From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Skinwalkers
Skinwalkers film poster
Directed by	James Isaac
Produced by	Dennis Berardi Don Carmody Robert Kulzer
Written by	James DeMonaco Todd Harthan James Roday
Starring	Jason Behr Elias Koteas Rhona Mitra Kim Coates Natassia Malthe Sarah Carter Lyriq Bent
Music by	Andrew Lockington
Cinematography	David Armstrong Adam Kane
Editing by	Allan Lee
Distributed by	Lions Gate Entertainment / After Dark Films
Release date(s)	August 10, 2007 (USA)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Skinwalkers is a Canadian horror-action film about werewolves, and was released in the United States on August 10, 2007. Directed by James Isaac, it stars Jason Behr, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, and Tom Jackson. The film was originally announced for theatrical release on December 1, 2006, but was later pushed to March 30, 2007, and July 27, and finally August 10.

Skinwalkers marks Lions Gate Entertainment's first collaboration with Constantin Films, which produced such other other science fiction/horror films as Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and Wrong Turn. The visual effects are by effects house Mr. X, and the creature effects by Stan Winston Studio.

The film was shot in Ontario, Canada.

Taglines:

• "The beast waits within."
• "They live among us. They hunt us."
• "For them to live, we must die."

Contents 1 Plot 2 Reception 3 Box Office 4 DVD Release 5 Rating and Possible Reasons for Plot Holes 6 Characters 7 References 8 External links

Two packs of werewolves, divided by principles, are signaled by the moon of the coming of an ancient prophecy. A young boy named Timothy (Matthew Knight) approaches his 13th birthday, unaware this marks the time of his transformation. Timothy has been raised by his grandmother (Barbara Gordon), his mother Rachel (Rhona Mitra), his Uncle Jonas (Elias Koteas), his cousin Katherine (Sarah Carter) and Katherine's boyfriend, Adam (Shawn Roberts). His father is said to be dead.

Rachel and Timothy have been unaware that the rest of the family are "good" werewolves who have guarded Timothy and his secret since birth. They know that Timothy is a "half-blood" who is prophesied to end the curse. But they also know that Timothy's power will put him in danger, for there are other werewolves that revel and embrace their blood-lust and are bent on finding and killing the boy. Four of these werewolves are a motorcycle pack — leader Varek (Jason Behr), and cohorts Zo (Kim Coates), Sonya (Natassia Malthe), and Grenier (Rogue Johnston), who uses a hawk as an airborne spy — who track down Timothy in the small town of Huguenot, precipitating the movie's extended chase.

Skinwalkers had no advance screenings for critics, though Lionsgate did provide DVD screeners to those who asked. Maitland McDonagh of TVGuide.com noted that "the emphasis is more on conventional action than on man-to-wolf metamorphosis effects and the subsequent beastly mayhem," and said the movie was "briskly paced and features a couple of clever twists on genre conventions before getting bogged down".^[1] Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said that, "Before flagging toward the end to become a second-rate Terminator 2, this Canadian-made action drama sparks an old-fashioned B-movie charge — it's welcome-to-the-grindhouse all over again with such delicious conceits as a town of werewolf-citizens and a pistol-packing grandma going it gangsta-style".^[2] Despite the praise given to the creature effects by Stan Winston, the film received mostly negative reviews.

Ultimately, it was not well received. The film currently maintains a very low rating of 15% at Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus quote being "Atrociously acted with unoriginal and ineptly-staged action sequences."

The film was a box office bomb, grossing only $553,520 on its opening weekend in the US and grossing $1,018,965 domestically. According to Box Office Mojo, the film only grossed $2,545,482 worldwide. It was only released on 745 screens. Some reasons for its failure could be its lack of marketing and limited release and a lack of interest. It was out of theaters in only 2.4 weeks, about 17 days.

The DVD will be released on November 27, 2007. It includes a director's commentary, digital effects comparisons, a previsualization featurette, deleted scenes, the original theatrical trailer, a making of featurette, and additional Lionsgate film trailers to The Monster Squad, Fido, Fangs, and The Descent. There is as of right now no unrated or director's cut of the film. While the box says 110 minutes, the film is only 91 minutes.

The film was originally rated R with a length of 110 minutes (1 hour and 50 minutes). Nearly 19 minutes of footage was removed and the film was re-rated PG-13 for with a length of 91 minutes (1 hour and 31 minutes).

The film contains plenty of plot holes and it is painfully obvious whenever something was edited out. The plot holes could be because 19 minutes was removed and a sloppy execution in editing.

Varek (Jason Behr) — Formerly Caleb, Jonas's brother and Rachel's husband. Now the leader of the evil werewolves. He turns out to be the father of Tim. He is cured at the end of the film and reverts to his old normal self.

Jonas (Elias Koteas) — The Alpha of the pack sworn to protect Timothy, and father of Katherine. Like the others, he keeps himself restrained on the full moon and wants their curse to finally end. He is shot and killed by Rachael after trying to attack Tim towards the end of the film

Rachel Talbot (Rhona Mitra) — An assumed widow hard-pressed to cope with her frail son Timothy's frequent illnesses. She doesn't know her family and community is made up of werewolves.

Zo (Kim Coates) — The second in command in Varek's pack.

Sonja (Natassia Malthe) — The Alpha female in Varek's pack, and his mate. She was once human, with a seemingly miserable life until changed by Varek. She is very neurotic, completely loyal to Varek, and obsessed with him. She is shot and killed by Rachael.

Timothy (Matthew Knight) — A half-blood, the offspring of Varek and Rachel. He holds the power to end the 'curse' of his family and the entire werewolf race along with him.

Katherine (Sarah Carter) — Jonas's daughter and, like the rest of the family and friends, a werewolf as well. She has a boyfriend named Adam, who is also a lycanthrope. Towards the end of the film, she turns and kills Adam and almost attacks Tim but is shot in the back and killed by Jonas.

Grenier (Rogue Johnston) — One of Varek's henchmen. He is mute and has a heavily scarred face. He is attacked by Jonas during the climax and falls to his death.

Adam - one of the werewolves that raised Tim. He is shot and killed by Katherine, his girlfriend.

• Official website
• Skinwalkers at Rotten Tomatoes
• Skinwalkers at the Internet Movie Database
• IESB.net: video clip