This forgotten Lynchian nightmare should be a cult classic

There’s a movie, hiding in the recesses of Tubi, Roku Channel, and other ad-supported streaming services, that feels like watching a waking nightmare. It’s an indescribable movie, not really existing in any particular genre. It’s a horror movie, a drama, an arthouse film, and a work of grounded surrealism.

This film was released in 2009. The Skin that ReflectsIt opens on a beautiful wheat field with a child holding a huge bullfrog. “Look at this wonderful frog!” the boy, Seth, tells his friends. It’s an ominous phrase that will run through the movie, whether calling something wonderful or beautiful. It is clear that destruction occurs soon after these words. It is no surprise that the frog dies a horrifying death, setting the tone of the entire movie.

And maybe that’s why critics were so divided on it. On its release, it drew its share of detractors — Vincent Canby of the New York Times hated it — and fans, like Roger Ebert, who got in quite the argument with Gene Siskel about it. Ebert compared it to David Lynch, but better, saying “the tone was more carefully controlled.” Siskel said, “To me, the nightmares, I couldn’t relate to any of them particularly.”

There are plenty of horrors in the movie. It’s seen from the point of view of Seth, who lives in a remote part of Idaho, far from the nearest town. While his father is a fuel station owner, he has some playmates that come from farms nearby. Dolphin is the only neighbor that we see, and she’s in grief over her husband’s death. Seth and his friends become convinced she’s a vampire from how she talks about her grief, suffering in near-silence in a house clad with whaling gear (giving the movie an iconic poster that drew me in when first I saw it somewhere in the recesses of the internet in 2010). She says she’s “200 years old,” conveying the exhaustion and mourning she feels. Seth is the son of a man who reads pulp magazines all day long. He has heard stories about vampires. Dolphin has become a vampire because he is always in black.

Miramax

Miramax

Seth believes that the world is full of monsters. And perhaps he’s right, as a group of creepy young men in a black car patrols the countryside, killing children. From this perspective, it’s a horror movie — especially once Seth’s brother, Cameron, played by Viggo Mortensen, returns from his work helping develop the atomic bomb. Seth’s belief that Dolphin is a vampire isn’t helped by watching his brother’s slow decline from radiation sickness.

But while Seth’s perspective is as if he’s living out a horror film, the adults around him are living out a drama. This is best shown by his brother’s turmoil at his role in the war, or his parents’ fraught relationship and issues with mental illness. There’s also the grief experienced by several characters throughout the movie, which gives The Skin That ReflectsIt is hard to confine it as a horror story.

And of course, there’s the flat-out Lynchian touches — omens abound, whether it’s a black Cadillac of predatory young men or lines of dialogue that echo each other right before something very bad happens. These moments inject the movie with surrealistic elements, beyond just centering Seth’s point of view. Even though nothing supernatural happens, it’s an ugly world set against a beautiful backdrop, with Lynchian characters at every turn — definitely, if we’re comparing it, more Blue Velvet Then, Inland Empire

Miramax

It’s easy to see why Reflective SkinIs divisive. It’s unrelenting in its bleakness. But as a work of art-horror, it’s hard to see how it never got the cult status it deserved, unless you peel back the layers. The film was director Philip Ridley’s debut, and he’d only go on to direct two more movies — 1995’s Darkly Noon: The Passion of Darkly Noon and 2010’s HeartlessThe first one was poorly received, which may have been the reason for the 15 year gap. Ridley spent most of his career writing plays and never made a big name in the film industry.

It is important to note that the word “you” means anyone. Mirrored SkinMiramax released it, but only on VHS. Later, it would appear on some cheap DVDs with terrible quality. A German Blu-ray release didn’t help much either. In fact, it took until a 2019 Blu-ray release from Soda Pictures and Film Movement to get anything that didn’t look degraded on screen. Thankfully, this transfer is the one playing on streaming services, meaning it’s about as good as it will get.

You may be able to judge the movie by your own tolerance level for its nihilism or pretentiousness. The film definitely caters to an arthouse crowd, so people who’ve found themselves turned off by the films of Robert Eggers (The WitchAri AsterMidsommar) might struggle with it. It doesn’t go as far into self-indulgence as Beau Is Afraid, It certainly overplays some of the more tragic elements, to an extent that might be considered excessive. But both The Skin that Reflects The following are some examples of how to get started: Beau Is Afraid (I suppose that in some senses, this is about catastrophic thought.

Miramax

But the visuals are remarkable, whether it’s the creep of the Cadillac; the bizarre fetus that Seth talks to, thinking it’s a deceased friend in angel form (another thing that will determine your tolerance for the movie); a stark self-immolation; or the ramshackle farms and barns explored in the movie.

And even if its genre can’t quite be pinned down, the film is effective in its menacing air, drawing us into the marginal lives of the people at the center. If you’re a fan of David Lynch films, you’ll cozy up to it nicely. If you’re looking for something scary to watch, but prefer something in the vein of Hereditary,Then What?, Mother!, The following are some examples of how to use The Men’s Own — focusing on the craft of filmmaking, intensive narratives, and with elements of postmodernism just as much as honing in on the terror of the horror genre — The Skin that ReflectsYou can add this to your list of Halloween must-sees.

You will not forget this experience, even if at first you dislike it.

The Skin that Reflects You can stream on Peacock TV, Pluto TV (Pluto TV), Freevee and The Roku Channel.