SKIN CRAWL
a film by Justin Wingenfeld
DVD submitted by POP Cinema
Somewhere in the dark ages, a corrupt official and his sidekicks terrorize a family of witches. The official decides the youngest of the witches is ripe to please him, so he takes her into the woods, where he and his subordinate, rape her. Unfortunately things turn rough and the girl gets killed! The remaining two witches, feel something wrong is going on, sacrifice their lives in order to cast a spell on their bloodline, bringing horrible retribution to anyone who victimizes any member of their family, no matter how many generations away. Over 300 year later the rich and beautiful Margaret (Debby Rochon) is brutally murdered by her husband Howard (Kevin G. Shinnick) and his mistress (Julian Wells as Sadie) in order to inherit her money! However it soon comes clear that Sadie is double-crossing her lover and is setting up a swindle with her boyfriend to steal the money from Howard.
Unbeknownst to all of them is that Margaret is a descendant of the witches. She returns from the dead to take revenge and fulfil the age old curse.
"Skin Crawl" is certainly not an easy film. Not only is the storyline not continuous, it has more plot twists then pubic hair in a whorehouse! At first I thought it had everything to do with a bad plot or incompetence from the makers. In fact the reoccuring scenes are a way to tell the story bit by bit, keeping the suspense high. By introducing us the same scenes over and over, yet seen through a different character, the spectator witnessing new details in the story. In fact the plot is cleverly stitched together and a first viewing leaves you a bit puzzled, giving you the urge to view it again, but mind you this is not an Arthouse film at all. 
The film has an overall late sixties euro trash cinema feel, combined with American efforts that can be dated back to movies like "Last house on the left" (which actually found its origins in the Swedish flick "Jungfrukallan" 1960) or "Asylum of Satan". This film keeps you interested until the very last moment, delivering a rather satisfying end. However to my opinion the intro, that witchcraft story was the less successful part of the film. Although it was necessary to kick of the story, it could have been significantly shorter. Another thing that bothered me was the cover of the DVD. Somehow it looks like you’re are up for a real blood and gore, end of the line zombie flick, but in essence what you get is a classy twisted thriller with some good horror elements!
"Skin Crawl" is the debut as director and writer for Justin Wingenfeld who used to do work as an extra on many of the EI independent films. It’s clearly visible through this film that Justin is capable of a whole lot more and I’m eagerly waiting for info on his next project."Skin Crawl" will be released April the 10th and comes with a series of extras including interviews with Debby Rochon and Justin Wingengeld, a commentary track with producer Michael Raso and a shock-o-rama trailer vault
--- Pat ---
Trailer : Skin Crawl
more info on :
http://www.eicinema.com/2007/index.html