The Reflecting Skin

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The Reflecting Skin

R

1990

1h 35m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

81%

Tomatometer

16 Reviews

76%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Growing up in the 1950s in small-town Idaho, 8-year-old Seth (Jeremy Cooper) and his friends play a prank on the town recluse, a widow named Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan). When his friends start disappearing, Seth becomes convinced Dolphin is a vampire, stealing the souls of the neighborhood children one by one. After his brother, Cameron (Viggo Mortensen), returns home and takes a liking to Dolphin, Seth feels it's up to him to save Cameron from his friends' fate.

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Steve Davis

Austin Chronicle

01/01/2000

2.5/5

The Reflecting Skin may befuddle you by what it's all about, but like a vivid dream, you'll have a difficult time forgetting it.

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Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

08/24/2022

A+

It will enrapture those attuned to its wheatfield surrealism and repel, violently, everyone else.

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Nick Rogers

Midwest Film Journal

10/29/2020

3.5/5

Seth's descent is one into a very American imagination of violence - defined less by actions he takes than those he allows to happen, cheap thrills that yield disastrous consequences. Sound akin to anything toward which we're teetering these days?

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David Bax

Battleship Pretension

08/30/2019

By setting The Reflecting Skin in middle America in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Ridley allows himself plenty of opportunity to contrast the country's post-War boom with the psychic destruction of a returning soldier like Cameron.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

08/17/2019

3.5/4

Haunting and hypnotic, The Reflecting Skin gets under the skin and is content to remain there.

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David Keyes

Cinemaphile.org

07/01/2016

3.5/4

Moves with dreamlike confidence through a culvert of hard realities that are unflinching and insufferable, sometimes to the point of personal discomfort.

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Richard W.

@rdwoolf Aug 12

I think The Reflecting Skin is what film would be like if David Lynch made a children’s film. (Note, this is not a children’s film.) It is a very beautiful film. Like an Andrew Wyeth painting. But, it’s also extremely odd. It was intriguing though. But I would’ve preferred a little more of an ending.

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Farah R

@Farah Apr 27

I have no idea how this movie has such good ratings and reviews because it bore me out of my mind. I love Vigo Mortensen but this is one of the worst movies, horror or otherwise, that I have ever suffered through. The story makes no sense, the pacing is unbearably slow, and the oversaturated color grading makes it visually unpleasant.

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Alain E

@AlainE 01/31/2025

I have no idea how this is rated so highly. I patiently watched the first half trying to see where this thing is going. Decent photography and acceptable acting. Then? I guess Mortensen’s character met victims of the nuclear weapons. Sad, but there was a war going on. Do you think babies subjected to napalm were more photogenic? The woman who lives alone maybe has a secret that we will learn in 6 hours or never. Her husband killed himself one week after moving to this town. Is that a hint for the audience of the movie? Why the little boy was found in the well?

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Leigh P

@RT60412610 10/27/2024

In the end, I feel like I wasted my time unfortunately. I kept waiting for a clear meaning. All I got from of it is that like is difficult which most of us know. The golden fields were beautiful along with many other vivid colors.

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Beau S

@RT71828083 09/01/2024

This one is awful, I do not recommend. Go outside and watch the grass grow. That is better than watching this one.

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Alec B

@Alec97 02/28/2024

American Plains Gothic. The surrealism is measured and the emotions are not which makes for a bizarre and beguiling viewing experience.

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Philip Ridley

Director

Viggo Mortensen

Cameron Dove

Lindsay Duncan

Dolphin Blue

Jeremy Cooper

Seth Dove

Sheila Moore

Ruth Dove

Duncan Fraser

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Synopsis

Growing up in the 1950s in small-town Idaho, 8-year-old Seth (Jeremy Cooper) and his friends play a prank on the town recluse, a widow named Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan). When his friends start disappearing, Seth becomes convinced Dolphin is a vampire, stealing the souls of the neighborhood children one by one. After his brother, Cameron (Viggo Mortensen), returns home and takes a liking to Dolphin, Seth feels it's up to him to save Cameron from his friends' fate.

Director: Philip Ridley
Producer: Dominic Anciano, Ray Burdis
Production Co: Fugitive Features, National Film Trustee Company, BBC Film, British Screen Productions, Bialystock & Bloom Limited, Téléfilm Canada, Zenith Entertainment, Ontario Film Development Corporation
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 6, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $6.0K
Runtime: 1h 35m
Sound Mix: Surround

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