The Reflecting Skin (1991)

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.

Reflecting Skin is an unforgettable haunting film. It has the vivid realism of a nightmare from which you cannot wake. This is what it feels like to be the survivor of trauma and abuse and lack of love. I know from personal experience and from working as a psychotherapist with patients that the boy's eerie lack of emotion until the final cathartic moment in the field is all too common. The boy is holding in all these feelings, and they are compounding and accumulating inside until they erupt out of him uncontrollably. The intensity of that scene in the field is etched in my mind as a symbol of all that is suffered by so many children who cannot express in words what is going on. For so many children, no one seems to understand and everyone adds more abuse to the pile. I see these people years later when they are adults and hear the stories and it is agony to share their experiences. This film is an important document of the worst of human life, no sugarcoating, just stark darkness in the bright light of day... Children try to make sense of things that don't make sense and in the process just try to survive...Everyone in this film is suffering from some kind of trauma. All the adults as well as the children. The boy is just the central example but every character is clearly emotionally damaged. I give it an 8 rather than a 10 because the film is so painful to watch and it takes a strong character to tolerate being a witness to so much trauma but it really should be required viewing for all humanity...

I read some of the reviews and as i had already provoked there were some very deep ,sophisticated and intellectual reviews.I am not writing often a review and i am not here pretending to be a simple guy who will explain you the movie.The movie is not simple and absolutely not very clear.I do like this kind of movies because i find something very authentic and personal to them although sometimes they are becoming confusing. This movie confused me a little and depressed me in a weird way.I heard the music in the beginning and i thought it was a perfect prelude for a meaning-full movie.Then there was the scenery,the view, i thought it was majestic.And then something happened, a weird contradiction but a very realistic one too.The life and behavior of the adults at that place changed the scenery into something depressing and dull.The children had to endure the problematic lives and the cruel manners of the adults and the only way out was action and exaggerating fantasy.The children, always waiting for something new something that could set them free.Locked in a social network founded on violence,problematic adults and war.Waiting and waiting surrounded by problems and death. I don't want to spoil the movie so i will stop right here.Well i don't know if you will agree with me so just see the movie and reach your own conclusions because i am sure that everyone will find something different to say for the meaning of the movie.

I've seen many films and many movies(yes I believe there to be a difference. this particular piece has me scratching my head a bit. I get the metaphor of how terrible the innocence of childhood can be, how not having the perspective of an adult can totally perplex the more serious tones. The boy is meant to feel isolated, this is characterized by the open landscapes and wheat fields -both serene like some old Americana oil painting and starkly cold, lonely even. In this film the boy is bombarded with all kinds of different things. Death of children, allegations of homosexuality or child molestation(never clarified), his father's suicide,incest, the confusing ramblings of age and death from his widow neighbor(whom he believes to be a vampire).I do get the message, it's literally told to us by Dolphin-she slaps of in the face with it verbally in case some have missed the point. This I feel doesn't make up for some of the more disturbing moments.(dead fetus anyone?) yes he is innocent as to what it is but damn, those were some disturbing scenes. The frog scene as well I get it they don't realize their folly, or about death so they laugh with glee at its demise. The older brother character wasn't all that confusing and was easy to see he possibly was going through radiation poisoning due to his involvement in the pacific during his duty and how some of those symptoms could be misinterpreted by the boy as being the victim of vampirism.Yes I understand the entire metaphor of the film, how the car of hooligans represent death, how he didn't feel like he needed a ride just yet. I do feel this film quite pretentious in its execution of said metaphor and was very close to imitating the boys final scene a a reaction to having viewed this over repeating, indulgent, pretentious piece of work.