Dennis Skinner (Ted Raimi) has moved into the Tate household, helping them with their financial situation while widening the gap between husband and wife. He seems nice enough, but a disturbing childhood - he only ripped his mother's face off after his father forced her to watch him conduct her autopsy before punching him in the face - has led to him becoming a skid row slasher. However, Dennis' past sins have come back to haunt him in the form of Heidi (an insanely perfect Traci Lords),a bad girl with a secret - horrible scars as she's survived being flayed alive thanks to the power of her will and no small amount of narcotics - who won't stop until he gets her horrible revenge.

Skinner was the kind of movie that haunted the video stores in my early 20's. It almost made it into theaters, as well, because a newly reformed Cannon Pictures almost gave it a limited theatrical run. However, this new Cannon fell into bankruptcy before Skinner made it to screens.

It's just as well - this is a movie made for home video. It's gloriously scummy, revelling in darkness, grue and gore courtesy of Pittsburgh hometown heroes KNB. Where films like Silence of the Lambs only hint at the skin suits that their killers are making, Dennis Skinner creates muliple flesh fashions that he walks around in.

Former Hairspray lead and daytime talk show host Ricki Lake plays the lonely Kerry Tate, who lives a near-seperate life from her husband Geoff (certainly named for the former Queensryche frontman). As mentioned before, Traci Lords grabs every scene she's in by the literal balls and leaves the viewer begging for more.

This whole paen to slicing up hookers was brought to us by Ivan Nagy, who may know a thing or two about the world's oldest profession, as he was the ex-boyfriend of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss. In addition to directing episodes of CHIPs and HBO's The Hitchhiker, Nagy also cooked the books for the mob. His work on Skinner would pair nicely with a film like Fulci's The New York Ripper, providing a west coast glimpse of neon-hued squalor.

Outwardly charming and mild-mannered nebbish Dennis Skinner (a creepy and convincing performance by Ted Raimi) rents a room from a young couple. At night Dennis goes out to pick up hookers so he can kill and skin them. Meanwhile, vengeful and unhinged smack addict near-victim Heidi (a surprisingly intense and effective portrayal by Traci Lords) tracks Dennis down.

Director Ivan Nagy, working from a harsh script by Paul Hart-Wilden, ably crafts an unsparingly grim and sordid tone, grounds the bleak premise in a seedy and believable workaday reality, relates the compellingly seamy story at a constant pace, and makes nice use of grimy urban hellhole locations. Raimi has a field day with a rare juicy lead role that allows him to be both affable and unnerving in equal measure. Moreover, there are sturdy supporting contributions from Ricki Lake as the sweet Kerry Tate, David Warshofsky as irascible truck driver Geoff, Richard Schiff as sleazy hotel manager Eddie, and Dewayne Williams as the belligerent Earl. Kudos are also in order for Greg Littlewood's shadowy noirish cinematography, the brooding score by Keith Arem and Contagion, and the typically excellent gore f/x by KNB. An unjustly neglected sickie sleeper.

"Skinner", directed by the fairly unknown soft-core porn director Ivan Nagy, is one strange…STRANGE film, to say the least. I honestly can't quite label what it is exactly, but it's some sort of odd mixture between horror, revenge-exploitation and an unusual serial-killer portrait. Even stranger than the mix of themes is the choice of cast members. Ted Raimi, who usually only just makes cameo appearances in films produced and/or directed by his more successful brother Sam, takes on the lead role of the introvert psychopath Dennis Skinner, talk show hostess Ricky Lake (also known from John Waters' movies) plays his landlady and former porn star Traci Lords stars as one of Raimi's previous victims out for vengeance. The plot remains vague and unclear regarding Dennis' awkward personality and motivations, but I can only presume he's another fictional character inspired by real-life killer Ed Gein, who also formed the base for successful genre milestones like "Psycho" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Raimi's character slowly but surely develops into a tormented persona haunted by traumas from his childhood, yet a proper explanation is never given. Another truly peculiar aspect of "Skinner" is the dosing of the blood and gore. The film is overall tame, with a strict emphasis on atmosphere and character drawing, yet suddenly comes a sequence that is almost indescribably gross and sick-spirited. It's like the scene was added after filming all the rest, following negative screening results, or something, yet I didn't notice any differences or interruptions in the editing. Maybe Ivan Nagy preferred spending his entire make-up effects budget on one ultra-sadistic moment? "Skinner" is an obscure and atypical piece of 90's horror, but it's definitely worth a peep if you like cinematic oddities that can't possibly be categorized.