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IN MY SKIN (2002)
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 94 Minutes 34 Seconds
Audio: French DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Dolby Vision HDR 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Marina de Van
Cast: Marina de Van, Laurent Lucas, Léa Drucker
In My Skin (2002) was the debut film by writer/director/star Marina de Van (Don't Look Back), which was part of the New French Extremity wave of films in the early '00s, but one that offered something just a bit more personal than it;s brethren, but no less visceral and disturbing. In it a young, attractive professional named Esther (de Van) horrifically wounds her lower leg on a piece of industrial equipment while wandering through he dark, which strangely she does not immediately notice or feel. Later while attending a party she notes the blood on her pant leg and the injury beneath, taking herself to the hospital where she has the wound treated and stitched up. The physician (Adrian de Van) informs her that it will not heal well, and may require plastic surgery so it will not leave an unsightly scar, but Esther seems not to care about about any potential scarring. At home while inspecting her wound she starts to develop and unhealthy fascination with it, fingering her wound, and tasting the blood. The next day at work she finds her self alone in a supply closet and starts cutting into herself, creating new wounds, her unexplained behavior disturbing both her dutiful boyfriend Vincent (Laurent Lucas, Raw), who struggles to understand why she is doing this to herself, and her co-worker Sandrine (Léa Drucker, TV's War of the Worlds), who distances herself when Esther tells her nonchalantly confides in her that she's been mutilating herself at work . As her fascination with her wound continues she starts to become more solitary and secretive, continuing to take pleasure in the pain of her self-mutilation, which evolves into a disturbing sessions of self-cannibalism that had me squirming in my seat.
One of the stellar sequences that stands out is a dinner engagement with her boss and clients, during which her left hand begins to act on it's own without her control, highlighting he growing dissociation between her brain and her body, eventually her forearm and hand detaching from her upper arm, and then she starts quietly stabbing at it and nibbling on bits of her own skin, seemingly without notice by those around her. It's a breathtaking and often jaw-dropping unraveling we witness, it gets under your skin while she is picking away at her wounds and eating her own bits of flesh, addicted to the taste of her flesh,. The film has the elements of Cronenbergian body-horror and the cracked-psyche of an early Polanski film, even now 20 years after I first saw it this slice of French extremity still makes me so queasy, and not because of the actual onscreen gore, unsettling though it may be, but the psychological implication of what she's doing to herself, it's unsettling on a much deeper level than viscera, it's the pathology of it all, and maybe the fact that I occasionally chew my own cuticles when I am nervous, and this makes me second guess my own mental health at times, and that's always a scary proposition.
Audio/Video: In My Skin arrives on 4K Ultra HD from Severin Films in 2160p UHD widescreen (1.85:1) with Dolby Vision HDR color-grade, a brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative, approved by cinematographer Pierre Barougier. This look fantastic, very filmic, grain is intact and well-managed, textures look terrific, especially those gruesome practical effects, the wound on her leg, moments of self-cannibalism, blood and bit of skin, the 4k presentation really comes across wonderfully, further enabling the deeply visceral imagery to penetrate your mind. The 2-disc set also includes a Blu-ray with a 1080p presentation that looks terrific as well, even without the deeper more nuances colors of the Dolby Vision.
Audio on both the UHD and Blu-ray comes by way of French DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround with optional English subtitles. The tracks are clean and well balanced, he uncompressed audio does excellent work highlighting the disturbingly intimate sound design, the moments of her picking at her wounds, cutting herself, consuming herself, the sounds of teeth gnashing at bits of skin, it just gave me goosebumps.
Onto the extras, starting off with disc one, the UHD, features two commentaries, the first is an Archival Commentary By Writer/Director/Star Marina De Van, plus a second brand new Audio Commentary By Film Critic/Fantasia International Film Festival Programmer Justine Smith. Acting as a third commentary of sorts is an Exclusive Faculty Of Horror Episode On In My Skin with Andrea Subissati And Alexandra West that plays over the film, this is only available on this release, at least for a limited time until they unleash it on their own feed. We also get the 2-min French Trailer and the U.S. Trailer.
