It’s amazing to think now of just how impactful and genuinely terrifying The Blair Witch Project was, for many audiences, when it was released over a decade ago. Since then we’ve seen the handheld or “found footage” format used for almost every possible subgenre, from zombie movies to superhero films and from monster movies to a look at exorcisms. The format adds something extra, a sense of immediacy and of being closer to everything that’s going on (especially in horror movies), but it also limits just what can be done and each subsequent attempt to freshen up the style can lead to another highly-praised success or an irritating failure. Skew starts off as the former, it has a lot going for it and the jump scares are great, but quickly becomes the latter.
Skew is all about a road trip. A road trip in which Simon (Rob Scattergood) annoys his friends (played by Richard Olak and Amber Lewis) by filming everything at all times. This may be annoying as hell but it only starts to become a major problem when Simon starts seeing things through the lens that aren’t there in reality. Some people appear to have blotches on their faces and those same people then end up dying. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a ghost or two appears to pop up just to keep Simon’s nerves a-jangling.
There are, to be fair, many little ways in which this is NOT a found footage movie (no title card explains things to you, for example, and a few moments involve the film being rewound and rewatched) but writer-director Seve Schelenz will have a hard time convincing people that it doesn’t belong in that subgenre. The movie has some intelligence to it and those great jump scares but it also fails to overcome the biggest hurdle that faces films of this kind. Why would anyone just keep filming for such a length of time. Or, to be more specific with Skew, why would his companions put up with Simon filming everything for such a length of time. It doesn’t make sense, especially considering just how angry and fed up with it all the other two characters get.
The performances from all involved are okay, although I couldn’t help thinking that some better actors might have made the whole thing a bit more enjoyable. This isn’t meant as an insult to those onscreen, it’s simply that I felt the material was uneven and could have benefited from some of the weaker elements being lifted by more experienced cast members.
Schelenz shows potential, no doubt about that (he has at least tried something a bit different and laced it with intelligence and just enough detail to keep things at times ambiguous while allowing viewers to join the dots), but Skew proved to be very disappointing by the time it got to the big finale and then the end credits. But an interesting near-miss is better than a dull waste of space, in my opinion, so I will look forward to whatever comes next from the man behind the camera . . . . . . . . . . ummm . . . . . . behind the man behind the camera. If you know what I mean.
Skew angled its way onto DVD on Mon June 11th
WRITER/DIRECTOR: SEVE SCHELENZ
STARS: ROB SCATTERGOOD, AMBER LEWIS, RICHARD OLAK
RUNTIME: 83 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: USA
Film Rating: 
