Main Cast: Adam Beach, Wes Studi, Saginaw Grant, Gerald Vandever, Alex Rice
Release Year: 2002
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
Plot
Adapted from Tony Hillerman's best-selling novel by James Redford (stepson of Robert Redford), Skinwalkers was the vanguard of the proposed PBS anthology American Mystery. Returning to the Navajo reservation of his birth after many years, police detective Joe Leaphorn (Wes Studi) investigates a series of bizarre murders. Though Leaphorn has no doubt that the killer is a human being, his young FBI-trained partner, Jim Chee (Adam Beach), has an entirely different theory. A medicine man-in-training, Chee believes that the murders have been committed by a mystical figure called the Skinwalker, who according to Navajo legend is an amalgam of all murdered Native Americans. Symbolic clues left at the scene of each murder -- some written in paint, some in blood -- confirm Chee's conclusion that the shapeshifting Skinwalker is seeking revenge on the modern-day despoilers of the Navajo's sacred land. Skinwalkers was filmed on location in Utah and Arizona by Native American director Chris Eyre, of Smoke Signals fame. ~ All Movie Guide
Nicholas Bartolo - Tommy Nakai; Noah Watts - Ruben Maze; Michael Greyeyes - Dr. Stone; Sheila Tousey - Emma Leaphorn; Concho Roman - Capt. Butler; Jon Proudstar - Davis Nakai; Crystal Van Keuren - Nurse; Misty Upham - Nina; Geraldine Keams - Gina; Frank Soto - Dugay; Drew Lacapa - Bobby; Marla Finn - German Wife; Ryan Polequaptewa - Doug; Chesley Wilson - Lonnie Mack; Terey Summers - Gloria; John M. Janezic - Maurice; Lisa Montour - Wanda
Credit
Chris Eyre - Director, Cindy Moll - Editor, Michael Nozik - Executive Producer, Robert Redford - Executive Producer, Rebecca Eaton - Executive Producer, Jo Willett - Executive Producer, Richard Toyon - Production Designer, Roy H. Wagner - Cinematographer, Craig McNeil - Producer, James Redford - Teleplay By, Tony Hillerman - Book Author
Joe Leaphorn, a seasoned cop accustomed to the ways of Phoenix, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque, has returned to the Navajo reservation. Recovering from cancer, his wife, Emma, feels rejuvenated by her home's landscape and people. Joe is less sure about their return. Well schooled in urban policing, he is soon confronted with a particularly Navajo case: a mysterious killer who has a special antipathy for medicine men, including his partner Jim Chee, an FBI Academy grad who is training to be a traditional healer.
Roman George's body is found miles from his abandoned truck and surrounded by ancient symbols etched in blood. A local archeologist holds the key to the symbols he left behind, so Chee and Leaphorn pay him a visit at a nearby Anasazi ruins. There, these unlikely partners find further clues indicating that the murderer may be a "skinwalker," a Navajo witch with the power to change from human to animal, move with lightning speed, and to kill with curses. Fearing that his mentor, Wilson Sam, will be next, Chee convinces the medicine man to hide in a nearby motel.
As Chee juggles the day-to-day police work on the reservation, Leaphorn tracks down clues to the identity of this evasive criminal. More ancient symbols are found at an abandoned paint factory, where a local gang has been congregating. What do the signs mean? Who is sending these messages in blood? Could the murders be linked to the old Dinetah Paints scandal? Chee won't have much time to mull these questions over as he soon finds himself in the killer's crosshairs. [1]
