SKINNER (1993)
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 88 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Ivan Nagy
Cast: Ted Raimi, Traci Lords, Ricki Lake, David Warshofsky, Richard Schiff
Synopsis: It’s been called “sleaze-oozing” (Flick Attack), “gut-churning” (The Bedlam Files) and “incredibly tasteless” (Cult Reviews). It featured the most intensely graphic scenes yet by KNB EFX Group (THE WALKING DEAD). Uncut, it remains perhaps the most disturbing – and rarely seen – shocker of the ‘90s: Ted Raimi (XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS) delivers an unnerving performance as psycho drifter Dennis Skinner who wears flesh-suits he slices from doomed prostitutes, falls for a lonely young housewife (Ricki Lake of HAIRSPRAY fame), and is himself hunted by a horribly scarred survivor (an equally unhinged performance by Traci Lords). Richard Schiff (THE WEST WING) co-stars in this still-potent sickie from veteran television director – and one-time Heidi Fleiss boyfriend – Ivan Nagy, now scanned in 4k from the original camera negative and including the complete hooker-flaying sequence.
When drifter Dennis Skinner (Ted Raimi, Blood Rage) takes up a room for rent at the home of married couple Kerry (Ricki Lake, Serial Mom) and Geoff (David Warshofsky, There Will Be Blood) he seems like a nice guy, he's pleasant and offers Kerry friendship while her neglectful truck driving husband is away. However, it soon becomes apparent that Skinner's nocturnal activities are anything but friendly, by night he's a skin-peeling serial killer who enjoys wearing the flayed skins of his victims, not unlike Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs!
On his trail is mysterious woman in black named Heidi (Traci Lords, Cry Baby) who sort of looks like a blonde, junkie version of Carmen Sandiego dressed in a long coat with a wide brimmed hat that hide the scars that cover half her body. For reasons not apparent at first she is stalking Skinner, trailing him while she holes up in a seedy motel, run by a creepy voyeur named Eddie (Richard Schiff, Ray) who holds the key to finding Skinner.
Directed by prolific TV director Ivan Nagy this tasteless 90's cult-classic is a strange brew, a skin-peeling slasher and a bit of a character study that gets under the skin of the guy whose doing the skinning. Ted Raimi is quite wonderful in the role, going from strange and likable straight-up demented nut running around in a human-skin suit, but through it all he's just a charming guy, Raimi has that certain effortless lunatic charisma. Former adult-star Traci Lords turns in a solid performance as the mysterious woman in black while Ricki Lake comes of as a sympathetic every-woman in a bad marriage.
The gore on display here is not too shabby at all, with the Raimi character's penchant for skinning whores we get some cool KNB EFX work by way of Skinner flaying the skin from his victims and the peeling off of a face, it's not groundbreaking or overly abundant but it's good stuff. Now, it would be hard to talk about this film without mentioning a very unfortunate series of scenes of Skinner wearing the skin of a black male coworker he's murdered, while also effecting a stereotypical impression of a black man, it's a shockingly wrong-headed decision that I find hard to believe made it to the final version of the film, but here it is in all it's bad-idea infamy.
The film has it's share of shortcomings, the black-skin scene for starters, and it can be unintentionally silly and tonally all over the place, but director Ivan Nagy gives the film a good-looking visual style with lots of Argento-esque colored lighting bathing the film from beginning to end, it's overkill to a degree but it makes for a visually pleasing film, and at just 88-min it never gets boring.
Audio/Video: Skinner (1993) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films who went back to the original camera negative for a brand new 4K scan of the film presented in the original 1.78:1 widescreen. The image is crisp and well-defined, grain is well-managed, and the scenes bathed in multi-colored are vivid with deep blacks, this is a surprisingly good presentation for this strange 90's slasher film.
Audio comes by way of English and French DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles everything sounds good, dialogue is well-balanced and the score sounds terrific in the mix.
Severin come through with some excellent extras including a 20-min archival interview with the late director who discusses moving from Hungary to the U.S., attending film school and his TV film/series career, before moving on to the less limiting though much lower budget world of indie films. He speaks about his relationship with Heidi Fleiss, and how the TV movie about her really cast him in a negative light.
Star Ted Raimi shows up for a 14-min interview discussing not just this film but a few others including Blood Rage, and touching on the infamously offensive scene of him wearing the skin of a black man while impersonating him, it's an unfortunate scene but he owns up to it here. As soon as I watched the film I was hoping to hear someone speak about this and I am glad it was not glossed over, and he seems truly appalled by it in retrospect.
We also get interviews with the screenwriter Paul Hart-Wilden who speaks
about his fascination with serial killers, the water motif throughout the film, and also touching in the infamous black-skin scene which he makes sure to point out he did not write! The film's editor Jeremy Kasten takes a deep dive into the seedy behind-the-scenes world the director, including him dating the infamous Hollywood Madame Heidi Fleiss, it's a real tabloid type interview, quite fascinating, just like the interview with the director! The disc is buttoned up with a trailer for the film and extended takes of the flaying sequence .
Special Features:
- A Touch of Scandal: Interview with Director Ivan Nagy (20 min)
- Under His Skin: Interview with Star Ted Raimi (14 min)
- Bargain Bin VHS For A Buck: Interview with Screenwriter Paul Hart-Wilden (17 min)
- Cutting Skinner: Interview with Editor Jeremy Kasten (11 min)
- Flaying Sequence Out-takes & Extended Takes (12 min)
- Trailer (2 min)
Skinner (1993) is a depraved slice of 90's slasher cinema, kudos to Severin for unearthing this one, which until this release I only knew of from reading through Ted Raimi's filmography. The film has some interesting ideas and is visually cool-looking, plus it stars Ted Raimi, Ricki Lake and Traci Lords - which is just sort of fascinating all on it's own. Severin's Blu-ray looks and sounds terrific, plus the extras really get into the stories behind the making of the film, it's a solid package for a wild ride of a slasher film, if you like 'em weird and a little wrong-headed this 90's slasher comes highly recommended.
