Lionsgate's packaging for Skinned Alive perplexes me. The cover art is striking in its simplicity - with the title in bold blood red letters, the catchphrase "terror runs deep" underneath, and the close-up of a bleached human mask hanging on barbed wire. It's creepy and vaguely reminiscent of the "empty" masks on Pink Floyd's Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live CD release a few years back. I like it.

And yet I fail to understand how the cover relates to the movie Skinned Alive.

Lionsgate has a history of amping up DVD covers for their low budget horror offerings, distorting what the movies actually have to offer. The Entrance is a good example. Typically, the art is at least tangentially related to the film itself. I *really* don't see the connection here, however. Maybe I'm dense.

Art aside, Lionsgate is clearly marketing Skinned Alive as a horror film. If the catch phrase wasn't enough, the back cover art sports two blurbs from best-horror-movies's website regarding the movie's horrific and gory elements.

And yet, this categorization too seems off somehow. Skinned Alive, while clearly having a horrific premise and copious blood, doesn't feel like a horror movie.

For these reasons, I suspect that the casual filmgoer looking for some Hostel-type frights may be disappointed with this flick.

Speaking of which, let's get to the movie itself. The film's protagonist, Jeffrey (Jack Dillon, looking quite a bit like Battlestar Galactica's Jamie Bamber) is suffering from severe loneliness. He's an insurance salesman by day, spending his nights all alone in a mansion-sized house willed to him by his late mother. He resorts to escort services for companionship and one night he's paired with Pandora (Melissa Bacelar), a mysterious call girl he falls in love with. Unfortunately for Jeffrey, his new love interest is a serial killing cannibal, and the brother of one of her victims is after her for vengeance.

There's some interesting B-movie ideas in Skinned Alive, but the major problem is that this film doesn't seem to have a focus. It's not really successful as a straight-out horror movie - the scenes of Pandora murdering and partially devouring her victims are rather silly-looking and completely unconvincing. There aren't any real scares here.

The movie doesn't appear to have enough of a budget to go the realistic "torture porn" route a la Hostel or Saw. The gore effects range from okay to poor.

Skinned Alive could've been a character-driven suspense film, but the compelling narrative of Jeffrey's loneliness is undercut by weak humor and stilted dialogue (although a scene where he addresses a caller looking to buy insurance for a wreck that happened earlier in the day works well).

This could have also been a trashy Troma-style romp. There's plenty of fake gore and nudity. But too much of the film wants to be taken at least semi-seriously for it to work on that prurient level.

In the end, then, Skinned Alive has some intriguing elements and scenes. I think it works best when it's focused on Jeffrey and Pandora's unusual relationship. The filmmakers also do a nice job of obscuring who - or what - Pandora is. But, the movie's jumbled genre-crossing ultimately unravels its impact. If ultra-low budget films are your thing, I'd suggest that this is worth a rental. But the majority of filmgoers would probably do well to skip it.

The DVD

Video:

Skinned Alive is given a "4x3 letterbox" presentation, which means non-anamorphic. Most of the film looks okay given its low budget roots. Some video noise is present. Establishing shots of New York City, however, look fuzzy with a lot of artifacts and aliasing (maybe stock footage?).

Sound:

The only audio track is 2.0 Dolby Digital. It's a solid mix but hardly dynamic. Subtitles are provided in English and Spanish.

Extras:

When the disc is played, trailers precede the main menu for Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train, 6 Films To Keep You Awake, Bram Stoker's Dracula's Guest, Restraint, Kitchen Privileges, and Trapped Ashes. These trailers are also available through an Also From Lionsgate link in the Special Features menu.

This Special Features menu also houses Behind the Scenes of Skinned Alive (8:53), a featurette with the cast and crew mentioning their favorite horror films peppered with behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the movie. It doesn't provide a whole lot of insight into the film itself per se.

Final Thoughts:

Skinned Alive may have interesting cover art, but this tale of a lonely guy and his serial killing cannibal girlfriend can't seem to decide what type of movie it wants to be - which is ultimately its undoing. Still, B-movie fans should find enough of interest here to warrant a rental.

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