I should start by saying that The Ballad of Skinless Pete is not for everyone. Horror fans that prefer the bigger budget stuff, such as The Conjuring, are probably not going to get this film. For the rest of us horror fans, particularly us that grew up in the 70's or 80's, are going to probably love Skinless Pete. I know I did after just seeing it.
Skinless Pete is the tale of Pete Peele, a doctor working on a cure for cancer. After discovering that the cure for cancer might be in the belly of a parasite, he decides it might be a good idea to test himself with it as he is dying from some form of skin cancer. Much to the chagrin of his close friend, Alice, he injects himself. At first it would appear that it worked, but after a while Pete starts to change into something and before you know it, people start brutally dying.
Does this story sound familiar? It should as it is clearly inspired by The Fly. Having said that, director Dustin Mills makes the film his own having directed, edited, scored and produced. I think what is so impressive with this film is the fact that it was apparently only made for 2000 dollars.
Skinless Pete is, at its core, a pure tragedy with its storytelling. With only a handful of actors in the film, the two leads, played by Erin Ryan and Brandon Salkil, has a surprising amount of on screen chemistry. But I think that Ms Ryan pretty much stole the show. She was convincing and by the end of the film you just feel crushed with what she has to endure. But Mr Salkil did a very good job as well. As Skinless Pete, Salkil had a wonderfully creepy style that was genuinely unnerving at times. Matter of fact, he was downright scary at times.
This is the area that some people might have issues with, and that is the films special effects. For me, it all works very well. The SFX are grisly and downright disturbing at times. To give an example, Pete melts a mans face off and as his face is melting off, Pete proceeds to rip off his lower jaw. Even when I saw it I said aloud, "Man! That's just sick!" For people that can't see past a films low budget though, I really think some people are just going to be negative because although very disturbing, the SFX are low budget. I loved them as there was a couple of times where even I was disgusted.
To end this review, The Ballad of Skinless Pete is a rare movie in 2013. It looks and feels much more like an 80's film, but with a few modern day innovations. It's obvious that director Dustin Mills has a love for the films he grew up with and for the horror genre. Let's hope he keeps coming out with films of this magnitude as horror of late has grown a tad stale with the saturation of ghost films and zombie films.
