The Reflecting Skin

1990
R
1h 36m

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

9.7K

YOUR RATING

Jeremy Cooper and Lindsay Duncan in The Reflecting Skin (1990)

Official trailer for 'The Reflecting Skin'

Play trailer2:19

1 Video

72 Photos

Drama Horror Thriller

In the 1950s, a young boy living with his troublesome family in rural USA fantasizes that a neighboring widow is actually a vampire, responsible for a number of disappearances in the area.In the 1950s, a young boy living with his troublesome family in rural USA fantasizes that a neighboring widow is actually a vampire, responsible for a number of disappearances in the area.In the 1950s, a young boy living with his troublesome family in rural USA fantasizes that a neighboring widow is actually a vampire, responsible for a number of disappearances in the area.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

9.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 6 wins & 3 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 2:19

Official trailer for 'The Reflecting Skin'

Photos72

+ 65

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Director Philip Ridley stated that he hand painted all the wheat yellow because he preferred the look of it

Quotes
Dolphin Blue: It's all so horrible you know, the nightmare of childhood. And it only gets worse. One day you'll wake up, and you'll be past it. Your beautiful skin will wrinkle and shrivel up, you'll lose your hair, your sight, your memory. Your blood will thicken, teeth turn yellow and loose. You will start to stink and fart and all your friends will be dead. You'll succumb to arthritis, angina, senile dementia, you'll piss yourself, shit yourself, drool at the mouth. Just pray that when this happens you've got someone to love you, because if you're loved you'll still be young.

Alternate versions
According to the Technical Specifications link for this movie, there are two different versions of this film: 1 hr 36 min (96 min) and 1 hr 55 min (115 min) (Ontario) (Canada).

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Terminator 2: Judgment Day/The Reflecting Skin/Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear/Europa Europa (1991)

User reviews115

Review

Featured review

6/10

Dark Shadows Reflecting In The Dazzling Daylight

The Reflecting Skin is a bizarre and equally disturbing movie-experience combining beautiful cinematography with a really weird and screwed-up story that's viewed from an abused child's peculiar slant on things.

Though not meant for all tastes, The Reflecting Skin is one of those films that's just too odd to be outrightly dismissed.

If you enjoy films that are offbeat, surreal and nightmarish in nature, then here's one whose story and imagery creates a very dark and haunting atmosphere set against the dazzling brightness of rural Idaho in the 1950s.

The innocence of a 9 year-old boy named Seth is stripped away as he closely observes the strange and macabre characters that are around him.

Life for this troubled, young boy living on the outskirts of a small, isolated farm-town is magnified beyond reality into a weird, quasi-fantasy that directly challenges the viewer's idealized notions about the naivety of childhood and the rationality of a child's thinking.

A lot of people will find at this film's conclusion that just too many questions were deliberately left unanswered. This is sure to leave many viewers (as it did with myself) both annoyed and dissatisfied.

But, yet, even though there were a number of places where The Reflecting Skin literally fell flat on its face out of sheer absurdity, the unique strangeness if its overall story is still well-worth a view.