Skinner - 1993

What's this movie about anyways, the tough no-nonsense FBI director from The X-Files?  Skinner, leading the FBI and dealing with Mulder and Scully mostly through dialogue with his superiors?  They are never really seen, maybe a shot of their empty office as he walks by, contemplating what he'll have to do with those envelope pushers?

Skinner is a low budget, independently made thriller film.  Much like the last review on here, it's elevated by a few unique details in there, including the music and performances.  Rikki Lake, Ted Raimi, and Traci Lords all turn in performances designed to sell the piece, and despite some clear overacting from Lords and Raimi, it all somehow works with the material.

The material in this case would be a story of a psychopathic killer who is moving from spot to spot killing women.  And that reminds me of how I was going to originally start this review:

The Silence of the Lambs.  Psycho.  Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Deranged.  Motel Hell.  How many fucking movies have been inspired by real life killer Ed Gein?  It's a lot.  To cut to the answer.

The point of all of this is that this is another movie inspired by the serial killer and grave robber, and it's the whole "making a suit of human skin" thing in Silence of the Lambs and living with one's dead mother thing that was seen in Psycho.  These are the things Gein did and in Skinner, he's making the suit himself.  He kills prostitutes and takes their skin, while constantly talking to himself about whatever random bullshit happens to be on his mind.

I haven't reviewed a lot of 90's films on this blog and at first I was reminded why.  The immediate feel is so vastly different from what I am used to.  The grungy-ness, the music, the style, the in-your-face feel of this.  The music was what turned me off first, with a breath-sounding overdone song that grates on your a bit.  It's all well and good, in the end, but I forgot how ridiculous (and /or awesome) some of these 90's movies feel.

I fell down a wikipedia rabbit hole just now, sorry.  I'm back.  Anyways, Ted Raimi is hunted by a morphine addicted prostitute played by Traci Lords, while in the meantime Ted forms the first real relationship he's had with his new roommate played by Rikki Lake.  Hooray?

I liked this more than I should've.  It spends far too long with Ted Raimi's serial killer guy, and he overacts a lot, but it's also shitty material and I'm sure it's not all his fault.  I think it's still a fun movie, indicative of the time in which it came out, and it's currently free on Amazon, so...you know.