The Reflecting Skin (1991)

I tried this movie because I saw IMDb list one this day giving this movie a number 1 Foreigner horror movie. The idea of a kid having to fight alone against a vampire is not really original but in a rural setting of United States can end up being interesting. And it was the number 1 movie, again, even outpacing the Spanish The Orphanage (which I totally consider excellent). OK, I should have read the summary better because I didn't know how much wrong I was. This movie is very idiotic, from a logical standpoint. There's way too many important points thrown in the story that leads to absolutely anywhere, and I can't stop thinking "where this is going?". Let me spoil you the fun: the movie is a story of a bunch of pedophiles, running in a black car, kidnapping and killing kids in a remote rural neighborhood. The main character is a 8 years old boy that end up believing that her neighbor is a vampire. He is taunted by the pedophiles, he witness his friend being taken by the gang, but he continues convict that her neighbor, an around thirties lonesome lady, is culprit for all the dead bodies. I know that some people that likes the movie will say that the story is a creative analogy to a little boy imagination in a story of sexual abuse to kids, but the problem is that the main character is too smart to be so blind. The way that the scenes depict the characters forces to not understand why the boy is so attached to his imagination. I can understand that the grown ups doesn't help either, being 1 lunatic worse than the other. On the good side, the movie has a photography very morbid for an always sunny environment which made recall the photography from Texas Chainsaw Massacre (specially for the palette of colors chosen). The score is also strange, because is full of violins and cello, that brings a drama vibe to the scenes that I found it doesn't fit to a thriller story, but it has some poetry on it. Anyway, I really don't understand how people can like a movie that is so non-sensical like this. It begins without any sense and it finish worse. Go figure..

From Author turned filmmaker "Phillip Ridley" comes his mythical and mysterious film debut "The Reflective Skin" a strange and unsettling look at loneliness and loss of innocence. Comparisons to David Lynch will always come about if a film is in anyway odd or weird but this is certainly no imitation more in style with Twin Peaks to which this was released before.The story is told through the eyes of a not so innocent 8 year old boy named Seth set in rural America in the 1950's, with world war II still imprinted on the mind of the citizens. After his father tells him stories of Vampires, he lets his imagination get the better of him and becomes convinced that the widow Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan) who lives up the road is a vampire. He tries to dissuade his brother Cam (Viggo Mortensen) from getting involved with her. He deals with abusive figures around town in an unforgiving environment. Children start to go missing and might no why, but could it be the vampire?From the opening scenes of beautiful imagery and the striking golden corn fields I knew I was in for something surreal and fantastical, something different. Scenes of Seth and friends blowing up a frog with a straw then making it explode, twin girls walking down a path with a dead seagull in their hands clucking while looking on intently could come straight from a nightmare and the latter scene especially can send shivers down your spine.The dark tone never shifts it stays there and it lingers in the mind until well after the film has finished. The unsettling and melancholic atmosphere is aided by the score and is effective in the more poignant moments.The child acting is far from great however and at times can take away from some of the seriousness of the drama but for me never spoiled the horrors unfolding on screen. Viggo Mortensen is very good in his role playing a character who is also fairly damaged by his environment after fighting in the pacific islands.Overall The Reflective Skin is worth seeking out, it may not be for everyone but everyone who does enjoy can take something different out of it. It's haunting with stunning cinematography and landscapes if you are a fan of surreal images in film you are in luck.

This movie sucked bad i didn't like how they killed the frog that way you could not aim at that. And the vampire is stupid to have sex with herself thats insane. And the characters sucked like these girls making some weird noises. Yep this movie sucked and don't bother renting this if you see it at stores. And it does not make since for a vampire to be in love with a husband. And why does she walk around and just not bite the kids that would make a great movie if they did that. My rating for that would be 6\10. Anywho i would most likely be the only one that hates this movie my rating overall what i said is 3\10. This movie had good graphics though and if you hate this review your a loser

The acting, the dialog, the music, the scenery, the cinematography, the premise, the plot. Did I miss anything? This is a film that does EVERYTHING right. What's more is it never confirms to the viewer that vampires are involved, beyond the poeticism of plot dramatization. The beautiful thing about this film is that everything in it can and does happen in the real world, but because of the music, acting and cinematography and general mood, all these elements combine to make the film seem other worldly in its beauty. This is just masterful perfection in filmmaking. There are precious few films on this level of sophistication. And as such it never had much of an audience in America, owing to this sophistication. Simply put, this is an artistic drama film about a family in rural America (Around the time of wwII) who are seeing reality disappear from beneath them. The writer cleverly uses vampires as a dramatic impetus to express the characters and their unfolding distress about their personal lives and the world they co-inhabit in their Alienated positions in life. The true darkness herein is a reality we read about all the time in the news. And this portion of the story directly effects the dove family and particularly the love shared between Cameron and Dolphin. I give this film the highest rating possible for not caring about the conventions of normal filmmaking and in doing so being able to tell an emotionally pure story that comes straight from the heart. Additionally the people you see, their peculiar characteristics and such, are people you could actually meet out in the world, which gives it an extra flare of inspiration to the viewer for just wanting to go out and live life in all its beautiful and unexpected strangeness.