It's funny. As I was watching the opening of SKELETON CREW, I thought I might be in for a treat, a sort of psycho killer thriller set in a weird decaying mental institution whose staff had long gone off the deep end. Almost 30 minutes(!)in, we find that what has been presented to us, regarding a poor woman's ordeal after a car crash leaves her in an asylum while her boyfriend is supposedly being patched up, hunted by the hospital's crew, is simply footage for a low budget horror film . We are introduced to a Finnish film crew, tired and forlorn because they haven't been paid, the director fancying himself an auteur while his producer, back in LA, has no intention of spending any money on their film. Then, the director, Steven(Steve Porter)becomes obsessed with snuff film stock found by members of his crew, and we soon discover that spirits of the deranged hospital staff who committed torturous atrocities to patients back in the 70s before the hospital was closed and searched by police are haunting the halls. Steven, who begins to hunt and kill his actors and crew, using methods perfected by the ghouls who once operated the now dilapidated hospital fallen to ruin, could very well be controlled by the evil spirit of the former director of the asylum, "The Auteur"(what the hospital director called himself when filming his torture of patients in the basement of the building). The hunted will need to somehow evade their pursuer, but any avenue of escape seems remote since their van's engine, of course, doesn't crank and phones have no signal. Meanwhile, The Auteur is able to capture and butcher each crew member one at a time when separate from the pack.
Kind of a "poutpori" of various subgenres. It's a slasher movie. It's a torture movie. It's a satire on low budget filmmaking. It's got ghosts and a madman on the loose doing their bidding. It incorporates the idea of existence of snuff movies. It's a black comedy whose humor is geared towards the slasher genre and it's many clichés. It pokes fun at the "film within the film" structure. The mental hospital is an extremely notable asset as is the excellent special gore effects highlighting some pretty unpleasant ultra violence including the use of a number of weapons including a chainsaw, set lights(which burns one poor fellow alive), bats with spikes(a homage to ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, perhaps?), power drill(an actor has no idea that Steven has substituted a real one for a prop!), and hammers(which pummel victims strapped to chairs by leather straps). The make-up effects(such grisly delights such as the bodies of live victims with limbs removed, the aforementioned burn victim whose skin chars before our eyes, gun shot wound in the back of a victim's skull)and camera work, not to mention the snuff reels, are first-rate. It's the unevenness of the bonkers plot which doesn't quite gel. SKELETON CREW is very tongue-in-cheek and should make for an easy double feature with a HOSTEL or SAW movie. I liked this a bit more than others who found it unwatchable; could be I was in the right mood for it. I wouldn't necessarily say SKELETON CREW is a success but it's dark heart is in the right place. That's a wrap.
Kind of a "poutpori" of various subgenres. It's a slasher movie. It's a torture movie. It's a satire on low budget filmmaking. It's got ghosts and a madman on the loose doing their bidding. It incorporates the idea of existence of snuff movies. It's a black comedy whose humor is geared towards the slasher genre and it's many clichés. It pokes fun at the "film within the film" structure. The mental hospital is an extremely notable asset as is the excellent special gore effects highlighting some pretty unpleasant ultra violence including the use of a number of weapons including a chainsaw, set lights(which burns one poor fellow alive), bats with spikes(a homage to ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, perhaps?), power drill(an actor has no idea that Steven has substituted a real one for a prop!), and hammers(which pummel victims strapped to chairs by leather straps). The make-up effects(such grisly delights such as the bodies of live victims with limbs removed, the aforementioned burn victim whose skin chars before our eyes, gun shot wound in the back of a victim's skull)and camera work, not to mention the snuff reels, are first-rate. It's the unevenness of the bonkers plot which doesn't quite gel. SKELETON CREW is very tongue-in-cheek and should make for an easy double feature with a HOSTEL or SAW movie. I liked this a bit more than others who found it unwatchable; could be I was in the right mood for it. I wouldn't necessarily say SKELETON CREW is a success but it's dark heart is in the right place. That's a wrap.