Skinned Deep
Dir: Gabriel Bartalos
2004
***
Gabriel Bartalos is a very talented make up artist who has worked on many a horror classics in his career, Gore being his forte. In 2004's Skinned Deep, his debut feature film, he rips every single one of the classic horrors he's worked on off. Apart from a few redeeming features, (and I have to admit there are some absolutely fantastic scenes here including Warwick Davis throwing plates at people, man with giant brain running naked in New York, Headless bodybuilder the 'Creator'), it's all down to theft. Having worked with Frank Henenlotter, Tobe Hooper, Stuart Gordon etc I can't help but think he has 'borrowed' a few ideas along the way and to use the words 'inspired by' seem like an understatement. He has not one original idea in his whole body in my opinion. Throw in the tiny budget and some terrible acting, this is not the greatest horror/comedy ever made, in fact the blatant rip offs of classics such as Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead etc is just insulting and although I quite liked the evil characters in this film, I would wager money that they are rejected ideas from previous films he has worked on. If none of that matters to you, and there is no reason it should, you will probably like it a lot.