Name: Skinwalkers (2006)
IMDb: link to Skinwalkers page
Genres: Action, Fantasy, thriller Country of origin: Canada.
Cast:
Jason Behr as Varek/Caleb Talbot, Elias Koteas as Jonas Talbot, Rhona Mitra as Rachel Talbot, Natassia Malthe as Sonja, Kim Coates as Zo, Sarah Carter as Katherine, Matthew Knight as Timothy Talbot, Barbara Gordon as Nana, Tom Jackson as Will.
Directed by: James Isaac. Written by: James DeMonaco, Todd Harthan.
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| Rhona Mitra |
The initial tableaux:
Young Tim starts a walk through town with his tall, alert Nana. In parallel, some biker thugs ride toward town. Two or so minutes later, everyone in the town and all the invaders are in full-on deadly combat.
The invading murderers claim loudly, "We just want the boy." Everyone in town would like to live, but each of them is willing to die to protect Tim, especially if they can kill the damned bikers first.
Delineation of conflicts:
The bullet-ridden dialectic reaches an impasse which enables a bit of narration. The local werewolf (skinwalker) population has been present for quite some time, but it has become divided and polarized. There is a prophecy that a hybrid (Tim) will be born. There will be three nights in which the blood moon will shine near the thirteenth birthday of the boy. On the midnight of the third such night, the power of the hybrid will be manifest.
That power is the ability to end the curse that werewolves suffer.
Some of the werewolves embrace the power and bloodlust that the curse brings. They want the boy dead. The other faction cherishes their humanity, and wishes the hybrid to survive, to flourish, and to completely fulfill his destiny.
Resolution: Much of the prophecy is fulfilled while each of the two factions quite effectively reduce the numbers of the opposite side. As the witching hour draws nigh, secrets are revealed and the plot moves forward from one last minute fight to the next.
One line summary: Not your typical werewolf elimination derby.
Statistics:
Cinematography: 7/10 This is a good-looking film, especially the daylight shots. The dark inside and night time shooting was better than most in this genre. The skinwalker masks were pretty poor, though, and there was a lot of werewolf footage.
Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.
Acting: 8/10 Rhona Mitra, Tom Jackson, Elias Koteas, and Barbara Gordon gave fine performances. I never expect much from child actors, but Matthew Knight was pretty good. Jason Behr was better than I thought he would be.
Screenplay: 7/10 Daybreakers (2009) owes the current film for some of its concepts. Daybreakers had a bigger budget, a more highly regarded cast, and a more detailed script. Daybreakers was more on the science side of fantasy, while Skinwalkers was more in the traditional fantasy horror side.
In any case, I liked the film's energy, its nice combination of plot elements, and its ending. Right up until the finish, I thought this was one of the usual bloody 'kill them all' movie.
Final Rating: 7/10
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