Skinwalkers

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Audiences love being scared. From the first time you heard The Three Little Pigs to the 100th time you saw Halloween, the collective fear of the other keeps people shivering their whole life.
    The more ingeniously crafted stories in the horror genre work not because they are original, but because they play on our preconceptions of the genre. Whether it’s the layers of political subtext in zombie movies, the po-mo comedy of the Scream franchise or the inversion of expectation in the Saw series, filmmakers constantly prove that there is still room for innovation even in a genre as overplayed as horror. Sometimes these innovations work, as in the aforementioned examples, and sometimes they fail miserably, as is the case with Skinwalkers.
    Reworking the werewolf story seems like a dicey prospect in the wake of the Underworld flicks, simply because that stylish and action-packed take on lycanthropy stands in a class by itself. Of course, when movies do well at the box office, the copycats will come a-calling. This leads to abysmal efforts like Blood and Chocolate from earlier this year and, now, Skinwalkers.
    This time out, Boston Legal’s Rhona Mitra plays mom to a kid who, according to prophesy, can wipe out the entire werewolf race. This leads to a war between two factions of so-called skinwalkers — Elias Koteas is a good werewolf trying to save the chosen one, while Jason Behr is the bloodthirsty jerk who wants him dead.
    So, you ask, what’s the twist that sets Skinwalkers apart? Well, when a pack of werewolves comes rolling into town on steel horses, guns blazing, it’s clear that director James Isaac is attempting a horror-western hybrid. With hints of Rio Bravo, Skinwalkers offers tepid shootouts and gutless last stands. Hardcore horror fans will remember that John Carpenter tried reworking the western several times — most notably in Assault on Precinct 13 and Ghosts of Mars, both of which were more successful attempts.
    Even without the tired western cliché, the plot of Skinwalkers sounds like a cross between The Golden Child and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, two films that just should not be imitated. The former is too cheesy, and the latter far too iconic. As Skinwalkers draws to an inevitable showdown pitting mom and son against an unstoppable killing machine (in an abandoned factory no less), it is mind-blowingly obvious that everything in this movie has been done before.
    Dodge a silver bullet and avoid Skinwalkers. It just doesn’t have any bite.