in the absence of tension, laughs, thrills, scares or anything like complexity, there is nothing here for viewers to sink their fangs into. The only real note of menace...is a hint at the end that there may be a sequel.
Skinwalkers (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:5
Rotten:30
Average Rating:3.5/10
Consensus: Skinwalkers is an atrociously-acted project whose unoriginal and ineptly-staged action sequences remind viewers of far better werewolf and action movies.
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: Though a statement at the opening of the film explains that the creatures of the title are, in Native American lore, people who have the ability to transform into various animals, SKINWALKERS... Though a statement at the opening of the film explains that the creatures of the title are, in Native American lore, people who have the ability to transform into various animals, SKINWALKERS focuses on two warring factions of werewolves. One is a family concentrated on protecting Timothy (Matthew Knight), a boy about to turn 13 who is the offspring of mortal Rachel (Rhona Mitra) and a Skinwalker. Timothy's family, led by kindly Uncle Jonas (Elias Koteas), chooses to avoid slaughtering innocents during full moons by restraining themselves in straps in the back of a beaten traveling camper. Their rival clan, captained by Varek (Jason Behr), lives with a leather-clad biker gang, riding from town to town and reveling in their bloodlust. When the clock strikes midnight on Timothy's birthday, he will be able to (in terms not explicitly spelled out) end the bloody reign of the Skinwalkers--but not if Varek and his gang can catch and kill Timothy before he officially becomes a teenager. SKINWALKERS focuses more on its action sequences than on the horror elements, but those seeking a good chase sequence will find plenty to enjoy in the film's second half. Director James Isaac (JASON X) gives the film a graphic novel-like visual style, with plenty of red tints and scenes of rising moons. Elias Koteas (CRASH, EXOTICA) seems to be having fun as a werewolf patriarch, but veteran Canadian supporting actress Barbara Gordon seems to be enjoying herself even more as a pistol-packing grandma. Stan Winston's creature designs resemble the man-beast creations from 1977's ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU more than they do Rick Baker or Rob Bottin's revisionist werewolves from AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and THE HOWLING, but they are effective nonetheless. [More]
Starring: Scott Anderson, Jason Behr, Lyriq Bent, Sarah Carter
Starring: Scott Anderson, Jason Behr, Lyriq Bent, Sarah Carter, Kim Coates, Barbara Gordon, Tom Jackson, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, Matthew Knight
Director: James Isaac
Director: James Isaac
Screenwriter: James Roday, James DeMonaco, Todd Harthan
Producer: Don Carmody, Dennis Berardi
Composer: Andrew Lockington
Studio: Lions Gate Films
Reviews for Skinwalkers
This Canadian-made action drama sparks an old-fashioned B-movie charge -- it's welcome to the grindhouse all over again.
The film may have suffered some bad buzz earlier on, but it's far better than most of the other werewolf offerings.
Skinwalkers wears its B-movie badness on its sleeve like a badge of honor.
A throwback to workmanlike '70s and '80s-era low-budget action thrillers.
What differentiates Skinwalkers from other bad werewolf movies is just how colossally bad it is: it makes Blood and Chocolate look like Ashes and Diamonds.
A hastily-edited-to-a-PG-13 werewolf movie, with acting so dreadful it makes Troll 2 look like a Mercury Theater production.
If lots and lots of shooting and wrassling and growling turns your crank, then you might have a good time with Skinwalkers; otherwise, it's a total snore.
The only thing more boring than a vampire with moral issues about biting people in the neck is a werewolf who’d rather become fully human than howl at the moon once a month.
In Skinwalkers, there are two kinds of skinwalkers. Some see their bloodlust as a curse, and others, more colorfully, "embrace the power of the beast."
Why make a serious, no-holds-barred horror film about werewolves when you can make a PG-13 kiddie show free of all the elements an audience goes to see this kind of movie for?
A thoroughly undistinguished addition to a genre that probably reached its peak a quarter-century ago with An American Werewolf in London.
Skinwalkers announces its irony-impaired comic-shop geek credentials from the beginning.
The problem with most werewolf movies isn't that they're derivative, but that they're badly written, badly acted, or just plain silly. Skinwalkers hits the trifecta: all three apply.
Viewers who make it through the dire early scenes may be surprised by the quality of the later ones.
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