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Overall Rating : 3.5/10
Directed By : Justin Wingenfeld
Debbie Rochon (American Crime)
Julian Wells (Spiderbabe)
Kevin G. Shinnick (Screaming Dead)
Armando Anthony
Supplied By : Shock-O-Rama Cinema
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Apr. 12, 2007
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| PLOT In the late 17th century, a family of witches is terrorized by a corrupt public official. When their sister is murdered, the remaining two put on a curse on their bloodline, bringing horrible retribution to anyone who victimizes any member of their family, no matter how many generations away. Three hundred years later, their last descendant is a wealthy woman stuck in an unhappy marriage. Her husband and his mistress decide to have her killed to get at her money, unaware of the curse and the forces of darkness that they are about to unleash. |
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| THE REVIEW SHOCK-O-RAMA CINEMA's latest horror film tells the story of three witches whom are sisters, The sisters come under accusations abd harassments by village officials - accused of performing witchcraft and other acts. The officials abduct the youngest sister and viciously rape and beat her, but when the young which refuses to let time have their way with her, the confrontation ends in her murder. Furious with the death of their sister, the two remaining witches cast a spell that would last for centuries on, and anyone to cause harm to any of their forthcoming descendants would suffer a grisly fate. Such a story is then introduced, when their last descendant Margaret, whom happens to be a wealthy business woman, is killed for her money - Margaret's murder is planned an orchestrated by her husband who is having an affair. SKIN CRAWL, a film that was actually Written and directed by Justin Wingenfeld(who also acts occasionally) about 5 years ago, thus marking his directorial debut. Now in 2007 it finally see's it's release from SHOCK-O-RAMA. I am an avid supporter of POP Cinema and their films, and honestly I rarely find films that I do not like as a whole, as there always seems be at least something that kept me interested. Unfortunately this turned out to be one that I just didn't really care for, for the lack of better words.... The story is simple, in that a 300 hundred year old spell survives the test of time and makes good on the promise put forth by the Warbeck sister's when their last remaining relative is attack and killed. SKIN CRAWL is being market as a Horror film, from it's cover art to it's title but only about 15 or so minutes of the film is actually Horror related. Most of the film is played out as sort of a suspense drama with most events shown in the film retraced and virtually "re-wound" in the way of a TALES FROM THE CRYPT episode. With the transition from the era in which the witches once lived to present day- and for the fact that Debbie Rochon who played one of the sisters, also plays Margaret - and the various scenes we watch multiple times, well it becomes a rather confusing mess. At first hard to follow, once you do understand what type of film this is going to be, the plot becomes less interesting, but when things start looking up for the film on the entertainment side of things(the Horror we expected), there is not much time left to spend as must of the film as been eaten up by the abundance of re-telling. With the plot being really simple, I actaully thought it may be a little too thin, the only really redeeming thing for me was the fact that Debbie Rochon is the star, and perhaps would be the only reason to watch this film. But some disagree, as I am the only one yet to post a negative review for this film. Made in 2002, I feel this film was made at a lesser time for POP CINEMA, because since that time their overall quality and production have so much improved with films such as SHOCK-O-RAMA, BITE ME! and LUST FOR DRACULA. |
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| GORE
METER 4/10 We have stab wounds, broken necks, extracted guts...etc. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 3.5/10 The score is more ambient, didn't really stand out to me as something that really benefited the film in the end. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM SKIN CRAWL plays out more like something that would come from another one of POP CINEMA's other labels and not SHOCK-O-RAMA CINEMA. In my opinion the last few scenes of this film were enjoyable, but unfortunately, not enough time is left to focus on it. I won't say that this is not to be recommend as most seem to like it, but this is one of those very rare occurrences that my rating in "this" close to the IMDB.com rating... |
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