Review of The Skulls (2000) by Phil C — 21 May 2008

You know, for a secret society which has supposedly been around for centuries and had former Presidents among its membership, â??The Skullsâ?? of the filmâ??s title are pretty hard to take seriously. For one thing, everyone seems to know exactly who and what they are. Theyâ??re not even hard to find, with their society insignia placed prominently on the roof of the building where they meet and perform their bizarre rituals and initiations. Rather ironically, then, â??The Skullsâ?? is a film which begs to be given credibility with a spooky idea but, on further inspection, turns out to be quite a bog standard teen flick.

The Skulls are based at an American college attended by our hero, Joshua Jackson, whose ambitions in college life are to row, study law, and join the collegeâ??s foremost elite secret society. Of course, as probably often happens in these secret societies, things take a nasty turn and it all starts going wrong. After spending the first half hour desperate to get in, Jackson spends the rest of the film trying to get out of the Skulls with his life. (Some people are just never satisfied.).

Jackson, another â??Dawsonâ??s Creekâ?? starlet desperate to prove he can play an adult more convincingly than a sixteen year old, gets his first starring role. Unfortunately for him the movieâ??s promising start, complete with stunning initiation rites, slowly disintegrates into a an unremarkable teen â??thrillerâ?? movie once his character loses faith and starts trying to escape. All the teen film clichés are here including, in no particular order: a car crash, a clinch between two characters at the most inappropriate time and a Fatboy Slim track seemingly placed at random. As a result, Jackson disappointingly ends up going through the usual run/jump/â??act with eyebrowsâ?? motions.

That isnâ??t to say that â??The Skullsâ?? doesnâ??t have some nice touches. Someone obviously had a lot of fun with the production designs. What other college could have a secret society whose headquarters looks akin to Draculaâ??s castle, complete with flaming torches, a room full of coffins patrolled by figures in red hoods and a central chamber with â??Warâ?? daubed six foot high on one wall?