Skew (2011) – Out on DVD from 11th June

Skew (2011)
Directed by: Sevé Schelenz
Written by: Sevé Schelenz
Starring: Amber Lewis, Richard Olak, Rob Scattergood

Skew (2011)
Written and directed by Sevé Schelenz

This ‘found footage’ style horror is centred around three friends on a road trip to a wedding. One of the guys, Simon (Rob Scattergood), decides to take his recently acquired video camera on the trip with his best friend Rich (Richard Olak) and his girlfriend, Eva (Amber Lewis). Rich and Eva soon become irritated with Simon constantly shooting footage of their conversations and actions, especially after they accidently hit a coyote on the road. Over the next couple of days, Simon starts to see ‘blotches’ on his camera’s viewfinder. Wiping the lens clean, he continues to film but the blotches remain on the faces of people he’s recording. He then starts seeing ghostly apparitions in the motel room, but upon playback of the footage, no ghosts and no warped faces exist. After a series of deaths and accidents, Simon becomes paranoid, convinced that there’s a link between his camera and the freaky deaths. Is his video camera ‘marking’ victims for the grim reaper?

I say this is a found footage film, but it really isn’t. It’s not been ‘found’ at all, but is recorded on a handheld camera, not too different from Chronicle earlier this year. From the offset, we distinctly dislike cameraman Simon. He’s intrusive and annoying with his obsession for recording things, creating memories for himself due to a bad childhood in which he never had any photographs of his childhood accomplishments and experiences. The viewer is sympathetic for likeable Rich and girlfrend, Eva, who have to put up with consistantly being recorded on film. Most people don’t like having their photo taken but to have everything you say recorded on film for an eternity is bound to get your back up. Eva quizzes Simon about her friend, and his girlfriend, L.T., who gave her the cold shoulder before they embarked upon their roadtrip, but Simon is angry and unresponsive towards Eva. After the sudden, strange deaths of animals and people around them, Eva looses her patience with Simon, who is also paranoid about his camera, but refuses to stop filming. Rich is stuck in the middle of them both but he too gets frustrated with Simon’s irritating behavour and need to record everything. The characters are rather close knit and not many new ones are introduced. A couple of the segments with Simon wittering on with his camera go on a tad too long, but the film itself with it’s mysterious blotches and apparitions, not to mention the disturbing deaths,  keep you glued to the TV set.

Unlike the trailer, no music is used in the film only sounds from their surroundings and maybe the odd noise of radio in the background. The roadtrip takes the three friends to some cool tourist attractions like the world’s largest chair, cup and saucer, knife, fork and viking head. These humourous scenes, along with Simon pranking Rich in the park, lighten up the atmosphere as we as people can relate to fooling about with our mates in the aim to catch a laugh on camera.

A few times throughout the film the rewind function is used to view past footage. This is a clever way for director Sevé Schelenz to further the story and explain certain parts, especially having been filmed in 2005 before the likes of Cloverfield and other handycam flicks. Between the deaths, nothing much happens and you simply have to watch Simon shoot his friends on tape, but one scenario sees them escorted into a police questioning suite at the local police station, where the camcorder is dropped in favour of police CCTV footage. Here we get to have a look what Simon looks like as he conceals himself behind the camera for the majority of the film. Again, an interesting and innovative way of continuing the story whilst remaining true to the premise and filming style.

The film’s story is intriguing to say the least and is wrapped up in a pretty neat bow at the end, with just the odd couple of questions open to interpretation. The situations the youngsters get themselves into and the conversations they have with one another feel real, especially the heightened emotions as the paranoia and obsession creeps into the equation. If you like found footage films then give Skew a try as it’s definitely one of the better ones out there. Whilst it’s not horrific or scary in a blood, guts and gore kind of way, it’s creepy, disturbing aura will set you on edge until the roll of the credits.

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