Fantastic!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I'm a fan of what might be called lesser horror movies. Generally I review them when I believe that other reviewers have been unjust to them. However, although I enjoyed Skeleton Man, it has some problems. The biggest one is that its main episode, involving the skeleton man's inconsiderate treatment of the eight special forces members, is accompanied by briefer "supporting" episodes that just don't support what's going on in the main one. For instance, how does a rather nasty Native American find black garbage bags to wear, and also find an invulnerable horse? Another is that these experienced military people discover fairly soon that the skeleton man is invulnerable to bullets, yet keep firing at him/it. Firing so much and so often that I'm surprised that they could possibly have packed in all that ammo. Finally, what possible successful effect could the fiery conclusion have had?That said, some of the we-have-been-warned Violence scenes are excellent, the mountain scenery is lovely, and enough gore is spilled to fertilize these woods for some time to come. The explosions are generally fine, and … despite what some reviews have written … the acting was acceptable

A team of US Special Forces is picked off by a mysterious man on horseback. Another team (lead by Michael Rooker) goes in to rescue them, and after being told more by a blind Indian, face the same man. But this is no ordinary person... can he be stopped by mere bullets?Before this film began, I decided to look up a few reviews to see what I was getting myself into. Universally, this film is given about the lowest rating of any movie I have ever seen. While I daresay it's not as bad as "Nine Lives" or "Hell's Threshold", it surely does go from "this has potential" to "what the heck" in record time.The potential is obvious: a film starring Michael Rooker, known for such great genre films as "Slither" and "Henry". Plenty of impalements here, too, as well as explosions and beheadings. You would think the gore alone might sell this picture (heck, it works for Lamberto Bava).But the fact is that this film has two major problems. One, it's excessively boring. You can only show so many firefights before I get sleepy, and you can only have the soldiers run over the same ground again and again so often. The plot amounts to nothing more than this: man on horseback appears, gets shot at, disappears. Repeat.And second, it makes absolutely no sense. Why are military men in a forest in the first place? What is the origin of the Skeleton Man? What are his motives? What does any of this have to do with the nearby chemical plant? The more you think about it, the more you realize that the writer put no effort whatsoever into creating a coherent story.Do yourself a big favor and just stay the heck away from this one. I have a copy because it appears in a multi-pack. I suppose in this case, I could say it was free, but I'm tempted to say it's not even worth being free... I feel like the creators owe me something for my emotional and mental distress. For a similar, but better, plot, watch "Predator".

There are two kinds of bad films. There are bad films that are so incredibly ghastly that they are quite entertaining in their very awfulness. And then there are bad films that are merely substandard in a decidedly blah sort of way and hence aren't even remotely amusing and/or enjoyable in their exceptional crumminess. This steaming pile of sheer celluloid excrement about an elite army commando squad running afoul of some deadly mythical Native American bogeyman called Cotton Mouth Joe in the remote wilderness falls into the latter category of bad film. This abysmal junk strikes out something rotten in every possible way: the flat (mis)direction by Johnny Martin, draggy pace, idiotic and nonsensical script by Frederick Bailey (in one especially ridiculous sequence Cotton Mouth Joe butchers a bunch of folks in a power plant), cardboard characters, mostly insipid acting by an understandably unenthused cast, annoying shuddery score by Chris White, the lousy (far from) special effects, tacky gore, badly staged action scenes, a crippling dearth of tension, a few clumsy flashbacks, tin-eared dialogue ("I don't wanna die, man -- I wanna go home!"), a by-the-numbers obvious and predictable plot which shamelessly copies the much superior "Predator," and a titular spectral killer who looks like he's wearing a chintzy Grim Reaper costume that was purchased for five bucks at a K-Mart Halloween firesale all add up to one extremely shoddy dud that reeks worse than dirty old socks. The always dependable Michael Rooker tries hard as tough squad leader Captain Leary, but even he can't rise above the teeming tidal wave of sludge. Poor Casper Van Dien gets saddled with a terribly underdeveloped role as the laconic Staff Sergeant Oberon and veteran character actor Robert Miano is wasted in a nothing bit part as a crazy old blind Indian dude. Only Richard Briglia's slick cinematography shows a modicum of competence. Absolute dreck.

WARNING! WARNING! While I disliked this film greatly, and I cannot see many people liking it, (except for creepy male teenagers) I get angry when people expect something from SCI-Fi channel, It is a bloody made-for-t.v. movie staring low-B actors! Get real people, go in expecting a bad movie, receive it, and then make a verdict. Do not watch it (skeleton man in particular) if you are highly opinionated! Now for the real review! This movie is quite pathetic, and it adds it self to the festering tripe lining the squishy smelly stomach of the Sci-fi channel. The acting is horrible, and the costumes/make-up are terrible. For example, the Garbage-bag cloak of the dead warrior? Ach, it made the actor look like a stick wrapped in a blanket. It over-sized him by about 3-1, and so, for an example of how big it was, the skull of the thing had an over-sized hood around it, that stood up by itself somehow, making the skull, look like a pea in a plastic bag. Also, there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary deaths. Watch it and see for yourself...Muahahahaa