A First Look At Skinwalkers
- by Todd at Twitchfilm.net, Nov 7, 2005

A couple weeks back I had the chance to visit the set of Skinwalkers, the new werewolf film coming from the director of Jason X and starring Roswell's Jason Behr.

Now, unfortunately, they're playing coy with the Stan Winston designed creature effects so we got nothing on the creature front - and apparently nobody is going to see any werewolf shots from this film anywhere other than in the theater - and the actors had been cautioned not to spill anything on the spoiler front so we got lots of excitement but very little in the way of 'news'. But here's what I can tell you:

Loosely based on a native legend about people who can shift shapes into the form of their totem animals, Skinwalkers is looking to take the goth out of the genre and place itself more as a western, complete with Easy Rider styled biker gangs.

And word is that while the film will involve a lot of digital work, they're going to stick with physical effects as far as possible with the wolves themselves - this will be human actors performing in suits rather than digital creatures, which makes Todd a happy boy.

There is a split in the werewolf clan with one faction struggling to contain their wolf urges and integrate with 'normal' society while the other - the Behr led faction - indulges their animal nature to the hilt. Thrown into the mix is a prophesied child, a human / werewolf half breed who, it is believed, will make a decision on his thirteenth birthday that will forever change the nature of the entire clan. The peacable faction has sworn to protect him. The wolfish want him dead before he has the chance to make any choice in any direction.

We had the chance to talk to most of the principal cast while we were there - yes, transcriptions are coming - and watched as a scene was shot in the peaceful wolves rolling HQ: a converted horse trailer kitted out with full body leather restraints to contain the wolves on full moon nights.

Beyond being impressed by how clearly intelligent and articulate Behr was - this is a smart, smart man who seems to have played his cards very well so far, well enough that I expect to see him around for a good while - what little we saw of the sets and shot film on the monitor looked very good, but since we weren't allowed to bring cameras I haven't been able to share anything, until now.

photo by Steve Wilkie

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