Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
8/16/07
It's
funny what makes it into theaters: relentlessly cheap-looking, directed
with questionable professionalism and filled with actors I know I know
from someplace, Skinwalkers resembles a major motion picture in
exactly one way: Stan Winston Studios creature effects that are clever
and unique. Other than that, we're looking at a 2nd-tier Sci-Fi Channel
movie, the kind you watch one Saturday night, admit that it does in fact
have a plot and struggle to remember the title of on Sunday morning.
I wasn't bored, but I wasn't exactly interested either.
An
awkward opening narration informs us of the existence of Skinwalkers, humans
transformed by an Indian curse into bloodthirsty werewolves when the moon
is full. Some fight the thirst and seek salvation from an ancient
prophecy that a boy who is half-human and half-Skinwalker will bring an
end to the curse on midnight of his 13th birthday. And that moment
is just days away. Young Timothy (Matthew Knight, who played
the lead character in flashbacks to his childhood on The Dresden Files)
has grown up in a small town surrounded by the friends and family of his
late father and his oblivious mom Rachel (Rhona Mitra, whose character
Tara was unfairly dropped after the first season of Boston Legal).
Among those who've made it their mission in life to take care of the kid
are Jonas (oh, man, I recognize this guy... it's Elias Koteas, who
was so wonderfully nasty in Shooter!) and his
daughter Katherine (is that Alona Tal from Supernatural? No,
no, it's Sarah Carter from Shark and DOA:
Dead or Alive). But their idyllic existence is about to be shattered
because an inspirational video sent to Skinwalkers in the field (no, you
won't think that sounds any better after you've seen it) includes enough
clues to give away their location to a group of their evil counterparts
led by Varek (I'm thinking Martin Henderson... wait, it's Roswell's
Jason Behr, borrowing Henderson's hair from Torque).
It seems that once a Skinwalker has tasted human blood, they pretty much
turn to the Dark Side, and Varek and his pals, including Sonja (easy one:
Elektra's Typhoid Mary herself, Natassia Malthe) and Zo (OK,
under some unflattering makeup... reliable Canadian character actor Kim
Coates!) have no intention of turning back into mere humans.
So all parties converge, lots of shooting begins, and the chase is on!
It's
to Skinwalkers' credit that all this setup takes only about 20 minutes
and from there it's about an hour spent running, shooting, and sitting
in moving vehicles reflecting on the unfairness of destiny along with two
character reversals, one obvious and the other a nice surprise. Unfortunately,
dialog is the weakest point of a screenplay credited to, among others,
James Roday (Hey, he's the star of TV's Psych, every episode of
which has about 500 better lines than any in this movie!), and at times
characters pile one generic cliché on top of another until you wonder
if they even knew what movie they were in when they said them. And
while the plot, with its' interesting central question of exactly what
Timothy will do at the appointed hour to end the curse, is interesting
enough as it goes, the climactic revelations do little but beg a sequel
(and trust me, one look around any theater where this is playing will tell
you that's a fool's errand).
Director
James Isaac previously helmed The Horror Show (I know I've seen
it, but for the life of me can't remember a single frame) back in 1989
and Jason X (unseen by me) in 2001, but his work here charitably
suggests someone making their directorial debut. Not only does the
film have a cheap, rushed look (cinematographers David A. Armstrong and
Adam Kane must share the blame) but the camera placement in the non-action
scenes often just seems wrong. He REALLY overdoes the close-ups,
and if you're going to frame a character so tightly that we can't see their
chin or the top of their head, you'd better have a good reason for it.
He does better when things are on the move, and the first meeting between
the good and evil Skinwalkers in a small town shootout is kinda nifty,
even if the subsequent action gets a little repetitive. By the climax,
he's gotten a major assist from the movie's top asset, some really impressive
werewolf costumes. Each has a unique face, and I really liked the
creepy placement of the eyes. And like any good wolfman... what big
teeth they have!
The
cast is game. Koteas is really good as the Skinwalker patriarch,
giving the material unearned gravity with his dignified, weary performance.
That Martin Henderson hair really agrees with Behr, and I'd have never
thought he'd make such a sharp biker villain. Malthe has the easy
role: snarl and slink while the camera ogles her (OK, I'll admit
that the gym time necessary to be that ogleable IS hard work), but she
pulls it off with more style than I've seen from her in the past.
Carter is good at establishing Katherine's all-American niceness, but she
kinda loses her way when the role gets meatier. Knight and Mitra
manage not to embarrass themselves in thankless roles as the human MacGuffin
and the woman who Demands An Explanation!
If
you'd even be interested in seeing Skinwalkers, odds are you've
seen this sort of thing a million times before and it was better at least
seven hundred fifty thousand of them. Werewolf and FX completists
and fans of the various actors involved might find it worth a trip to the
multiplex, but if you miss it, odds are it won't be long before you see
it in its' natural habitat one Saturday night at 9pm on the Sci-Fi Channel. |
