4 — Review: The Reflecting Skin 1990
This one isn’t “horror”… well actually I think it could be argued that it is, depending on the definition of the word ‘horror’, but in terms of today’s typical definition of ‘horror’, most probably wouldn’t call it “horror”. It isn’t really even scary...though at the same time it’s terrifying…
It can be disturbing and contains a couple scenes that, for me, put it on my ‘scary movie list’. Bottom line, this movie is beautiful and intense.
There’s a lot going on in this one, there’s a gang of teenage boys that are clearly up to more than ‘no good’, an old misunderstood widow next door, a war going on and bombs being tested, and to top it off, young boys are being found dead with signs of molestation…
The movie is essentially from the point of view of Seth, an eight year old boy, which of course means there are plenty of misunderstandings and assumptions going on..
The Reflecting Skin was made in the very beginning of the nineties, but it is set in the 50's, it touches on a number of issues, including the stigma surrounding homosexuality and the effects of radiation poisoning.
I found this movie so powerful and effective. It’s not ‘horror’ in a gory sense but there’s plenty of horrific things in this film, and it just has a feel of horror. Since the movie is from a child’s point of view, we feel his fear and his confusion.
In a nutshell, Seth’s father has a ‘past’ (or at least, what qualified for a ‘past’ in the 50's) and when young boys are being molested and murdered, all fingers point straight to him. Meanwhile, Seth of course is a young boy himself so he’s got that to worry about, in addition to his friends being killed. As if all that weren’t enough, Seth’s older brother, Cameron, (played by a young Viggo Mortenson!) has been off in the military and is called home with everything that’s happening with his town/family, and it becomes apparent (to the viewer, but of course not to an 8 year old) that Cameron is suffering from radiation poisoning (there’s a horrifically haunting and still beautiful speech he makes that confirms he has been assisting in the testing of atom bombs), but Seth has his own theory for why his brother is getting sick…and it involves the old widow who lives nearby. See, when I say ‘old’, she doesn’t actually look very old, at most she’s in her 50's but she could sometimes almost pass for her 30's… I think this amazing ageless and at the same time, ancient, quality that she has is just another detail showing the viewer how a child may decide she is a vampire… (not that the detail is necessary, she’s a strange beautiful woman and a tortured soul…
This movie draws a parallel between something that is truly awful, but misunderstood and described as beautiful (atom bombing), and something that is actually beautiful but misunderstood and considered to be sick and wrong (homosexuality). Those are the main themes of the movie, the serial killer/pedophile is really just a means to an end for the story, something needed to happen to show the audience how homosexuals were viewed in the 1950's (and of course, still to an extent in the 90's when the film was made). Although… it is certainly to be understood that, in this situation, the pedophilia is, at least in part, a result of the stigma surrounding homosexuality. Certainly the movie is NOT suggesting that if people are not allowed to be openly homosexual, then they will turn to rape and murder! I think it’s simply illustrating that when people, particularly young people, are forced to feel ashamed of who they really are, if they have it in them, it could come to that…
Yeah I really loved this movie. The acting is, at times, truly phenomenal. And the way the movie goes about getting the messages across, it’s just all so amazingly well done…
You need to be open to it’s strange, frightening beauty. Accept that something can be sick and horrible and yet, it can still be misunderstood. Cameron’s speech is beautiful, HE thinks the experience he’s depicting was amazing and magical…but when we know the truth, what he’s saying is horrific…
Alright alright I’ll stop gushing about how fantastic this movie is.
…but seriously it’s awesome.
