget "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" rip-off about cannibalistic family of Crawldaddy that hunts people,kills them and turns their skins into leather that they sell.When their van breaks down the mechanic invites the family to stay with him while their van is being fixed.Soon the bloodbath ensues and only local war veteran can stop trio of ruthless killers...Cheap and dumb copy of Tobe Hooper's seminal terror classic with plenty of cheesy gore and laughable acting.The plot twists are ridiculous and often irritating.If you are fan of Troma works this little slice of low-budget Ohio gore should be in your collection.6 leather coats out of 10.
allencurl-1
In b-movie terms, this one is one of the best ones out there. I immediately was drawn to this movie when the front cover showed unnecessary nudity (a b-movie antic, I guess the producers decide that " let's just add a bunch of nudity to make up for the plot and acting's short-comings.") Anyway, upon looking at the back of the movie, I knew I had landed a great b-movie. The plot is so incredibly poor it makes me cringe, let me sum it up for you: A poor group of travelers go around killing people and using their skins to sell like authentic hides from cows or deer or something. The acting is so incredibly cheesy and the "Special effects" (blood, make-up and props) and terrible too. Now the reason I say this is a good b-movie is because it is so incredibly stupid that it is funny. I was laughing in hysterics upon the second time watching this movie. What you need to do, in watching this movie is watch it by yourself, (which you will more than likely find this movie stupid and repulsive) but then watch it again. You will get to pick up on the numerous plot-holes and parts of the movie that are just so cheesy you can do nothing but laugh. Don't be afraid to stop the movie, rewind it, and make fun of things in specifics also, like when the old man walks into his basement and finds a piece of skin lying on the floor (which is most obviously bologna) and other stuff like that. Have fun with it, it's worth it!
Paul Andrews
Skinned Alive starts somewhere in Ohio with a hitchhiker (writer & director Jon Killough) trying to thumb a lift on a lonely deserted backwoods road. Eventually a van pulls up, the words 'CRAWLDADDY'S TRAVELING TANNERY' are written along the side. He opens the door but the driver, Violet (Susan Rothacker) kicks him in the face & then Violets Brother Phink (Scott Speigel) kills him. Togetehr with their wheelchair bound, eye-patch wearing Mother strangely named Crawldaddy (Mary Jackson) they drive off. Before long a fat guy named Willard (Mike Render) whose car has broken down ends up the same way. But their van is having problems starting so they take it to a garage where a mechanic named Tom Miles (Lester Clark) says he can fix it but it'll take a while & invites the family to stay at his house with him & his wife Whinnie (Barbara Katz-Norrod). While their there the family repay their host's good deed by killing a few more of the locals to pass the time including a Jehovah's witness (played by music composer & producer J.R. Bookwalter) & a delivery boy (Mike Shea) intending to skin them & make jackets & handbags out of it, however Tom's next door neighbour, an ex-cop named Paul Hickox (Floyd Ewing Jr.) discovers the families murderous ways & decides to put an end to it...Edited, produced & directed by Jon Killough who also has a small role in it, I personally thought Skinned Alive was an absolutely awful horror film in every way imaginable. According to the IMDb Skinned Alive's budget was an estimated minuscule $18,500, well all I can say is where did the money go because it didn't end up on screen that's for sure. I'm trying to think of a single positive thing to say about Skinned Alive but I simply can't think of one. The script is a mess & has all the intelligence, subtly & entertainment value of being written by an illiterate five year old. It can't decide whether it's a straight horror or comedy, I'm sure there are certain scenes which are meant to be funny like when Violet strips for Phink & when she kicks her boots off they both hit his head complete with silly sound effects & a stupid expression on Phink's face, unfortunately these 'comedy' moments are about as funny as losing an arm or leg. There is no story to speak of or any developed characters. The dialogue between the family is very annoying & consists of nothing more than how many swear words they can fit into sentences insulting each other, I hated the lot of 'em by the time Skinned Alive finished. The acting is as terrible as you would expect, real amateur stuff & it wouldn't surprise me if the entire cast were friends & family of the director's except Scott Spiegel (hey Scott loose the ponytail mate...) who I was shocked to see in this piece of pond scum & whose credits include The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), Intruder (1989), Darkman (1990) & the two recent Spider-Man (2002 -2004) films among others. I'd have thought he could have pointed the whole production in the right direction but obviously he didn't, oh & he can't act either. Basically Skinned Alive has no meaningful story, characters or incidents & lacks any sort of atmosphere or tension. The poorly conceived & executed gore scenes have no build up or pay-off. There's a bit when someone has the skin on their chest sliced off, a split in half head, a sliced open stomach, some severed fingers & a couple of skinned corpses but it's all very fake looking & filmed in such a way it has zero impact. Technically Skinned Alive is real bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, the keyboard synthesiser music is basic, bland & doesn't complement the on screen action in the slightest, the acting as I've already said is rotten throughout, the photography is of home camcorder quality & it was obviously shot on very low grade film or video as it is extremely grainy & lacks any colour definition & as a result Skinned Alive just doesn't look like a film, the director uses the most basic & as few shots as possible to accomplish the scene with no close-ups or establishing shots of note, neither does the camera move that much & when it does it's pretty jerky, the thing appears to be shot in two different houses & that's it for locations, I could probably go on all day about how bad this piece of crap is but hopefully you get the idea. Overall I hated Skinned Alive, it's the kind of film that gives the horror genre a bad name & will put casual viewers off other much better examples. I really don't have a single good thing to say about this lousy zero budget amateurishly made mess of a horror film. Avoid at all costs, 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.
