User reviews

I still remember the General... Nice Jaw, nice overall look. That, and that it was stupid. Very stupid. Bad acting (not as bad as in movies like "Abscent of Light" or "Goth", but stupid), bad music, bad story, lots of gore and goofy characters.

Seriously, the movie is meant to be comedic, or how else could you interpret a wrestling match between a senior citizen and a midget? A plate-throwing dwarf? The grannies and grandpas getting ready for war? The colorful comic - like look? This one never wanted to be taken serious, and as long as you don't, you might enjoy it. If you are indeed looking for a deeper sense or some kind of message, you're completely lost.

Then again, if you dislike cheap splatter movies, why did you even rent it?

Sweet Jesus...

While watching Skinned Deep I thought I was watching a bad movie from the mid 90's - but nope! This 2004 indie flick is so messed up in all departments, I actually couldn't even enjoy it as a so-bad-its-good movie!!

While listed as a comedy horror in its synopsis, I honestly don't think it had the smallest bit of comedy in it during production. Only since its release and ratings do I believe that the word comedy was added to make it seem that all the terrible bits were on purpose.

Taking more than its fair share of inspiration from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; House Of A 1000 Corpses; and Jeepers Creepers - Skinned Deep does have moments where it could have been something sweet, although had it been from a better director, editor and stronger cast! The acting is among the worst I have ever seen - I mean,dreadful - especially the mother of the maniacs, and how the they got Warwick Davis to do this I'll never know!!

The camerawork is also dreadful with many dirty lenses and awful shots, marred once again by the bad editing. Is there anything good? Well, the FX work is very well done, with a great character in the Surgeon General - although they never really know how to use him properly, and Warwick Davis gets to play a mental ADHD fuelled crazed ninja-of-sorts who uses plates for weapons - it has to be seen to be believed.

Skinned Deep is something else! Its confused, its messy, its funny for all the wrong reasons, and for me - its a hard watch because it seems like such a wasted opportunity. And I haven't even got to the biker pensioners yet or that bizarre twisted ending...

This makes Godfrey Ho look like Kubrick!

This movie starts of really bad like Troma wanted to make a Texas Chainsaw Massacre Rip Off. An incredibly stupid family gets lost in nowhere and meets a creepy family who happen to kill them. Creepy? I meant to write "cheesy"... there's an evil granny, a guy with a huge brain who adopts the surviving daughter, a hyperactive midget throwing dinner plates and a maniac in the vein of House of 1000 corpses with a bear trap in his face (and the subjective view like in "Predator"). Now when this isn't odd enough the movie puts scene on scene which just makes you wonder if this is a satire or a real bad slip on a Maniac-Hillbilly Movie. The gore is pretty rare and reminds of old "Bad Taste" days, especially with the exploding heads. But the humor is just insane in this movie... a bunch of bikers come to help the girl but they are all from the retirement home and call themselves "The ancient ones". Now you get exploding seniors and a senile bum beating up the midget and ripping his head off to play football with it. Sounds insane?? Then meet "The creator", a headless muscle hunk in a strip show style environment where his offspring breeds. He is not just flexing his muscles but also talking some incredible philosophic bullshit. Oh and his crotch sais "dyno-mite"... now guess what the girl finds in it later to launch some explosives and real cheesy FX?!? "Skinned Deep" is an insane or rather schizophrenic movie... it slides between classic horror, total trash (the bum fight reminded me a lot of the "Street Trash" style), over the edge politically incorrect humor like Troma delivers it and a mixture of real bad camera and effects and some pretty decent shots and splatter or explosive effects. One minute you want to turn the movie off, the next you smile because of the absolute insanity of it. The movie ends with the typical "sequel awaiting" finale but tops it off with the credits rolling on the girl screaming for several minutes in an incredibly funny way. I couldn't help but laugh there. If you dig trash with a strange sense of humor you might dig this movie... its different for sure. Anyway I don't know if I want to slap the makers for this piece or shake hands for creating something uniquely stupid that somehow managed to keep my attention till the end. I don't really know what happened here.

There's no real plot to the movie. It's just a loose collection of ideas strung together in something resembling a plot. That ultimately makes it one bizarre movie. This rivals a Blood Diner or Ichi the Killer for just sheer strangeness. It's not necessarily good but it isn't bad either. I can't really score it as that would imply this is an actual movie and not some bizarre experiment in performance art gone horribly awry.

