darko_devotchka *spoiler alert* The basic plot of this low-budget horror flick is that a nerdy, Converse-and-khaki wearing guy Dennis Skinner (Ted Raimi) rents a room from Ricki Lake's character, and spends his days as a janitor, or sometimes killing prostitutes. Meanwhile, one of his victims, played by Traci Lords, is busy stalking Skinner and trying to kill him.The redeeming factor in this whole movie is Ted Raimi. He plays Skinner brilliantly. His performance is comparable to that of Anthony Perkins' in Psycho. Raimi is so believable as the nice, adorable guy who ends up being a quite creepy serial killer. Also, being a Ted Raimi fan-girl, his being shirtless for 75% of the movie helped the movie a lot as well, finally having some male eye-candy in a horror movie was awesome to me.Ricki Lake did a good job as the nice, slightly naive landlady, and I thought the relationship between her and Skinner was cute...until the end of the film, of course. Traci Lords was great as well, she was downright creepy as the vengeful (prostitute? i guess? it never says) woman who has been mutilated by Skinner.The special effects are creepily realistic, when Skinner wears his victims' skins I was genuinely freaked out, because they looked so real. It is pretty gory, not much actual killing, just lots of grossness and blood.If you are a big Ted Raimi fan, you will definitely like this film. Seeing him play someone totally opposite of Joxer, Pavel, Hoffmann, etc. etc. is really refreshing and shows his versatility as an actor - he can pull off creepy and sexy as well as nerdy.Skinner is definitely worth a look.

dbkimbro Now...I am a HUGE Ted Raimi fan, and I bought this movie under the assumption that this highly underrated actor would be in a starring role and make a worthwhile movie. However, this is not the case. Although this movie had promise, the script needed work (to say the least), the audio track was terrible, and I sense that there was a lot of poor editing done, because it was full of plot holes. The only thing I really learned was that the skin of the bully that the dog ate must have been poisonous, because I can think of NO OTHER REASON why the dog died. Its really a shame, too, since poor Ted has not been offered more leading roles because he is immensely talented. I'm just sorry that his brother's perpetual habit of putting him in the background drove Ted to this during his early career. Tracy Lords mumbled her way through, and I wondered how in the hell a DVD has a video roll in it. I guess I'll just swallow my $9.00 loss (at least the shipping was free), and be glad that there is better Ted Raimi fare out there.

jamie_likeskylie This film suffers from chronic sound problems. There is an echo on half of it. Now you may be thinking it's just my video, well I got the DVD as well and it's the movie! Really shoddy, but anyway. The film has a great premise and Ricki Lake and Ted Raimi are okay in it. Poor Traci Lords takes it a little over the top and it comes off as a bit amaturish. There is one disturbing seen involving Traci's character, Heidi, that freaks me out. It's when she stabs the needle in her and lets out this scream. It's pretty effective so she deserves some credit for that scene at least. The skinning scenes don't get good for a while but bear with the film for them because they are really sick. Also watch out for Skinner running around in a black guy! Literally! It's truly gross!

sprmnj This is the coolest movie I have ever seen. It takes a porn star and gives her a chance to get vengance on the man whom she took in to her home (she was not a prostitute, but his landlord, like ricki lake) and skinned her while she was still alive. I still want to know exactly how she killed the hotel manager, though. That has always intrigued me.