The Reflecting Skin (1991)
Directed by Phillip Ridley
Written by Phillip Ridley
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Cooper
Release Date June 28th, 1991
Box Office $17,042
The Reflecting Skin is a horror movie of such modesty and subtlety that you may not realize its a horror movie. The horror of The Reflecting Skin only emerges as you immerse yourself into the sun soaked, over-saturated visuals that accompany a horror story that bubbles and bubbles to a boiling point of psychological horror. And all of it comes from the naive and mischievous perspective of an 8 year old boy who, perhaps, doesn't recognize the actual horror that he's witness. He's an unreliable narrator simply for his lack of life experiences.
The Reflecting Skin centers its story on 8 year old Seth Dove. Seth is a precocious little kid with a sociopathic streak slowly being revealed. One of the earliest scenes shows Seth finding a large toad, blowing a straw into its backside, blowing the toad up like a balloon. To make matters worse, Seth places the toad on the side of a walking path where a woman happens to be returning home from gathering supplies. When the woman leans over to check on the poor toad, Seth uses his slingshot to explode the poor creature all over this poor woman.
That poor woman is Dolphin Blue, a widow who is grieving the relatively recent death of her husband by suicide. Left alone to tend a large wheat farm, Dolphin is in over head and already suffering a mental health crisis, even before the exploding toad. When Seth's mother forces him to go to Dolphin's farm so that Seth can apologize, the two have a terrifyingly awkward encounter in which Dolphin gifts Seth a whaling harpoon and proceeds to break down in sobs while telling the story of her lost love. The breakdown causes Seth to flee in fear.
Through the convoluted imagination of childhood, Seth comes to believe that Dolphin is a vampire. This coincides with the shocking murder of one of Seth's young friends, a death that Seth eagerly links to Dolphin, though not with any proof. He also doesn't share his suspicion regarding his neighbor out of fear of being punished by his mother for further antagonizing Dolphin. Suspicion eventually falls on Seth's father, Luke Dove (Duncan Fraser), whose past includes having been busted while carrying on a relationship with another man. Just potentially being a homosexual is enough to make Luke a suspect.
Find my full length review at Horror.Media
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