The only real gripe to have with the movie outside of the fact that it looks like it was shot on video, is the aforementioned story. Really, it plays like three different movies. The first third is typical slasher sleaze, the middle is some bizarre form of social commentary, and the last third is a survival film. Really I would've tightened the script up and put it more on a Nightbreed route with the daughter eventually accepting the freaks and finish it out in a finale of bikers vs. freaks in an all-out war. But really I'm guessing that wouldn't have worked as it looked like their budget was already being stretched thin.

Consider it one really bizarre movie that was too ambitious for its own good/budget.

Once again, my assumptions couldn't have been more wrong! I really thought this movie would be worth the 5$ I spent on it, because it's the directorial debut of Gabe Bartalos; who happens to be the regular special effects guy of such brilliant directors as Frank Hennenlotter ("Brain Damage", "Frankenhooker") and Matthew Barney (the "Cremaster"-cycle). Well, "Skinned Deep" once more proves that people who're talented in the art of make-up effects don't necessarily make good directors, as Bartalos' own project is an irredeemable lousy gore-flick that hangs together by amateurism. The script, for starters, is highly unoriginal and just the umpteenth "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"-rip-off. But what really irritates about this movie is the total lack of coherence and the overload of stupidity. "Skinned Deep" revolves on a family of bloodthirsty lunatics that fill their days with killing tourists. Their latest preys are the Rockwells, but the multi-brained son insisted on keeping the teenage daughter Tina alive, and even to incorporate her as a crazy family member! So far, this seems like a reasonably normal horror plot but the depraved family also battles a gang of old and senile motorcycle hooligans as well as a jeep full of chubby woodchoppers, and this is where the absurdity really kicks in. A lot of retarded things are being said and done (ever heard a midget bringing ode to a plate?!?) and even the rather cool gory effects can't keep you interested. The acting is really atrocious and Bartalos' directing is incredibly incompetent. The Surgeon General-character is the only memorable horror villain of the family. He's an unearthly strong mutant with a razor-sharp metal jaw and goofy little sunglasses. Warwick "Ewok" Davis looks pretty imbecile as the pale-faced, plate-flinging dwarf and I don't even want to mention the elderly cast-members. If the acting skills of all these amateurs hasn't given you a headache yet, sitting through the end credits definitely will, as it just features girlish screaming for FIVE WHOLE MINUTES! Damned, girl! You could try, like many of my fellow reviewers apparently did, to look at "Skinned Deep" as a typical so-bad-it's-entertaining trash movie... That didn't work for me, though. It's just rubbish, period!

Gabriel Bartalos, his name only ring a bell as make up and special effects for the great movie Brain Dead by Kevin Tenney. You can find his name easily on movies in the genre but this was his first and last attempt of directing one. What a failure. It all could have been great but I guess he wanted to make a movie about a weird family like in Texas Chainsaw Massacre but what's this. A man with a head as big as whatever. Bad acting and sometimes it is really bad that it almost becomes a spoof. The use of the camera was always the same. Used a thousand times before. Completily zoomed out and then getting close to the action. Gives a weird effect but don't do it the whole time. And using smoke, nothing against it but if you see where it comes from, no no no. The best part is the slashing itself. The killing of the visiting family is well done but the rest of the movie, no acting. For example, when the girl is being tied together, she never screams. It's sad to see but it is also a fact to stay in your own territory.

First of all, I love bad horror movies. I love mindless splatter flicks, and I've seen many. I am a MST3K and Creature Feature nut. But, this movie is quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. Everyone associated with this movie should be ashamed. The SFX were passable, and I have seen worse, and the main bad guy was kind of cool looking, but these things cannot save this piece of useless tripe. The acting is abysmal, even for a bad horror movie, and whoever wrote this should never work again. Anywhere. Ever. I am ashamed for them. Its only redeeming quality is that it provides the opposite end of the spectrum from bad movies that are worth watching.

