Ridiculous, self indulgent and absolutely crap. Can't believe I wasted my time with this one. Also how was this classified under the horror genre? Nothing about the movie was scary! Completely insane to score this movie about nothing a 10. The story for the most part is about a boy in his naivety who has absolutely no clue about how the world works and the implied evil that men can do. Still doesn't constitute a horror movie. Kindly remove this movie from that category.

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.

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 appears to be a film that is dividing opinions among all those who have seen it. I did really want to like it; but unfortunately the fact is that the film just isn't nearly as good as it could have been, and the result is a stylish mess with a handful of good ideas. The main problem with the film from my point of view is the fact that there's no actual story to it; there's some flow to the plot, but it doesn't seem to have any meaning, which means that the film ends up with only the imagery to lend it any substance; and this isn't enough to keep the film interesting. The film takes place in the middle of a desert sometime during the 1950's. The main character is Seth Dove; a young kid that gets his kicks by exploding frogs and vandalising people's homes. His family harbours some dark secrets, which come to the fore when a neighbourhood kid is killed. Meanwhile, his father's stories of vampires have lead the kid to believe that a woman that lives nearby may be one of the undead.The film is often labelled as a part of the horror genre; but aside from some vague notions of vampirism, the film really isn't horror. I suppose it would be best described as fantasy. The main problem with the film is undoubtedly the poor script, which features terrible dialogue and doesn't properly address many issues; for example, the kid coming to believe that his neighbour is a vampire emerges after a thirty second dialogue between father and son about a vampire book! The film is not helped by the lead character; Seth Dove is not easy to like at all - his actions and mannerisms made me hate the kid. The acting is not particularly good either; lead actor Jeremy Cooper unsurprisingly had only a couple of film credits after this one, while Viggo Mortensen appears before he would go on to mature into a good performer. I do have to admit that the film is not a complete dead-loss; in terms of substance it is, but at least the style of the film is good; director Phillip Radley makes good use of the locations and there are also a handful of good ideas blended into the film. Overall, however, I can't recommend this film.