Excellent but underrated film

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film opens with three rude, crude tank top cuties calling a bikers names. Some young men join them as they hurry off to a private trail to hike on for some reason or another. Then the title of the film plays a spoiler as they meet a non-introduced character who collects human pelts.I liked the girls who I thought were going to lose their tops at any moment. The language was crude and rude but fitting for the film and was perhaps the high spot. The killings were not graphic. It looks like someone broke a realistic looking blow up doll and decided to call it a pelt, make a movie about it so they could get another one.The pajamas was a nice touch.Parental guide: F-bomb. Brief sex. Fake corpse nudity.

The B-horror movie seems to be going away. Long gone are the days of picking up a couple of "scary" movies from your local video store, buying some beer and inviting friends over to pick the movie apart. Today's B-horror either tries to be B-horror(thus losing the charm) or is so terrible and boring that there is nothing to make fun of. This film is the best laugh I have had in a while. It is just interesting enough to keep you keep watching and although I feel it does make fun of itself purposely on a couple of occasions, it is just serious enough to get the laughs going. For a B-movie to be funny, the golden rule is that the audience feels that the director has a masterpiece on his hands. No spoilers here: but the best laughs come from the bar scene in the beginning of the movie(particularly the "John" character), then later a female who keeps having a pain and describes it in detail, a certain character's sleeping apparel, the best stereotype of a yuppie jock in horror movie history(seriously) and the flying ax. That is just to name a few. Invite friends over, pour some refreshments and enjoy. This is as good as it gets for horror fun at the film's expense.

2010's "Pelt" has a group of friends fighting for their lives against a couple of local yokels with a taste for blood and torture. Unfortunately for this crew they chose to spend a weekend in the woods on private property. The choice is a fatal error for the friends. A typical scenario found in modern horror but it all works. The story is a fun, modern nightmare that puts fuel into the "camping/in the woods" horror film. I really didn't expect a lot from "Pelt" but was pleasantly surprised. Swindell creates a very suspenseful chiller that plays with elements of slasher, grindhouse and splatter horror. The cast commit to their characters and pull off some pretty authentic personalities that I connected with. "Pelt" does find itself battling through some pretty standard clichés, but never gets marred down completely by the stereotypes. Even with a few of the characters coming off a bit abrasive, (douche-bag daddy-o's) , the actors give convincing performances that does take the characters into caricature territory.The special effects are strong, realistic grue that explores elements of exploitation, and splatter without pushing the kill scenes into sensationalized depravity. There is a nice balance between the horror elements and the psychological suspense that makes "Pelt" a very strong horror film. The soundtrack and sound effects create a tense, thrilling atmosphere that carries the story arch from the first scene until the credits roll. Honestly I went into this film expecting to be disappointed or bored, but instead I was captivated and chilled. "Pelt" is a film that I will be watching over and over.There is some downer moments to "Pelt". The dialog is weak in some scenes, with characters feeling forced into conversation with one another, instead of seeming natural. It does ad a bit of a hokey vibe that disrupts the intensity and drama of the story. Honestly that is really the only hiccups I had while watching "Pelt". The kills are bloody, there is screaming and crying, running through the woods. Brutality is the theme de jour for "Pelt" with some truly nightmarish moments. I will be referencing this film the next time I decide to explore the hills and back roads in my neck of the woods-believe that!

There are some decent "killer redneck" movies, and even some that are bad enough to be fun. However, I didn't find any reason for Pelt to exist. The first problem, as many have mentioned, is that the seven main characters (three crude hot chicks and four crude bros) are completely unlikable in their establishing scenes. They are rude and horrible to every single person that crosses their respective paths. Therefore, we don't care whether they live or die - we actively want to see all of them get taken out. Which brings me to my second problem with Pelt - we don't get to see them taken out. Most of the kills take place just out of camera range, so after taking the time to set these characters up as the worst people on earth and making us suffer through spending time with them, we are denied our money shots - heck, even a nice close up of the aftermaths would be better than nothing. Finally, I am told that Pelt is supposed to be a horror comedy but the big problem with that is it's not funny. It's terrible, and there are times you can't do anything but laugh at what's happening on the screen, but there's a difference between laughing at and laughing with. There's plenty of stupid behavior and bad dialogue, but the whole thing is so inept that it's hard to tell what's awful for laughs and what's just poor script/performance/direction. It also fails as parody because it doesn't seem to have enough understanding of the slasher subgenre to effectively spoof it. I did feel generous enough to give Pelt a 2 instead of a 1 solely because of how the most horrid female character dies and for the zip-up onesie rubber ducky pajamas one character wears through most of the movie. There are many movies out there worse than Pelt, but that doesn't make Pelt worth sitting through.