The Reflecting Skin (1991)

Waste of time

Instant Favorite.

Good movie but grossly overrated

The acting in this movie is really good.

Jeremy Cooper plays Seth Dove, an impressionable and imaginative youngster living in the American prairies of the 1950s. He comes to believe that a mysterious local English widow named Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan) must be a vampire, based on what his father Luke (Duncan Fraser) has related to him. (The old man is a fan of pulp novels.) Therefore, Seth becomes alarmed when his older brother Cameron (Viggo Mortensen), a military veteran, falls in love with the widow."The Reflecting Skin" is a striking, unusual film, marking the filmmaking debut for Philip Ridley, a British playwright, author, and screenwriter. It's definitely not to all tastes, and certainly not for people expecting a traditional horror film. It depicts a stark world, seen through this childs' eyes, in which adults are often extremely messed up and children are victimized. Ridley's dialogue is literate and amusing, and the actors do seem to be enjoying themselves reciting these lines. The atmosphere is very impressive, with Ridley taking advantage of all these open spaces and endless fields of yellow. Dick Pope did the very efficient cinematography. Another memorable element is the music score by Nick Bicat. It's haunting and helps to draw you into this story that is sure to get under the skin of some of its viewers.Fans of Mortensen should be aware that he doesn't show up for over 40 minutes, but he provides an engaging presence as a young man with little patience for his kid brother. Duncan is absolutely amazing and her character truly does seem to be living in some other universe. Sheila Moore chews the scenery as the shrewish Dove mother, Canadian character actor Fraser is fine as the father with a grim, sordid past, and young Cooper offers a believable performance.Consistently unpredictable, "The Reflecting Skin" does have a fair bit going for it, and it's worth a look for buffs searching for something different and interesting.Seven out of 10.

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 is one of the most dreary, unpleasant, and pretentious movies I've ever seen. Every character in it is a freak of one kind or another. Is there any place in real life that's entirely populated by people like this? The scenes include a frog inflated and exploded, a man commits suicide in front of his wife and child, a crazed mother abusing her younger son and making a pass at her older son, and a child seeing a woman stimulate herself. Who wants to watch that? Oh, I admit that there is some very good atmosphere and that the photography and music are right. But so what? I didn't enjoy one moment of this film. The culprits who made it are just determined to rub the audiences' noses in the gutter. I could feel their contempt for me and everyone who watched this movie. To those who enjoyed this movie, it's your life and I'm glad I'm not part of it.

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...