Coventry "Skinner", directed by the fairly unknown soft-core porn director Ivan Nagy, is one strange…STRANGE film, to say the least. I honestly can't quite label what it is exactly, but it's some sort of odd mixture between horror, revenge-exploitation and an unusual serial-killer portrait. Even stranger than the mix of themes is the choice of cast members. Ted Raimi, who usually only just makes cameo appearances in films produced and/or directed by his more successful brother Sam, takes on the lead role of the introvert psychopath Dennis Skinner, talk show hostess Ricky Lake (also known from John Waters' movies) plays his landlady and former porn star Traci Lords stars as one of Raimi's previous victims out for vengeance. The plot remains vague and unclear regarding Dennis' awkward personality and motivations, but I can only presume he's another fictional character inspired by real-life killer Ed Gein, who also formed the base for successful genre milestones like "Psycho" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Raimi's character slowly but surely develops into a tormented persona haunted by traumas from his childhood, yet a proper explanation is never given. Another truly peculiar aspect of "Skinner" is the dosing of the blood and gore. The film is overall tame, with a strict emphasis on atmosphere and character drawing, yet suddenly comes a sequence that is almost indescribably gross and sick-spirited. It's like the scene was added after filming all the rest, following negative screening results, or something, yet I didn't notice any differences or interruptions in the editing. Maybe Ivan Nagy preferred spending his entire make-up effects budget on one ultra-sadistic moment? "Skinner" is an obscure and atypical piece of 90's horror, but it's definitely worth a peep if you like cinematic oddities that can't possibly be categorized.

Flixer1957 Around the time that Ivan Nagy got in trouble along with girlfriend Heidi Fleiss, he found time to grind out this sleazy SILENCE OF THE LAMBS ripoff. Ted Raimi rents a room from frustrated housewife Ricki Lake (who's a sight to behold in tent dresses and stupid-looking ankle socks.) He sneaks out each night with his skinning knives and keeps the prostitute population down, then wears the hair and hides of his victims. Meanwhile, he's being stalked by Traci Lords as a black-clad, disfigured morphine addict. (This character, an ex-prostitute, is named Heidi.) At one point the killer changes his MO long enough to slay and flay an annoying African-American; he then runs around in the dude's skin talking with a black accent. Carrying the tasteless episode further, a watchdog devours part of the hide and becomes ill. Very little violence is shown, considering the inherently gruesome subject matter, but SKINNER has the sort of slimy, grungy "overall tone" that gives conniption-fits to the MPAA. Rent it and you'll never forget it–though Ricki Lake would appreciate it if you did.

Dr. Gore *SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*I bought this video. Ricki Lake rents out a room to a maniac. He's Skinner. Dennis Skinner. Skinner likes to wander from town to town, flaying whomever he can find. He likes to hang out in a heavily vandalized part of town where the hookers hang out. If a hooker meets Skinner, it's flaying time. One of his old victims, (Traci Lords), is hunting him down. She wants revenge for the partial skinning from Skinner. Get the knives ready."Skinner" made me think about the Superintendent yelling at Principal Skinner on "The Simpsons". SKINNNNNERRR!!!! I couldn't help but laugh every time they said his name. "Where's Skinner?" SKINNNNERRR!!! Get down here!Traci Lords shows up as an obsessive, would-be victim of SKINNNNERRR! Unfortunately, she does not get naked. However, I still like to see porno stars in regular flicks. It amuses me. I especially liked the scene where Lords shows Lake's husband her serial killer war wound. That was a serious scalping job."Skinner" has the right psychotic mind-set for a maniac with big knives movie. Skinner is a first class psycho who likes to skin his female victims. There's one scene in the middle which has an extensive, gory lesson in the art of flaying. Overall, "Skinner" is worth a look for horror fans.

ihateeverymovieisee The movie Skinner is about a serial killer who has a disturbing hobby of skinning his victims and then wearing their skin like clothing. To me, that sounds like a credible horror film story line, but the execution of this film was very poor. The acting was unbelievable, the film quality looked like the movie was filmed in the 1800s, and the effects were not good at all. I would not recommend this film to anyone at all for any reason. There are no memorable scenes or lines in this movie, so I'm going to give it a 1 out of 10 star rating.