Skinned Deep is a movie so dreadful in concept and so amateurish in execution that it must've been a calculated bid for cult status. I can only assume that, on realising that making a decent horror film was way beyond his capability, make-up FX man-turned-writer/director Gabriel Bartalos opted to make the worst and most bizarre film he possibly could in the hope that fans of crap movies would seek it out, revel in its absurdity, and adore it for its sheer awfulness.

Well think again, Gabe... this one sucks so hard that even the most devoted worshipper at the altar of cinematic trash will struggle to stay the distance.

In this almost unwatchable pile of cack, a family taking a road-trip are attacked by a family of freaks after their car suffers a blow-out (how's that for an original set-up?). Only teenage cutie Tina (Karoline Brandt) survives the slaughter, when Brain (a mutant with a huge external brain) takes a shine to her.

The other members of Brain's clan (a plate-throwing dwarf, a deformed creature with a steel trap for a mouth, and their evil matriarch) attempt to induct the frightened girl her into their family, but Tina isn't too keen on the idea: when alone with Brain, she tears out a chunk from his massive head (which for some reason contains several animated wooden alphabet blocks!?!) and makes a bid for freedom.

Meanwhile, a gang of geriatric bikers turn up to deal with the murderous mutant clan.

As the battle rages between the elderly and the mutated, Tina wanders into the lair of 'the creator': a musclebound, headless body with a vicious little creature inside its abdomen.

In the hands of a skilled movie-maker, and with reasonably talented actors, this kind of demented lunacy might just work, but with Bartalos directing a motley cast completely devoid of talent, Skinned Deep fails miserably. Even a few gory effects towards the end of the film cannot save it from being a complete wreck.

Troma + David Lynch + Texas Chainsaw Massacre = Skinned Deep

Aside from the lead, Warwick Davis and the guy who played Brain, the acting is pretty much awful. It looks like it was shot on video. The majority of the budget looks like it went to the special effects, (which were decent.) (Considering the director is a special effects artist, this was no surprise.) The, uh, story was a bare-bones Texas Chainsaw knock-off. The dialogue zig-zagged between hilarious and cringe-worthy.

Overall, though, I enjoyed it. I hope it gets some kind of DVD distribution, because I would probably buy a copy. It's just so goofy and weird that I couldn't help but smile through it.

"NO! NO! NNNOOOO! NO! NNNNNNOOOOOOOO!! NNOOO! NO!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!"

"Skinned Deep" from 2004 is listed as a horror comedy, well that might be stretching it a bit, because this movie from writer and director Gabriel Bartalos wasn't exactly much of any of those.

When I sat down in 2021 to watch "Skinned Deep", I hadn't even ever heard about it, so I didn't know what I was in for here. But the movie's cove seemed interesting enough, plus the fact that I hadn't already seen the movie and it being about a family of deranged killers could prove entertaining enough.

And I must say that when I saw that the movie had Warwick Davis on the cast list, I felt that perhaps the movie could be better than anticipated.

Well, "Skinned Deep" simply failed on every account to provide me with much of any entertainment or excitement. Gabriel Bartalos only managed to come up with a movie that felt like a watered-down and diluted rip-off of the "The Hills Have Eyes" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" combination. That does sound like something that could be a great mix, I will say that much, but Gabriel Bartalos just failed to provide with an adequate movie here.

The storyline told in "Skinned Deep" was just a swing and a miss. There was nothing funny, scary or even remotely interesting about the things that took place, and the character gallery was an atrocity. So there was nothing enjoyable to be witnessed here. And there weren't anything scary here either.

This is not a movie that I would recommend you waste your time, money or effort on. My rating of "Skinned Deep" lands on a generous two out of the stars.

Skinned deep, this is a masterpiece of bad movie making. To most people, saying that this movie is terrible would be an instant turn off but for me that just sounds like a dare. Enough, about this movie. Its sorta like Rob Zombie's house of 1,000 corpses... well, strike that, its exactly like house of a 1,000 corpses except they had a budget of like 8$. That's slightly unfair, because this did have the star power of Warwick davies. That may sound sarcastic but its not meant to be, Warwick rocks. It also has a guy called Surgeon General who happens to have the coolest mask i've ever seen and some headless guy wearing a belt that proclaims his crotch to be "Dyno-mite". Assuming your still reading this, which may be a mistake on my part, the movie is about a girl whose family is killed in the first 15 minutes of the movie, including her kid brother. Bravo to Skinned deep for breaking rules of killing kids in a monster movie. You should know, in case your mourning the deaths of these imaginary people already, each one of them had it coming. Seeing them die is the first of many oh so rewarding moments in this movie. that moment is in line with a naked man with a gigantic head runningdown a street and a fight between old people and the hick/monsterfamily who really just steal every scene they are in. No part of this movie is a let down, even up to the very end where the best song ever plays through the credits, by song, i mean a girl screaming for like five minutes. I can't urge you to see this any harder, seriously.

