Skeleton Crew (2009)

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

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.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Skeleton Crew is definitely a weird movie. And I guess it's because I kept telling myself (and my friend) that this is going to be so bad, that I'm almost positively surprised. It was bad, but like with so many movies like this, it's kind of the point. If a movie like this would be made completely seriously and well, it wouldn't have any kind of charm, would just make you wonder if the writers are okay. When it's done with a tongue-in-cheek attitude, it's usually more entertaining.Skeleton Crew plays with horror movie tropes in a fun, fourth wall breaking way, while being brutally violent and just... f###ed up. It's been hours since I saw the movie, and I'm still confused about... well, everything. It's a bad movie, but I definitely had fun when watching it. So if you do watch it, make sure you watch it friends, because this is one of those movies where it's just sad when you watch it alone and can't really laugh about it at the same time.

1) Get a million dollars 2) Assemble a cast and crew 3) Rewrite a script. Repeat. Repeat again 4) Procure some film/video and lighting equipment 5) Locate a current/old or abandoned asylum 6) Make movie 7) Read reviews on IMDb 8) Try againThis movie would have worked much better if the video makers went deep into XXX territory. One reviewer suggested a spoof. Hmmmm. Maybe. Anyone agree? Makes more sense that way. And there were hints of spoofdom...but spoofs are hard to pull off. The Naked Gun series and Scary Movie series were very funny movies.But then they had lots of talent too.NIGHT: INSIDE ASYLUMThe Director is watching a "found" snuff film from former denizens of the asylum. He becomes what he beholds. Shouldn't an alert siren go off with the klangon bells like on a destroyer, signaling "battle stations".I think Skeleton Crew is best labeled as an OK B movie, get for drive-ins where you can make out during the movie. Or, was this totally tongue in cheek. Has anyone talked with the director. No special features....which would reveal his intent. This would have helped.There are plenty of old,decayed, abandoned asylums everywhere and aspiring filmmakers. I am sure we will see many more ASYLUM films.UPDATE: I did some thinking and decided it is a SPOOF. Why? Everyone seems to be doing a tongue in cheek performance. And at the end of the credits a guy makes a satirical comment. The director is over the top. Europeans love to dish back our own culture to us. And they often do it in a very subtle manner. And the "found" films try to one up our version of horror films. That's why there is confusion for us on this movie.Did anyone catch the reference to Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM. One crew member gets skewered by a huge spear at the end of a camera, which films his agony. In PEEPING TOM, the killer does the same thing and uses a tripod with a mirror attached. I think it is all a spoof on several films, including the stormy weather and accident that propels them to the asylum (this has been done many times). So if you look at as a spoof with European sensibilities and as a B movie, it is OK. I may even rent it again, as I ony paid 25 cents for rental due to a special.

Skeleton Crew is set in Finland where a small film crew are making a horror film called Silent Creek about a doctor that worked in a mental institution who made snuff films by torturing & murdering his patients some thirty year previous. The film crew are actually filming in the same institution where the murders took place & while scouting the place out they find a hidden room with a projector & a stash of snuff films, the director Steven (Steve Porter) becomes obsessed with the films & watches them although the rest of the crew don't. The graphic snuff films seems to have an affect on Steven & he rewrites his film to include the murders of of his cast & crew as he intends to carry on the doctor's legacy & make his own snuff film masterpiece...This Finnish production was directed by Tommi Lepola & Tero Molin & is a bit of an oddity really, I can't say I particularly liked it but at the same time I can't say I hated it. The first thing that is very noticeable about Skeleton Crew is how long the script plays the film within a film scenario in the sense you actually think your watching the film as it's supposed to be but then someone shout's cut & it's revealed that the previous scene was itself a scene being filmed within the context of the film but here in Skeleton Crew the entire first twenty one minutes is played out like a proper film before the film within a film twist is revealed & afterwards you have to basically forget the entire first twenty odd minutes as the film proper then kicks in. The silly twist's don't end there though as the character's realise towards the end that they actually are character's in a horror film & all the silly unbelievable things that have happened before are just part of horror film rules, it's a really strange plot twist & revelation that the makers can't quite pull off, it's an interesting idea with amusing comic potential but the film takes itself very seriously & it's hard to do the same. At 90 odd minutes I could have done with ten minutes or so cut from it, the character's & especially some of the dialogue is really bad (I take it as a Finnish production the makers first language isn't English which explains the odd dialogue & strange delivery) although there's some decent gore & it does try to throw in some twist's & turns that with a better script could have made for an effective horror thriller & it's saying something when you think the film within the film first twenty minutes is better than the rest of it!The first twenty odd minutes is actually quite atmospheric & darkly filmed while the rest of it, the proper film as it were, lacks any of that atmosphere & feels far more routine. There's some decent gore here, a scalpel is plunged into someone's eye, someone's head is drilled, someones cut in half with a chainsaw, someone is impaled on a spiked lance & there's a fair amount of blood splatter. The film is not perfect with various people just disappearing (the nurse from the beginning & the guy playing Lisa's husband) & when the drill's are switched Bruce doesn't even notice how different they look before sticking it in a girls head?With a supposed budget of about $1,000,000 this looks pretty good, well at least the first twenty minutes do while the rest of it merely looks alright. Apparently shot entirely in Finland with a mostly Finnish cast & crew, I can't say I can ever remember seeing another Finnish horror film actually. The acting is often very bad, some of the accents, bizarre emphasis on random word & the way sentences are constructed give Skeleton Crew a somewhat surreal feel that I quite liked in an odd way.Skeleton Crew really isn't very good with a couple of poorly handled plot twist's but I thought it tried & there's a few decent gory moments here & a bit of unintentional comedy value too with the bizarre dialogue & acting. I can't really recommend it but I didn't hate it.

The story is about a group of film makers who are shooting in the actual location where the murders they are pretending to portray actually happened. The director is then over come by the power of the evil doctor who still haunts the facility. House on Haunted Hill anyone? The acting is campy which is exactly what I was looking forward to. I wanted a B-movie. They really needed to pack it in a bit sooner.The story is a total rip off! The scenery from saw plus the demented doctor from House on Haunted Hill. Add in a bit of predictability and you've passed two kidney stones and an hour plus thirty.