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Overall Rating : 5/10
Directed By : Dario Argento
Meat Loaf (BloodRayne)
John Saxon (A Nightmare On Elm Street)
Link Baker
Melissa Gonzalez
Supplied By : Starz! Media
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Dec. 4, 2006
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| PLOT Pelts, directed by Dario Argento, teleplay by Matt Venne, is an erotic tale about stolen raccoon pelts that violently turn against those that covet them in this Giallo-style adaptation of F. Paul Wilson's short story. Meatloaf and John Saxon star. |
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| THE REVIEW In this episode entitled Pelts, we are told a strange story about evil originating from a most unlikely source. An old farmer by the name of Jameson and his son are in the business of producing pelts, which are skins that are stripped down to make luxurious fur coats. It just so happens that around this time, Jameson has been producing some of the best fur he has seen in a long time which come from the Raccoons that inhabitant the surrounding land - a land that just happens to be haunted, and when Jameson and son end up dead in their home it seems as if the pelts are at fault. The night before Jameson's death, he had made the call to a shady business man in order to sell the pelts, but when he finds him dead, Jake wastes no time in taking the fur for himself, and from there to his factory. At his factory, his workers work endless hours in order to make the fur coat of his dreams but as the work - they too end up dead in various gruesome ways.. In the end a story of greed, as no matter how hard Jake would try to cash in for his personal gain, it's his greed above all else that would get the better of him. Last season Dario Argento presented us with a unique and cleverly gruesome story in JENIFER, and with Argento being one of my favorite directors, I loved it! This season, he returns with PELTS, a story that is strange as it is unique. The story admittingly is sort of ridiculous in itself, I mean in a million years I could've never come up with a Horror tale about evil raccoon fur...and for the most part the story is just doesn't make sense. To me, the characters featured here, for the most part possess not depth, excluding the character of Jake Feldman played convincingly by Meat Loaf. Jake is the only character that seems to have development and through out the 55 minute run time we are convinced that Jake is a very sleazy and conniving man as he often visits a strip club and has many tiresome workers working under him - all for his own financial wealth opposed to their own. As I suggested, the story isn't a clear winner, but probably the one reason to see this episode is the fantastic special effects. Through the course of this episode we have people dying in many different ways, mostly in the way they are handling the fur.(for instance, for one person whom was sewing the fur together....well she died from suffocation due to sewing her own eyes and mouth shut) The crowning moment for this episode's effects, in my opinion comes by way of Meat Loaf skinning himself and then soon parading around which his very own coat of skin in hand - talk about bizarre shall we? As I said, the characters in this one are nothing to write home about and besides Jake there is Jameson, portrayed by the brilliant, brilliant John Saxon (reuniting with Argento since TENEBRE), but the amount of screen time he has here does very little to do the man the justice he deserves... The story itself, is probably one of my least favorite ever to be showcased on MASTERS OF HORROR, mainly for it's unbelievability - I have seen a ton of B-Movies with more believable storylines than this.... but then again, PELTS does have the special effects that you just HAVE to tune in to watch..... |
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| GORE
METER 7/10 Brutal effects, from a face chopped off in a bear trap, a baseball bat beating, self-sewn suffocation, to a self-skinning it's all shown in all of it's bloody glory! |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4.5/10 I thought the score was a weird combination, for some scenes we are accompanied with classical tunes, while others maybe an upbeat club tune. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM As much as I enjoy and respect Dario Argento's work, I must be honest when I say PELTS is one of my least favorites of his. While watching this film, I was ready to rate this even much lower than I have, but yes, the realistic effects by KNB EFX changed that a little. Even though I wasn't a big fan of the story....I would still recommend, if not for the gore alone... |
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