Skinned Deep is a cheesy Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip off with a fair share of gore! It offers funny characters, a typical Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip off plot and an hour and a half of entertainment! Not only there is no nudity, there is also no sleaze climate. The story is about a family that consists of two fat parents, a young brother and a vegetarian older sister who happens to play the main role of the victim that is tortured by the typical deformed family! This deformed family consists of as usually one person who happens to be an old lady. This old lady also happens to be psychotic , but she looks normal, and a bunch of deformed bastards. One of those deformed bastards actually has a sensitive soul. Therefore, the girl victim takes advantage of his sensitive soul for her own survival interest. Later on, a bunch of funky old people declare a war on that deformed family who has killed their buddy. In a nutshell, I suggest you watch this cheesy flick if you enjoy b-grade cheese cinema! And no! It ain't so awful as the films produced by Troma!

with Warwick Davis as Plates.

This is one of those horrid movies that no one buys, that makes money off of stupid renters. I'm a stupid renter. This is about a girl named Tina, who goes to a weird town with her family. They go to some house and eat there( they eat cheese off of a cardboard box) and are all killed, except for Tina. The characters are granny, the crazy mother, Plates, the midget that throws plates, Brain, a guy with a big head and the Surgeon General. This is horrible. It is plot less and has no real point. Most of these F-List films start off bad, but get better as they go along. This movie starts out OK(the first ten minutes), but after that, it gets so horrible, I can't even stand it!!! One typically brainless scene shows a guy's head burst open and blocks come out of his head and spell LOVE.????? WTF is that? I rented this looking for a bad movie, but if you expect any entertainment at all, avoid this at all costs. They have it at Blockbusters.

0/100. R for violence, language, and Brain's penis(yuck!!)

This is what I wrote to the famous Mr. Warwick Davis (All Leprechaun movies, Star Wars , Harry Potter, 10th Kingdom, Willow, Labyrinth and many more)and will give you an idea of what I think of "Skinned deep" : "Hi Mr. Davis, I always been a fan of your acting qualities. Especially the leprechaun movies! I love watching them over and over again. Today I've rented this DVD called "Skinned deep" and I was surprised to see you in this movie as the figure "plate". My personal opinion is that the film could have been much better off with some good acting. It looked more like a very extended commercial for visual effects and how to get your gore right. The only real good acting came from you and was the only reason I didn't switch it off. It's a shame you didn't get much to say in the film, I loved your monologue just before you get killed by this granddad. It was so funny it reminded me of some pretty cool leprechaun statements. Over all the film was a big disappointment, but you made up for it! Really hope to see you more in films and perhaps in a leprechaun seven ? Kind regards, all the best !" So is this a good movie ? Not worth buying anyway, only if your a fan of Mr. Warwick.

I had myself pretty much prepared for Skinned Deep given the fact that I've rented several Fangoria released films in the past, and generally know what to expect. Usually there's no plot, bad dialog, no scares, in fact just about everything is bad with a Fangoria release except for the gore.

And I suppose that's why I keep coming back to these flicks.

Skinned Deep does deliver on the gore quite early in the film, but pretty much leaves you hungry for more and the only thing there to chew on is one terrible line, plot point, or general stupid place in the movie. This thing just plods along after the initial kills, forcing you to watch weird scene after weird scene that made little or no sense.

People have pointed out the relations to Basket Case, TCM, and Troma a few times already in other reviews... That doesn't matter. They can give props to anyone they want, it's not going to make this strange flick any better.

1.5/5 corpses... Avoid, unless you want to see the Napoleon Dynamite of horror movies.

