Hmm, so what would you get if you crossed The Hills Have Eyes with Evil Dead...you'd get Texas Chainsaw Massacre slapstick style...aka Skinned Alive.  Take all of the things that you would expect from  b-rated cinema and multiply it by ten and you've got a general idea of what Skinned Alive is all about.

Crawldaddy is one screwed up lady.  She is taking her incestuous son and daughter, Phink and Violet, cross country to sell some of their fine leather goods.  You'll not be surprised to learn that these particular leather items come from a different sort of factory...one where everyone is worked to the bone!  Literally.  Together in their serial killer van, they prowl the highways and byways of backwoods America reaping the harvest of fresh flesh.

Things are going their way until their van breaks down in a godforsaken Ohio town, and can't be fixed until the next day.  No hotel? No problem, just flash some cash and the greedy yet well-meaning mechanic invites them home.  Eager to make up for lost revenue, this foul-mouthed, murderous family is anxious to get back to collecting skin.  First a pizza guy, then a Jehovah's Witness fall prey, but it seems they are just getting warmed up.

The ex-cop neighbor begins to suspect something may be a little off-kilter when he discovers an empty husk of human skin hanging in his neighbors basement, but isn't quite sure without a little more investigating.  More bodies pile up and he decides that something must be done.  But can he stop this hammering, hatcheting, slicing and dicing group before they make a tight fitting out-of-style pair of Eurotrash pants out of him too?

Now I hope you didn't go getting all excited after reading just the first paragraph of this review.  There is some things to be said for going over the top and then there are some drawbacks as well.  This film takes bad acting to a new extreme.  There is one major difference between early Raimi and this film and that is that the acting in Raimi's early works just came out bad.  Skinned Alive tries really hard to slap you in the face with its horrendous acting, and like the kid at the mall with 3/4" stretched earlobes, tribal tattoos, and a pair of Hot Topic bondage pants...trying too hard is just not cool!

On the subject of trying to hard, there is a terrific side story dealing with the ex-cop and his greedy, betraying ex-wife (who is schlupping her attorney).  We get a look into his character and his frailties; we really see what makes him tick and even learn a horrible secret about his past.  Only one problem...who cares?  This is not the character to be developing; rather it seems that perhaps the character development would have been better served on the homicidal maniac family and why exactly Violet tries to bed Phink (too bad about those hard to remove human skin bras).

There is a whole lot of imitating going on here, and the influences can be read off the screen like a script, and they never really manage to do much more than pay homage to the originals.  In a vain attempt to set itself apart from the pack this film goes all over the map, never quite stopping at good.  There is some great gore (applause to David Lange and Bill Morrison), there are moments that are humorous as well, and the last 10 minutes or so is fantastic; complete with a surprise ending.  This one had great potential and the critics seem to eat it up, but I found it to be just a little much. 

So if you like your horror funny and don't mind if it's lowbrow all the way, then you just might agree with everyone but me and love this movie...but if you think that even the low budget guys should at least try...be wary.

- aaron -