Product Description

Movie DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38421 in DVD
• Brand: STARZ/SPHE
• Released on: 2007-02-13
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 59 minutes

Amazon.com
From the second season of Showtime's Masters of Horror series comes the next Dario Argento offering, Pelts, which is far creepier than his last attempted made-for-TV thrillers (Do You Like Hitchcock and Jenifer). Meatloaf stars as Jake, a sleazy furrier whose obsession for a lesbian stripper named Shannon results in his attempting to make the finest fur ever for her to wear at an upcoming fur trade show. John Saxon (Tenebre) plays a trapper who comes through for Jake by setting traps in sacred raccoon territory to capture the most beautiful animals imaginable. However, as these raccoons are magical guardians of a lost raccoon city, they curse all associated with the deaths of their brethren with the desire to commit gory suicides using techniques employed in the manufacturing of fur coats. Quite disgusting are scenes of a seamstress sewing her eyes and nose shut with thread, or of a man cutting his belly open with shears to gut himself. One can only infer what Jake's fate might be. The film's disturbing ambience is amplified when suicides occur in the skinning and tanning rooms of Jake's fur factory. Close-ups of the raccoons' faces and shots of their ancient city, which boasts raccoon-carved sculptures, remind one of the absurdity of magical raccoons as crime instigators. But simultaneously the message of Pelts is made clear. Pelts would make any PETA member proud, if not nauseous. --Trinie Dalton

Customer Reviews

Argento presents you with gore and lots of sleazy nudity...YAY!
This is my first Masters of Horror movie I watched due to such bad reviews of almost every one of them. I read good things about this one (hi Chris and M!) so I decided to pick it up. And boy am I glad I did. If you want to sit back and enjoy a good gore fest then I would definitely recommend this. Argento definitely does not hold back with the grossness. I haven't been happily goriefied in quite some time. And not only that... we are also blessed with a ton of nudity. So much nudity that I actually kind of felt bad about our main actress cause I think she was topless for about 90% of her scenes. And then we have Meatloaf. You can never go wrong when Man-Boob Bob is in your movie. He played his part wonderfully in Pelts as a horny, sleazy, and uncaring fur coat maker looking for a big paycheck.

Oh... the story is about some raccoons with some guardian spirits in them. They die and get skinned. But their guardian spirits live on and get revenge. Sounds dumb I know, but the story isn't THAT bad. But, like porn, are you really watching this for the story or are you watching this for something else!

A "Tales From The Crypt" throwback.....
Do you like the old HBO series TALES FROM THE CRYPT? If so, PELTS may just be tailor made for you. In this installment of the popular MASTERS OF HORROR series, director Dario Argento gives us PELTS, the story of a fur trader named Jake Feldman (Meat Loaf Aday, who really needs to drop that last name, IMO) who stumbles upon the furs of several enchanted raccoons, and decides to make the world's most beautiful coonskin coat with them, in order to seduce Shana, the lesbian stripper of his dreams(A role filled out very nicely by Ellen Ewusie). One small problem: The furs, being once attached to enchanted-forest-dwelling raccoons, curse whomever they come in contact with to die as the raccoons themselves did; bloody, hideous, painful deaths.

So in no short order, the trapper who originally trapped the animals and killed them, his son, and several sweatshop workers are dead in stupendously over the top fashion, from gutting themselves, to diving face first onto a bearclaw trap (A great moment of giallo that is sure to please the gorehounds out there) to actually sewing their face shut. The only question left is whether or not Feldman can resist the siren song of the furs long enough to dump them and surive the nightmare he's found himself in.


The plot IS, as other reviews have stated, flat out ridiculous, but in PELTS' defense, no more so than the average episode of TALES FROM THE CRYPT used to be. In fact, if you threw in a Cryptkeeper intro and extro, this would be a slam bang episode of TFTC. The acting is solidly in the B-movie range, as you'd expect from a made for cable movie, and only Meat Loaf really stands out from the rest of the cast. The gore is plentiful enough to keep the gorehounds happy, there's plenty of bare breasts to keep T & A fans happy, and over all, horror fans in general should find enough in PELTS to suit their fancy. A great entry into the MASTERS cannon, right alongside Argento's other entry, JENIFER. Recommended.

An Over-The-Top Meatloaf Plus Enchanted Raccoons Equals The Latest Dario Argento Epic
The second season of Showtime's "Masters of Horror" has had more than its share of inauspicious offerings. So I was intrigued and delighted when Italian horror legend Dario Argento was invited to the party again. Season One's Argento was "Jenifer" which, to me, was more of an oddity than an entertainment. But I never count Argento out. To be honest--I hadn't seen Argento around in the few years prior to "Masters," but his early Giallo-style influence on modern horror is undeniable. And while nothing in "Pelts" come close to his lyrical and haunting masterpiece "Suspiria," it is still a demented bit of fun (and a big improvement over "Jenifer."

Meatloaf (I will do anything for pelts, but I won't do that!) stars as a fur trader looking to cash in on some quality skins. With a big score, he hopes to win the love of a most unpleasant stripper. John Saxon is a trapper who ensnares a whole slew of beautiful raccoons. For reasons that aren't particularly important (just go with it) they are mystical and guard something vaguely supernatural. Anyone who comes into contact with the pelts from these beasts can expect to meet with a little nastiness.

Buoyed by a great, over-the-top performance by Meatloaf--I had a lot of fun with "Pelts." I never connected with the supernatural angle, but I didn't try to overthink it either. There are some good effects, a decent amount of gore, and a playful tone. The ending, in particular, reaching a crescendo that is almost operatic in scope. One of the more interesting entries into a very hit-or-miss anthology. KGHarris, 12/06.