Speaking as both a horror filmmaker and a true horror fan, movies like Skinned Deep are very frustrating to watch. This movie is very similar to the new Anchor Bay release, "Malevolence". Aside from having titles that have nothing to do with the movie at all, both filmmakers plagiarize countless horror classics and do it shamelessly. The movie is a terrible clone of House of 1000 Corpses with scenes and characters stolen from this, TCM2, Hills Have Eyes, Basket Case, and Wild Angels. One of the most obvious rip-offs is the scene of Brain running through New York City naked just like Dwayne did in Basket Case. Something that bizarre is not a coincidence. Of course, not all films have to be completely original to work. Even the oldest horror premise is still a good one, if done properly, but not here.

All characters aside, the film-making itself is even worse. The directing and editing are clumsy and careless for most scenes, with dialog (and a script) that's practically incoherent. With the exception of good performances by Karoline Brandt and Warwick Davis, the acting is the same as the directing. The make-up and costumes for some characters are well done and the elaborate gore FX are entertaining, but it seems that the FX were the only reason this film was made in the first place? Gabe Bartalos also wastes the budget on an elaborate bullet-time photography sequence for the final "explosion". The maximum effort and minimal result will leave any filmmaker scratching their head (or banging it against a wall). The entire film is mostly painful to sit through, especially the end credits scrolling on a black screen with the lead actress screaming for literally ten minutes straight. Even SAW cut the scream after the first credit. Even Forey Ackerman's brief cameo can't save it.

This entire movie makes me angry is because I know there are better scripts and far better filmmakers out there who are not being given the chance to make a truly excellent horror film that gives this genre, and it's fans, the respect it deserves. Fangoria should have spent their money on a different movie.

Perusing the shelves of the local Blockbuster, My eyes caught sight of Gabe Bartalos's debut horror feature. Now being as it was released here in the U.K. by the less than glorious distributor Third Millennium, I was quite surprised to see that it was an eighteen.

Usually anything that they release over here, has been so severely truncated of any or all gore it might as well masquerade as a certificate U, Suitable for all the family. Now if memory serves, perhaps it was in Fangoria magazine, Warwick Davis who essays the role of the demented character "Plates" was quoted as saying that the director called him up, and as a favour, Davis obliged with his participation in the movie as a favour.

Some favour! You can spot every reference in the book as this movie unfolds, the vacationing family, the car breaking down, the dysfunctional family of killers. Been there many times before, as has become apparent with most special effects artistes who want to throw something together and pass it off as a movie, should really take stock.

The main character/villain, the Surgeon General is cool to look at, but at first glance you find yourself reminded of Dr Satan from Rob Zombie's directorial encore. As for the character of Brains, well the director must have really be a fan of cult director Frank Henenlotter, for one scene has Brains, totally naked running down a busy street.

Overall a very major disappointment, not many special effects people make that successful transition, names like Chris Walas, Kevin Yeagher and now alas Mr Gabe Bartalos. I realise money is a major issue when it comes to making these kind of movies, but at least has the decency to craft some sort of original storytelling technique before you dare to put it onto film.

As for Warwick Davis, I think another Leprechaun beckons, time to hide behind the mask and please pass on making good on any more favours. So do me a favour and yourself boycott this turkey for all time!

This film sucks but is so bad its hugely entertaining. Wait till you see Brain for the first time - don't be drinking cos you will spit it out all over yourself.

The family in the film must be the dumbest bunch of people ever assembled cos for them to believe the story that's fed to em is just ridiculous.

The acting is so bad it rocks, the plot is off it's head and special effects are not special. The Surgeon General in it has the strength of ten tigers too.

Watch it and love it for all the wrong reasons.

Telling it like it is there.

I asked myself that question after turning off the DVD player upon my initial viewing of Skinned Deep. Why did I enjoy it? The acting is poor, the direction is shoddy, and the story just isn't there. So why did I find myself totally engrossed in this movie? Because it's FUN! From it's David Lynchian set pieces to the Henenlotter-esquire makeup effects, Skinned Deep is just plain old stupid fun. As long as you don't go in expecting anything other than a movie that's full of gore, bad acting, and stupid fun, you'll have a good time.

This is the best movie Troma never made. How Fango ended up with distribution rights is beyond me. Regardless, kudos to them for giving this film the light of day. I'm happier for it.

Not worth adding anything else. This movie is crap.