The Reflecting Skin (1990)

Director:

Philip Ridley

Writer:

Philip Ridley (writer)

Release Date:

9 November 1990 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Sometimes terrible things happen quite naturally

Plot:

A young boy tries to cope with rural life circa 1950s and his fantasies become a way to interpret events...

Plot Keywords:

Vampire | Young Boy | Rural Setting | Child Abuse | Nuclear Weapons

Awards:

6 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Viggo Mortensen	...	Cameron Dove
Lindsay Duncan	...	Dolphin Blue
Jeremy Cooper	...	Seth Dove
Sheila Moore	...	Ruth Dove
Duncan Fraser	...	Luke Dove
David Longworth	...	Joshua, Eben's Father
Robert Koons	...	Sheriff Ticker
David Bloom	...	Deputy
Evan Hall	...	Kim
Codie Lucas Wilbee	...	Eben
Sherry Bie	...	Cassie
Jason Wolff	...	Cadillac Driver
Dean Hass	...	Cadillac Passenger
Guy Buller	...	Cadillac Passenger
Jason Brownlow	...	Cadillac Passenger

Also Known As:

L'enfant miroir (Canada: French title) (TV title)

Runtime:

95 min | Canada:115 min (Ontario)

Country:

UK | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 (f) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Alberta, Canada

Company:

Bialystock & Bloom Limited

Quotes:

Sheriff Ticker: Did your father ever touch you anywhere?
Seth Dove: Yeah.
Sheriff Ticker: Where?
Seth Dove: In the kitchen.
Sheriff Ticker: Anywhere else?
Seth Dove: Anyplace outside the kitchen?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ancient Evil 2: Guardian of the Underworld (2005) (V)

Hard to respond ...

This film is certainly unique. It creates a dark and haunting atmosphere against a rural town in the 1950s. It keeps sneaking so many weird and unsettling images into its narrative that by the time the really weird stuff starts you're totally accepting of it. The film opens with a group of cruel boys inflating a hapless frog and then exploding it in the face of a woman, spattering her with blood and frog entrails. That sets the tone.

I was not in the right frame of mind for this. But I cannot utterly dismiss it either. I was taken by the filmmaker's vision, and I had to appreciate his imaginative approach to narrative. But I was expecting the violence to be a little more stylized--actually, it's quite bleak and nihilistic. This film belongs in a pantheon of indigestible films like SALO, brilliant movies to be sure, but hardly the kind of stories to tuck you in at night. This is a compliment, by the way, as SALO is one of my favorite films.