Disc two, the Blu-ray, features the film in HD plus the same extras as the UHD Disc, plus additional bonus content.
First up is a 4-min Introduction By Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic Women, as usual her enthusiasm for the film is a nice primer to watching the film.
We also get a new 23-min Exposed Skin – Interview With Marina De Van, the very candid interview addresses how she spoke about the film today versus 20 years ago, and how the story is truer to her self than she would have admitted to when she made it, her belief that there is no freedom of will, some early trauma when she was eight, and the genesis of the film, and how completing the film stopped her from further acts of self-mutilating. She also gets into how she hates love stories, but gave her character a love interest for dramatic purposes to give her something to lose.
Next up is the 21-mn Fear Of A Female Cannibal – Barbara Creed, Author Of The Monstrous-Feminine, On In My Skin. Creed addresses the new wave on horror directed by women, what attracts female directors to the genre, and how horror can be used to address social issues. The idea of "abjection", when the internal is made external, referencing various philosophers and writers including and the writing of author Julia Kristeva, classical mythology, and societal taboos, and discussing other subversive French Extremity films that deal with female cannibalism.
Also new is the 17-min Under The Surface – Video Essay By Dr. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Author Of 1000 Women In Horror, 1895-2018, offering a thoughtful dissection of the film, even examining the opening credits. We also get a pair of Marina De Van's Student Shorts by way of the 11-min Bien Sous Tous Rapports (1996), and the 16-min Retentiqon (1997), both of which are very much in line with the themes of the main feature.
I also love that Severin have included a pair of of Short Films by other women directors that a wonderful complimentary viewing. First up is the 26-min A Exquis (2013) directed by Léa Mysius wherein a young woman finds a corpse floating in a pond on her property and decides to keep it for herself, plus the 24-min Fermenting Woman (2024) directed by Priscilla Galvez, starring former Much Music VJ Star Sook-Yin Lee, about a sous-chef worried her job is on the line, and prepares a meal meant to impress, using her own fermented menstrual blood. This short also features an Audio Commentary With Director Priscilla Galvez And Star Sook-Yin Lee.
The 2-disc BD/UHD release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork. If you order direct from the Severin site also comes with Limited Edition Webstore Exclusive Horizontal Split Slipcase, which has a similar design to the House of Psychotic Women box sets, as this was originally intended to be part of the second volume of that box set series, and the design here is a nice nod to that.
Special Features:
Disc 1: 4K Ultra HD: (Film + Special Features)
- Archival Audio Commentary By Writer/Director/Star Marina De Van
- New Audio Commentary By Film Critic/Fantasia International Film Festival Programmer Justine Smith
- Exclusive Faculty Of Horror Episode On In My Skin With Andrea Subissati And Alexandra West
- French Trailer (1:39)
- U.S. Trailer (1:50)
Disc 2: Blu-ray: (Film + Special Features)
- Introduction by Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic Women (3:48)
- Archival Audio Commentary with Writer/Director/Star Marina De Van
- New Audio Commentary By Film Critic/Fantasia International Film Festival Programmer Justine Smith
- Exclusive Faculty Of Horror Episode On In My Skin With Andrea Subissati And Alexandra West
- Exposed Skin – Interview With Marina De Van (23:00)
- Fear Of A Female Cannibal – Barbara Creed, Author Of The Monstrous-Feminine, On In My Skin (21:09)
- U.S. Trailer (1:50)
- French Trailer (1:39)
Marina De Van's Student Shorts: Bien Sous Tous Rapports (1996) (11:53), Retentiqon (1997)(15:35)
- Short Films: A Ezquis (Léa Mysius, 2013) (26:16), Fermenting Woman (Priscilla Galvez, 2024) (23:53)
- Audio Commentary For A Fermenting Woman With Director Priscilla Galvez And Star Sook-Yin Lee
Screenshots:
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