Skare The Prime Cut

2009

Sarcophilous Films

Web: http://www.sarcophilousfilms.com/

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

Long-time independent director Michael J Murphy has produced a tight little bloodfest film here that includes murder, cannibalism, greed, sex and just a little of the supernatural. It is a low budget film but you wouldn’t know it from the quality of the production. The film was originally made in 2001 but was lost by a courier firm. Now remade in digital form, it’s hard to see that it has lost anything due to the gap.

Dan (Warren May) has escaped from a mental institution in a country area of Britain. He was imprisoned when very young after he killed a bully in a fit of anger. Hunted by the police, he comes to an old mill that is home to a middle-aged woman, Martha Tennant (Judith Holding). She takes him in and hides him, but gradually takes control of his life. She wants him to build up his body (“a healthy mind in a healthy body”) while he is hiding, and feeds him a healthy diet including her own herbal drink. She knows he is an escapee but tells him she often helps people in need. Dan gradually falls under her spell. It looks like Martha is a sexual predator and has Dan in her sights.

His nights in the old mill house are disturbed by strange dreams and visions of a murder and witch burning that happened hundreds of years ago. Martha tells him of a legend that the house is haunted as a result.

Dan’s health and physique are gradually improving under Martha’s tuition. One day he sees a young woman using the mill house’s swimming pool and Martha tells him that this is Charlotte (Trudi Tyrell) , who manages a Country Club that Martha owns nearby. Martha started there many years ago and gradually worked her way up to head of the kitchen staff by her cooking skills. Her recipes are now the Country Club’s main attraction and Martha has become a wealthy woman. Charlotte has taken over the running of the Club and continues Martha’s culinary reputation. She also seems attracted to Dan, but she and Martha discuss Dan as if he is just a piece of meat. It seems Dan is seen as a sexual conquest by both women.

The only problem is a drunken bully named Steve (Bruce Lawrence) who works on a neighbouring farm. He has some sort of hold over Martha, something he knows “about what you get up to in that house” and is clearly blackmailing her. Is it something to do with the increasing number of missing people in the area?

We first get an idea what Martha’s secret may be when a young cosmetics saleswoman visits her. Dan finds the results and is horrified but what can he do? From here the story plummets into the depths of murder and competition for Dan between Charlotte and Martha. Dan has been played for a fool by both women and it is only when his anger, suppressed for so long, breaks loose that he can also try to break free. But can he? There is one more secret he should know about the old mill house.

Skilful cinematography and direction give the film a slightly surreal look. The countryside is beautifully filmed but always there are the dark deeds in the mill house lurking in the background. Charlotte and Dan seem almost normal compared with Martha’s predatory nature but both hide their own secrets. Every moment of beauty has something evil behind it. Skare is a skillfully made film with a lot of good suspense behind it. Don’t let the blood put you off. It’s a great watch if you like your horror done intelligently.

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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.6 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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