I am not one who is all about the gore. Granted, I loves me some blood splatter, and I’m not opposed to torture, but I also like it when it’s accompanied by a story, or at least engaging characters. “Pelts” essentially doesn’t have compelling characters, but the story is entertaining. I was not a fan of Dario Argento’s prior effort, “Jenifer.” I thought it was bland, Stephen Weber’s performance was cartoonish, and the climax was brutally predictable. “Pelts” is a step up in the gore department, and in the plot. It takes the concepts of furs turning against the people holding them, and never exhausts itself. “Pelts” pulls out all the stops, not only in the gore, but in the grueling scenes of self-mutilation, and it’s typical Argento. Meatloaf plays a vicious and rather slimy fur buyer who works his factory workers to the bone, and aspires for quality.
He’s a man who wants it all, and even pines for a gorgeous stripper he flirts with and attacks one night in horny rage. John Saxon appears in a pretty memorable supporting role as a crusty fur hunter who traps and skins two raccoons. One night, his son clubs his head in, and comes face to face with a bear trap. Jake stumbles on the crime scene and steals the furs hoping to garner some coin from it to win his love interest, and bad shit goes down. It soon becomes apparent the furs are striking merciless revenge on its holders, and the fun doesn’t stop there, kids. Argento is like a kid in a bloody candy shop with wonderful special effects by KNB with self-dissection, and a horribly torturous bloody climax only Argento could pull off. Unlike last week’s sketchy “Pro-Life,” Argento’s installment really only demonstrates the sheer lengths some people will go to to be rich, and how it can backfire.
The furs are the ultimate goal, and it turns on them in gruesome ways. Meatloaf’s performance is expectedly convincing and true, an award winner he ain’t, but he’s entertaining enough to guide us through this sick maze of the reach for wealth. Yet, somehow half of it feels like an excuse to display Argento’s sick machinations of torture and self-mutilation. He doesn’t just show us the gruesome acts, he lets us view it as it unfolds and ends, and boy is it ever blatant. Argento was never one for subtlety, but here he’s lays it on rather thick drowning us in gore, and never focusing enough on story. Seconded by “Imprint,” this is probably the most demented entry of the series, and the sickest entry of the new season. It’s been a step up this time around, and “Pelts” is assuredly a step up in gory glory.