Skinwalker Island

Cast View all

	Jasmine Tamposi	Lucy
	Anthony Dawson	Chet
	Coyotl	William
	Nicholas Tamposi	Lucy's Dad
	Oliver Tamposi	Miles
	Enid Sullins	Becky
	Krystal Xamairy	Marisol
	Christian Kaiser	Mike
	Jameson Carpenter	Young Miles
	Kathy Swan Wisniewski	Gran
	Katy Ching	Hanna
	Bimal 'Beemer' Tailor	Liquor Store Owner
	Blake Bryant	Sheila
	Alex Merrifield	Sheila's Husband
	Keven Tinsley	Rusty
	Cary Jensen	Attorney
	Kacey Fisher	White Farmer 1
	Isidro Palacios	Ranch Boy
	Sophia Tieche	Ranch Employee
	Tamara Brandon	Nurse
	Alaina Mallon	Young Lucy
	Steven Tieche	Doctor
	Cady Klimas	Ama
	Tim Daly	White Farmer 2
	Cory Cox Jr.	Young William

Crew View all

Director	Jon Carlo
Writer	Jon Carlo
Producer	Amy Murphy Anderson, Derrick Rodgers, Ali Tamposi, Anthony Tamposi, Marianne Tamposi, Nicholas Tamposi, Nicholas E. Tamposi
Musician	Lionel Cohen
Photography	Ben Sutherland

Trailer

Edition details

Personal

Notes

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.

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