Sevé Schelenz brings us an engaging thriller in the vein of Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. These movies relied upon a character in the film shooting or setting up the camera to get the footage we see as the film. They also relied heavily upon character relationships and developing tension. Skew delivers on both counts but fails to produce a satisfactory ending to their supernatural thriller.

Simon, Rich and Eva set out on a road trip to get to a friend’s wedding. Simon recently picked up a video camera and is obsessed with shooting everything that happens on this trip. Rich and Eva are a couple but we discover early on that Simon has fallen for the beautiful young woman. As they travel on the road they stop at cheesy tourist attractions, hotels and gas stations. Simon’s in-your-face approach with his camera frustrates the others and mounts until things get very serious. We start to discover his unhealthy attachment to the video camera, which spawns a new set of problems for the group.

On occasion, Simon notices that certain people’s faces become distorted for brief periods of time as he looks through the camera view finder. Rewinding the footage to reevaluate, proves unsuccessful, which is mysterious. Beyond distorted faces we have ghostly apparitions that only Simon can see through his camera. He brings this up to the others but they become upset, thinking he’s delusional. Soon Simon figures out that the people with the distorted faces die. So the camera is like a supernatural object that foretells someone’s imminent death. Simon shares this with Eva and freaks her out. Despite all this, he can’t bring himself to dispose of the damned cursed object.

The tension between the three spirals into heated arguments and worse. Rich finds out that Simon has the hots for his girlfriend. What started out as a fun road trip turns into a deadly nightmare. Simon’s fucked up attachment to the camera gets really ugly as his true nature is slowly dissected. It seems like he cares more about the filming of the trip than his relationship with his good friends. I found it very fascinating that Simon adamantly refuses to be photographed with the camera himself. The end of the film is just as creepy but unfortunately left me with questions and felt anti-climactic.

The young cast is incredible in their respective roles. The direction is steady and moves the plot along very nicely. This could have been a truly great film if the ending would have been better. I found it ambiguous and tepid. I was hooked the whole way through and was literally at the edge of my seat during many scenes. It really is a shame that the movie had a poor ending. I still recommend you go out and watch this good example of independent filmmaking.

- Jorge Antonio Lopez