Skew (2011)

From my favorite movies..

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Eva, Ritchie, and Simon all head out on a road trip to get to a wedding, leaving behind a bit of a mystery as to what's going on between Simon and his girlfriend. Simon is, basically, a knob who goes around filming every single thing he sees. Constantly. One of his main subjects is Eva, Ritchie's girlfriend, although it takes Ritchie some time to figure that one out.Don't get me wrong, the first half hour of this is very, very slow, and as it's filmed 'live', some shots go on forever. Luckily my missus convinced me to stick with it (I was about to turn it off) and just around then things started picking up.You see, Simon starts to just barely glimpse that something is slightly 'off' about certain people he sees through the viewfinder. Their faces are obscured (on camera, but then not on tape), and very shortly those people meet nasty ends.I'll say no more - what you get from then on is some scares, a lot of drama, some gore and basically an ending that you'll have to figure out for yourself. Yes, it's slow, and very cheap, but i'll have to hand it to the filmmakers for doing what they did with such a low budget and doing it right. Takes a lot to make a film scary, and this one, although flawed, delivered the goods. I think I would have shoved that camera up Simon's arse though, so he could film his colon.

I really tried to like this film but it was so flawed it drove me nuts. If you were staying in a hotel and the manager was shot in the night would you really just go back to bed and sleep soundly with hardly a word about it? If you just found out from the police that a store you had just been to was now burnt to the ground and the clerk you were chatting with is dead would your reaction be 'I bought some gum and a drink'? Wouldn't you freak just a little bit? If you were asleep in a hotel room and your mate starts yelling there is someone in the room wouldn't you freak just a little bit? If your mate said to you that when he is filming people when their faces are skewed they die, would you really say well maybe mine isn't because you care about me? Really? This film is dull, unrealistic, badly directed and acted. Even the actors looked bored. I know its a film not real life but at least react with a bit of shock when people are dying all around you.

Skew is yet another hand-held POV horror in a similar vein to The Blair Witch Project and its countless found footage imitators. On this occasion, the person behind the camera is Simon (Rob Scattergood), who experiences disturbing occurrences while documenting his road trip with friends Rich (Richard Olak) and Eva (Amber Lewis): while peering through the viewfinder, Simon witnesses strange visual distortions that seem to predict the subject's imminent death.Told at a very leisurely pace, with the camera even resting on inanimate objects or total blackness for minutes on end, Skew is definitely a test of one's patience at times; however, commendable performances and sporadic moments of well-handled weirdness keep the viewer watching, as does the hope of a satisfying denouement. It's rather frustrating then that, by the end of proceedings, several issues are still left unresolved, most notably the true nature of the supernatural phenomenon and the fates of several characters.On occasion, a little ambiguity can work in a film's favour, but in this instance, after such an arduous and often uneventful haul, it only serves to irritate.N.B. A little detective work here on IMDb has since enabled me to better understand the director's intentions, but when an in-depth explanation from those involved is necessary in order to appreciate a film, then it only seems fair to call it a failure.

This movie had a lot of elements that I look for in movies but are so hard to find! Talented but unknown/little known actors (no offense to the cast!), a unique plot, or unique plot elements, thriller/horror is my fav genre, & it should leave a little to the imagination. Well done! It built the plot up slowly, but always moving, and it had plenty of suspense but no gore. It kept my attention the whole time. Admittedly I had to read a bit to fill in some gaps, but I blame myself, not Sevé. His explanations were thorough and fit in well, it definitely improved my opinion of a movie I already liked.I was hoping #Sevé Schelenz had a slew of other movies for me to peruse, but I guess I have to wait to see more. Something to look forward to! I did my research, and up next is Peelers... I can't wait!