Friday, August 10, 2007
Movie review: Skinwalkers
Rhona Mitra in tight jeans? Say no more.
Skinwalkers
Creatures, bound by the blood of the wolf, that can kill with curses and move at lightening speed, watching the night sky for the rise of the blood-red crescent moon. They are Skinwalkers. They feed on our flesh and thirst for the taste of human blood. The red moon signals each pack, divided by principles, hell bent to survive an ancient prophecy. On his 13th birthday, Timothy a half-blood, is about to reach the time of his transformation. He's been guarded since birth by those around him. They know the power he holds. He alone has the power to control the destiny of his family, and their kind, a gift that has placed his very life in danger. On the third night, at the rise of the red moon, a war will rage for control of their kind. There are two warring factions: one would like the curse to end, the other embraces bloodlust, and revels in the immortal freedom of the beast within. They will do anything to preserve their way of life. To survive, it means finding the boy--the one with the power to control their very survival. Under the full red moon, the violent feud pits brother against brother, lover against lover, and good against evil.
Source: Cinema Source
Take two Boston Legal babes (Rhona Mitra and Sarah Carter... but mostly Rhona Mitra), stir in the charismatic young actor who achieved heartthrob status via his role as an outer space alien in Roswell (Jason Behr, looking here like the genetic clone of Fabio and Connor MacLeod) and throw in a dollop of creature effects produced by master monster maker Stan Winston, and you'll have some idea of the potential niche appeal of Skinwalkers, the new werewolf movie directed by James Isaac (Jason X).
While werewolf movies typically don't stand comparison with high-order mainstream film fare, there are still good werewolf movies and bad werewolf movies; and because Skinwalkers was not screened for the press, my expectations going into it leaned toward the low end of that spectrum. Thankfully, it turns out to be an ably-produced and entertaining - if somewhat formulaic - feature.
Plot-wise, we're looking at The Village meets Wild Hogs with Hot Fuzz sensibilities and From Dusk 'Til Dawn action with a Terminator back story (i.e., hot mom plays guardian to young boy child who will eventually save the world from a horrible fate). Oh, and the whole thing suffers from an advanced Oedipal complex, what with the pubescent son (Timothy, played by Matthew Knight) doting on his mom (Ms. Mitra - and who can blame him?) while at the same time seeking to save her from (SPOILER ALERT!) his dad, who turns out to be the lead werewolf of those determined to kill him.
Why? It doesn't matter really, but if you must know there's a Hopi legend which holds that a 13-year-old boy will defeat the skinwalker curse (rendering all lycanthropes normal again) during the cycle of the red moon. (You know: the red moon. O.K., I've never seen one either.)
Rhona Mitra gets serious about child protection
Turns out, though, that some of the skinwalker crowd rather enjoy the effects of the "curse" - enjoy them so much, in fact, that they're willing to load up their sawn-off shotguns, Mini-14s, Desert Eagle automags and tricked-out long slide custom Colt comp guns and mount up on their Harleys to take out after the storied almost-13-year-old boy with the goal of blowing his head clean off before he turns 13. Thereby invalidating the prophecy. Only, there's another clan of skinwalkers (led by talented and underrated actor Elias Koteas, as Jonas) who've actually been serving as caretakers to the boy and his mom since his birth, and they're willing to blast the meaty parts out of their fellow skinwalkers to save him and usher in the predicted millennial cure for their monthly episodes of hyper-hairiness.
What initially ensues is a confrontation in the picture postcard Mayberry-like town of Calveston (which appears to be somewhere in New England - a rather odd choice of locale for a film involving Hopi legendry) leading to a hell of a lot of shooting with an amazingly negligible quotient of marksmanship to show for it in the form of characters actually being shot.
The bad skinwalkers prepare to pepper the town of Calveston with hot lead
Unlike some of the more broadly entertaining werewolf films (such as An American Werewolf in London), Skinwalkers plays things straight and bloody, rather than mining the abundant veins of humor that are native to the genre, as demonstrated by this exchange of dialog from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein:
Larry Talbot/Wolflman (Lon Chaney, Jr.): "You don't understand. Every night when the moon is full, I turn into a wolf."
Wilbur (Lou Costello): "You and twenty million other guys!"
As usual, the Stan Winston effects wizards acquit themselves with distinction, delivering truly horrifying creatures to the screen. The resolution of the drama, while not entirely unpredictable, leads pleasingly enough to a pre-credits twist that finally does deliver a dose of edgy humor - more of which could have been inserted in prior sequences to good effect.
While there are racy costumes and a scene of simulated animal lust (no metaphor intended), this movie should play well to the teenage and younger crowd, who stand to most appreciate the monster-terror aspects of the show.
ADVICE TO VEGETARIANS?: "Once you feed, you can't go back." - Jonas (Elias Koteas) to Rachel (Rhona Mitra)
GET MAD, NOT EVEN: "You shot me, you little prick!" - Katherine (Sarah Carter) to Adam (Shawn Roberts)
