My quick rating – 3.5/10. I don’t really have an excuse for this one. Skinwalker Island follows a group of siblings who return to their family’s Florida island after their grandmother passes away. Of course, because no low-budget horror gathering is complete without anarchy, their resident troublemaker cousin crashes the grief party just in time for supernatural forces to start clocking in. What unfolds is a mix of ancestral, shape-shifting curses and characters who probably should have just sold the island and moved on with their lives.
Let’s start with the script. Written by Jon Carlo, the plot is about as bland as unseasoned mashed potatoes. It checks off familiar horror beats without adding much flavor. You’ve seen this movie before. You know where it’s going. You can practically hear the “ominous forest noise” sound effect before it happens. The suspense is nearly nonexistent, and when the possession angle kicks in, it feels rushed and barely explained. Someone gets taken over, someone dies, and the “why” is treated like optional DLC content.
That said, Carlo the director, fares better than Carlo the writer. He somehow manages to make the film look more expensive than it probably was. The shots are clean, the Florida scenery is decent, and the overall presentation is polished enough to trick you into thinking something bigger is coming. Unfortunately, it rarely does. The effects leave plenty to be desired, especially when CGI blood shows up looking like it was applied with the “basic red splatter” preset. Most of the kills are either off-screen or poorly executed, which is always a risky move when your story is this thin.
Interestingly, the lead actors appear to actually be siblings, and I’d already seen them in Carlo’s previous film, Feral State. This is a slight step up from that one (which I rated a brutal 3.1), so progress is technically being made. Jasmine Tamposi, playing Lucy, has definitely improved since then. She was adequate here. The brother, Oliver, still needs a few more classes. Solid enough that I didn’t find myself actively wincing, which is growth. Meanwhile, Nicholas Tamposi plays Lucy’s dad, and age-wise, might very well be Oliver & Jasmine’s real-life father. It’s giving a “family production meeting over Thanksgiving dinner” vibe. But hey, at least there’s commitment.
The dialogue, though, is often irritating. The extra characters are largely interchangeable, and the attention-seeking social media cousin is more eye-roll than comic relief. His performance feels especially forced, which doesn’t help an already predictable movie (sorry, bruh, not naming you). The shapeshifting creature itself never feels fully defined, as if the filmmakers couldn’t quite decide what it was supposed to be. Even so, one particularly mean-spirited attack does land effectively. It’s nasty in a way that briefly jolts the movie awake. And it doesn’t involve any half-baked creature.
Overall, Skinwalker Island looks better than it reads, and that’s about the kindest thing I can say. It’s a marginal improvement over Carlo’s previous effort, but not nearly enough to make it recommendable. I found myself checking out mentally more than once, which is never a great sign when supernatural horrors are supposed to be lurking in every shadow. Not one I’d suggest rushing out to see unless you’re a completionist for low-budget shape-shifter cinema.
