Skinned Deep is an American horror/comedy from 2004 written and directed by Gabriel Bartalos, who is far more well known for his work as a special effects makeup artists, having worked on a host of well known and well-loved genre classics, such as, From Beyond, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Friday 13th Part VI: Jason Lives and Gremlins 2 to name but a few. Skinned Deep was his directorial debut and remains one of only two films he has directed thus far, the other being 2013s Saint Bernard, a fantasy/ horror film that is not too well known. The cast is largely made up of unknowns although Warwick Davis (Willow, Leprechaun, Return of the Jedi, Labyrinth and the Harry Potter series) makes an appearance as Plates and Forrest J Ackerman (Braindead, and a host of other genre films) as Forry. 

The film starts with a masked man, the Surgeon General (Kurt Carley), running an old man off the road, killing him before finally trashing his car. Cut to the Rockwell family, lost on vacation who suffer a blow out and are invited into the home of a strange old woman, who promises the family that her son will have a look at their car. Once inside the house the Rockwell’s are introduced to her three sons, Plates (Davis), Brain (Jason Dugre) who has a giant brain protruding out of the top of his head and the Surgeon General (Carley). After Mrs Rockwell takes a photo of the Surgeon General, he slits her throat and butchers her husband before the Rockwell children escape through a window, Matthew is split in half while Tina escapes only to be caught by Plates, who gets his name from his choice of weapon and the Surgeon General. Tina is taken prisoner again and given to Brain as his plaything. She escapes again and seeks assistance from a biker, who is subsequently murdered by the Surgeon General. Tina is then taken back to the family home and begins to see a different side to Brian, and thinks she may be able to use him to kill the family and escape for good.

Skinned Deep is a freaky homage to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, featuring a family who are just as crazy as the Sawyer family. This is a weird, violent and bloody affair that reminds me somewhat of the later Basket Case films for it’s out and out weirdness, however it is perhaps not as well made as those films. Despite its shortcomings, Skinned Deep makes for enjoyable viewing, Warwick Davis is suitably crazed as Plates and remains the best thing about the film, while the other brothers provide solid performances alongside him. Overall, this is cheap, shlocky fun, and whilst it will never rival The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Basket Case in the classic horror movie stakes it’s effective enough to hold the viewer's interest from start to finish.

The limitations of the film are there for all to see, however it has to be said it looks sharper and clearer than it probably ever has before. Severin have done a cracking job with the new 2k scan, however it really does highlight just how cheaply made the film is. The film’s soundtrack features a great score from the legendary Captain Sensible of The Damned and the gore effects are cheap but effective. The disc features an audio commentary from the cast and crew, as well as a documentary looking back at the film’s history featuring writer/director Bartalos and several cast members. I’ll give this 4/5 for entertainment value, but if I was judging it on the quality of the film making it would probably be deserving of no more than a 3.