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[Blu-ray Review] Ted Raimi Skins Streetwalkers in the Sleazy Fun ‘Skinner’

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Ted Raimi is a beloved member of the genre community and for good reason. Along with his brother, Sam, he helped play a pivotal role in bringing to life one of the most iconic horror heroes of all time. In addition to that, he’s spent the last 40 years or so playing a number of popular supporting characters, most notably Joxer on Xena: Warrior Princess. In between all those great supporting roles, Ted has occasionally taken his quirky style to the forefront as a leading man, which is exactly what he did in 1993 in director Ivan Nagy’s Skinner.

Raimi stars as Dennis Skinner, a likeable drifter that bounces from town to town with nothing more than his toolbox looking for work. Skinner is an unassuming man; despite his rather meek demeanor, he has that Main Street, USA sort of charm. He arrives in his latest town and answers an ad for a room for rent put in a local paper by Kerry (Ricki Lake). A bit apprehensive at first, Kerry agrees to rent the room out to Skinner.

Kerry is clearly lonely as her husband, Geoff (David Warshofsky), is a truck driver and spends a lot of time out on the road. Over the next few days Skinner and Kerry spends some time together at home and start to develop a bit of a bond. That all goes up in flames when it’s revealed that by night Skinner is a ruthless serial killer that brutally murders those he finds offensive. This leads to a lot of late nights roaming skid row looking for hookers to serve as his next victim.

Hot on Skinner’s trail is Heidi (Traci Lords), a mysterious woman who has stalked Skinner from town to town. Heidi appears to have a few problems of her own — she’s a junkie and walks with a noticeable limp — and as the story moves along we learn that she survived an attack from Skinner in the past and he determined to bring him down.

Skinner would be best described as a noir/slasher mash-up. Think Silence of the Lambs, but a much more graphic B-movie take. And I do mean graphic. Skinner takes his name literally and skins his victims once they’re dead. He then makes full body suits with their skin, puts them on and walks around mocking whoever he last killed. At one point it actually results in a wildly offensive scene in which Skinner kills a black man, throws on his skin and dances around tossing out racist stereotypes.

The film features stunning effects work from KNB. They don’t skimp and show you everything. In one scene you actually witness Skinner slicing the skin down a victim’s back and then removing it. He does the same when removing the scalp from a skull. It’s bloody and glorious.

Greg Littlewood also deserves a major shoutout. This movie is brutal and rough, but Littlewood, the film’s DP, pictures it beautifully. There’s a number of shots, like the above header image, that use shadows and neon lights to create a vivid illustration that dances for our eyes. Who says slashers can’t be classy?

So where has this film been all these years? BD readers are a smart bunch, so maybe you all remember this one, but it had been completely off my radar until Severin announced its release. They seem to have a knack for putting out films that are entirely new to me and I love them for it. Skinner is just the latest such release, and it’s a nasty little slasher that I think I love? The question mark is because this is a fast moving relationship and I’m afraid of commitment. Also, when I was first done watching the film I wasn’t entirely sure what I thought. I actually mentioned it to some friends and called it “interesting.” But since then I’ve put it back on to re-watch certain scenes and I can’t stop thinking about it. And I want others to watch it so we can discuss it. I think that’s love. I love Skinner and I think you might too.

Special Features

For starters, the film is uncut, unrated and scanned in 4K and it looks wonderful. There’s a certain gratification to watching sleazy films in 4K that cannot be gained elsewhere. Bravo to Severin for constantly providing this beautiful feeling.

The new Blu-ray release features four interviews — Ivan Nagy, Ted Raimi, screenwriter Paul Hart-Wilden and editor Jeremy Kasten. All four interviews are great but the Raimi one is especially top-notch. Raimi talks about the filming of Skinner with a lot of focus on the locations because the majority of the film takes place just a few blocks away from where Raimi was living at the time. He also touches on working with Lords and discusses how she is the sort of actor that all other actors want to work with. There’s also a great tidbit about KNB. Raimi mentions how he worked with those guys (Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger) in their early days on Evil Dead II but by the time they got around to Skinner they were hugely in demand, which means none of the faces of KNB where actually ever on set. They made all their props in their offices and had an assistant take them in everyday. Beyond Skinner, Raimi goes over his career as a whole and speaks on his preference to play character roles rather than being the straight man.

The release also features outtakes and extended scenes.

Skinner will be available on Blu-ray from Severin Films on February 19, 2019.

Chris Coffel is originally from Phoenix, AZ and now resides in Portland, OR. He once scored 26 goals in a game of FIFA. He likes the Phoenix Suns, Paul Simon and 'The 'Burbs.' Oh and cats. He also likes cats.

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‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]

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Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.

Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.

Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.

And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.

While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.

Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.

Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!

Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.

Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.

Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!

More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.

So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.

If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.

Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.

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