Skinner (1993) ★★★½
Dennis Skinner (Ted Raimi) seems like a normal enough guy, but he has a very abnormal hobby. At night, he creeps through the back streets looking for potential victims, and when he finds one, carefully removes their skin with an elaborate collection of knives. Heidi (Traci Lords), one of Dennis' victims, is on his trail, waiting for a chance to get her revenge, but in the meantime Dennis has developed a crush on Kerry (Rikki Lake), and wants to find a way to show her he really cares.
This is the only time I've seen Ted Raimi not play a 'goofy' character but a genuine straight role and particular one where he needs to exude a degree of menace and sadism. As the film largely hangs on the plausible portrayal of the titular character, it's fortunate that, Raimi is as adept at this form of acting as he is in the comedic roles for which he is most famous.
The writing and direction by the Hungarian filmmaker Ivan Nagy is solid, working with cinematographer Greg Littlewood and composer Contagion to create something which is aurally and visually both stylish and interesting – the music elicits feelings of intrigue and menace whilst the visuals, frequently using smoke and high contrast lighting, often with reds, blues, or greens, emphasises the atmosphere. In the scenes with 'normal' conversations and traditional lighting, dutch angles are used neatly to create an impression that something isn't quite right – it isn't.
Besides Raimi's impressive performance, Rikki Lake is very good as Skinner's landlady and Traci Lords is a no weak link as the horrendously scarred victim out for revenge on her psychopathic torturer.
This may not be the crème de la crème of serial killer films, but it's something which has flown beneath the radar to the point where I hadn't seen it prior to buying the 101 Films dual format release.
I have enjoyed watching Skinner and I'm grateful that 101 Films have given it a range of interviews and such clear high definition picture and sound on the Blu-ray Disc.
