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Skull & Bones (2007)



Skull & Bones

 

Skull & Bones is out...and so are the film's creators!

The first thing I'll say about Skull & Bones is that the images on the DVD cover and the website make the film look like a much more serious movie than it is intended to be.  The film is actually an extremely dark comedy rather than simply the straight forward horror, slasher or thriller that the promotional images might suggest.  Also, the artist or artists who designed the cover and website did such a good job that they've made the movie look like it's a bigger budget movie than it actually is.  Almost every movie I review here is low-budget or no-budget and Skull & Bones is no exception.  Although it may not live up to the expectations created by the website and cover art, I can say that when compared to other films of around the same budget, Skull & Bones really does deliver.  


If there are other movies that fall into the genre of no-budget-gay-dark-comedy-horror-thriller, I have never heard of them.  For potential fans of the genre, here's your movie!  The story is about Nathan and Justin, a gay couple who are bored with their lives and decide to spice things up by drugging and raping a straight classmate at their local college.  Things go wrong and they end up accidentally killing him.  However, rather than feel remorse, they feel a great rush and decide to have their way with more college guys.  This time, they move in on guys from the Ivy League college on the other site of town.  One by one, members of the elite Skull & Bones not-so-secret society are kidnapped, sodomized and brutally murdered until at last Nathan and Justin decide to turn one of the Ivy League guys into an undead sex zombie.  

I thought that for a no-budget movie, the audio was surprisingly good.  Unlike may films in this class, I could actually understand all of the dialog.  The two lead actors, Derrick Wolf and Michael Burke, were quite competent.  The camera work was good for the most part although there were some outdoor shots that were pretty shaky.  My two biggest complaints are relatively small.  First, the coffin used in a scene near the end of the movie was a cheap cardboard prop; most likely picked up from a Halloween store.  I think they could have forked up the cash to make a plywood box and paint it black.  It would have really improved the scene.  Second, the song playing over the end credits was quite possibly the worst piece of music I have ever heard in a film...and that's really saying something considering the movies that I watch!  Overall, neither of those complaints detracted much from the movie.

Although I wouldn't recommend this film to everyone, I think it's great that someone finally made an independent horror film for gay guys.  After all, we've had thousands of movies like this for straight guys for years.  I had never really thought about it before, but obviously the film's creator T.S. Slaughter certainly did!  Congratulations on getting Skull & Bones out!

Gore-o-meter rating: 3 out of 5 (A guy gets his dick bit off.  That alone gives it a 3!)

Skin-o-meter: 3 out of 5 (If you didn't read the review and skipped down to this line, I'd just like to point out that there is no female nudity in this film!  It's all softcore gay sex.  With that said, there are a lot of guys butts.)