(2011) ***1/2
Rich and Eva, along with their mutual friend, Simon, embark on a cross-country road trip. Despite numerous requests to stop filming, Simon documents their entire trip with his new video camera. Skew is about the footage found in Simon’s camera. The trio initially hit popular (lame) tourist attractions along the way (e.g. the world’s largest Viking head, etc) and goof around although there is some tension due to Simon's refusal to discuss suspected problems that he is having with his girlfriend, who happens to be Eva’s best friend.
"Simon, if you don't turn off that goddamn camera I'm going to kick your ass!"
Things become strange after Simon films a convenience store man whose face is distorted on the video. Soon after, this man is found dead. Slowly Simon figures out that he has in his possession a camera of death and whoever is distorted on film will die shortly thereafter. Simon quickly disposes the camera and the film ends. Just kidding; why would Simon behave like a normal person? Simon continues to film until the story’s grisly conclusion.
Seriously, Simon, turn off the camera!
This indie film has a lot going for it including likable actors, a good mystery, and a few solid jolts. Sure The Ring already used this idea a decade ago, but it’s a good, creepy idea! Rather than assume the audience is stupid, director Seve Schelenz crafts his story in a subtle manner, which I found refreshing. We are not given in-your-face exposition about the characters and their motivations but rather a mélange of understated scenes that slowly build to help us understand the nature of their complicated relationships. The greatest joy, of course, is waiting to see whose face is going to be distorted. In every scene I found myself squinting at the screen as the camera panned by various people and crowds. This one is fun.
6 comments:
Wow! This sounds cool. Sure the face distortion gag has been used before, but it's creepy and deserves further exploration.
Does the camera cause the deaths or does it just report on those who will die anyway? Or is that one of the central questions of the movie. If it is, you should've phrased it like a question to your readers like you did with Dead Girl last year. "What would you do if you knew your video camera could cause death? Would you turn it off?" Then everybody could get in your face about how much you like random murder.
HAHA!
If my friend concluded that his camera had some weird ability to cause or inflict death, you can bet that I'd toss it into a gorge.
Sounds like a real fun film, I like the idea of it. I also like the thought of you squinting as the camera pans a room, fun!
@ Octo~ hahahaha
Another magical camera! Like in the Omen...this stuff should be in the collection of the Friday the 13th series!
hi there, my name is sevé schelenz and i'm the writer/director of "skew". i discovered your website the other day and saw that you posted a review on "skew". thank you so much for taking the time to watch the film, and taking further time to write up a blog on it. as an independent filmmaker it is always a challenge to get the film out there, and having horror fans like yourself spread the word is fantastic. i'm glad you enjoyed it. we've been in 40 festivals so far and sold to both netflix in the u.s. for streaming and germany for dvd (can't wait to see if they overdub the film or subtitle it!!). sorry to contact you through your comments section, i couldn't find an e-mail address. congrats on getting through your horrorthon. that's quite the task. my best. sevé
Hi again, this is Sevé Schelenz (Writer/Director of SKEW). I'm trying to get ahold of JPX. We have just finished our second horror feature entitled PEELERS and have some press release information we'd like to pass along for posting if you're interested. Please e-mail me at sleepapneaprods@hotmail.com. In the meantime, here is the teaser trailer for your enjoyment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emkSNaAAsEk
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