The Reflecting Skin

1990

Action / Drama / Horror / Thriller

14
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 76% · 16 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 76% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.7/10 10 10351 10.4K

farm fire radiation vampire widow surreal

Plot summary

In 1950s rural Idaho, a young boy watches helplessly as his friends and brother fall under the spell of a mysterious widow living up the road and becomes convinced that she is a vampire.

Director

Philip Ridley Photo
Philip Ridley

Top cast

Viggo Mortensen Photo
Viggo Mortensen as Cameron Dove
Sheila Moore Photo
Sheila Moore as Ruth Dove
Lindsay Duncan Photo
Lindsay Duncan as Dolphin Blue
Jacqueline Robbins Photo
Jacqueline Robbins as Twin
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
777.08 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 36 min
Seeds 4
1.49 GB
1920*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 36 min
Seeds 19

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by darkkitteee 7 / 10

THE BIRTH OF A SERIAL KILLER

I see in the other reviews how people want to put deep meanings into this film. For me it's pretty simple.The men in the mysterious black car don't harm Seth because they see themselves in Seth. The kid is a sociopath and he is going to grow up to kill. The driver asks, "Want a ride, Seth Dove?" The kid doesn't say, "No." He says, "Not yet." They don't harm him because they know that one day he'll join them. They recognize that he's one of them.This film is about the birth of a cold-blooded serial killer.
Reviewed by Hey_Sweden 7 / 10

Innocence can be Hell.

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.
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