It's not uncommon to see films about childhood that show life prom their point of view and incorporate an element of fantasy in the process, but it's rare that the vision be this bleak and the fantasy so dark. Little Seth has a lot to deal with ... his friends are disappearing and turning up murdered. His father is suspected due to a past homosexual indiscretion. His mother is a crazy person obsessed with the smell of gasoline and the return of his elder brother (Viggo Mortensen) from WWII. His neighbor, a very depressed widow, is a vampire ... and she's probably killing his brother. His dead friend returns as some sort of rotting fetal angel. Friendly leather boys roam the plains in a shiny car.Dick Pope's cinematography is beautiful. Fans of David Lynch want to see this, yet it has it's own very unique tone.

A young boy tries to cope with rural life circa 1950s and his fantasies become a way to interpret events. After his father tells him stories of vampires, he becomes convinced that the widow up the road is a vampire, and tries to find ways of discouraging his brother from seeing her.This is the sort of film I could write a ten-page review for, because it is just so different and beautiful in its creation. The director started with a simple idea: take the images of realist painter Andrew Wyeth and combine them with a mythological 1950s America. Which is doubly interesting given that the director was not alive in the 1950s, nor is he American.What we end up with is something many people have pointed out as a mix between David Lynch and Terence Malick. That is spot on. It has the tone of "Blue Velvet" but very much the look of "Days of Heaven" or "Badlands". The scenery is every bit as important as the characters, as noted by the wide views we are given, and the very-conscious framing of scenes and people in certain settings.For me, the film is something more because although it can be seen as self-explanatory, the watching could also be just the beginning of the film. Is this life through the eyes of a child? Is it a story about the death of innocence? Some say it is a metaphor for the loss of American innocence. And some take it even further and question how much is real and how much is in Seth's mind.I can see this being a film I will return to again and again.

I've seen many films and many movies(yes I believe there to be a difference. this particular piece has me scratching my head a bit. I get the metaphor of how terrible the innocence of childhood can be, how not having the perspective of an adult can totally perplex the more serious tones. The boy is meant to feel isolated, this is characterized by the open landscapes and wheat fields -both serene like some old Americana oil painting and starkly cold, lonely even. In this film the boy is bombarded with all kinds of different things. Death of children, allegations of homosexuality or child molestation(never clarified), his father's suicide,incest, the confusing ramblings of age and death from his widow neighbor(whom he believes to be a vampire).I do get the message, it's literally told to us by Dolphin-she slaps of in the face with it verbally in case some have missed the point. This I feel doesn't make up for some of the more disturbing moments.(dead fetus anyone?) yes he is innocent as to what it is but damn, those were some disturbing scenes. The frog scene as well I get it they don't realize their folly, or about death so they laugh with glee at its demise. The older brother character wasn't all that confusing and was easy to see he possibly was going through radiation poisoning due to his involvement in the pacific during his duty and how some of those symptoms could be misinterpreted by the boy as being the victim of vampirism.Yes I understand the entire metaphor of the film, how the car of hooligans represent death, how he didn't feel like he needed a ride just yet. I do feel this film quite pretentious in its execution of said metaphor and was very close to imitating the boys final scene a a reaction to having viewed this over repeating, indulgent, pretentious piece of work.

"The Reflecting Skin" is among the most beautiful and elegiac movies I have ever seen.It's dark and depressing film which takes place during 50's.Philip Ridley's full-length debut features many memorable moments for example frog exploding in a torrent of blood and guts,a couple of chirping ladies walking close to Seth and carrying a dead seagull,a gruesome suicide that ended with a burning gas station and the discovery of the mummified baby in the barn.The water plays the major theme in "The Reflecting Skin".The film is extremely poetic with its bleak subject matter of loneliness and mourn.The cinematography of Dick Pope is breathtaking with some moody shots of the fields,rolling hills and big skies.Dreamy and strangely hypnotic "The Reflecting Skin" is an unforgettable trip into sadness and melancholy.9 out of 10.