THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990)
Label: Film Movement Classics
Region Code: Region-Free
Duration: 96 minutes
Rating: R
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen(1.85:1)
Audio: English PCM 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Philip Ridley
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Cooper, Sheila Moore, Duncan Fraser
The Reflecting Skin (1990) is a warped David Lynchian-Norman Rockwell-ish nightmare, wherein an impressionable and slightly disturbed eight-year-old named Seth
(Jeremy Cooper) is coming of age in rural 1950's Idaho. It's a slow-burning American Gothic tale populated by some strange characters, including a murderous band of greasers who travel the back roads in a shiny, black Cadillac looking for children to murder. It's the sort of place where bored young boys resort to blowing-up frogs for fun, and where Seth's young playmates are murdered one by one until his only companion in the world is the rotting corpse of a baby fetus he keeps in a box beneath his bed.
Yeah, this is a weird one, and that's just the tip of the strangeness-iceberg, let's not forget the English widow down the road named Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan, Body Parts) whom Seth begins to believes is a vampire out to drain his older brother Cameron (Viggo Mortensen,
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III)
of his precious bodily fluids. Then there's his overbearing mother whose manages to drive her troubled husband to commit suicide in a gasoline-fueled inferno. Lots of weird stuff, so strap yourself in and prepare yourself for a melancholic Americana nightmare set to endless fields of yellow grain and big blue sky.
Audio/Video: The Reflecting Skin (1990) arrives on Blu-ray from Film Movement as part of their Film Movement Classics line-up, presenting the film in 1.85:1 widescreen and sourced from a 2K restoration from the original film elements. The image is crisp and clean, perhaps a bit too clean, with what looks to be some DNR-smoothing having been applied, with certain scenes looking a bit waxy, which is unfortunate. Digital scrubbing aside this otherwise looks solid, it's the first time I've seen it in proper widescreen on home video, and the color-grading is very pleasing, far superior to the shite fullframe DVD I had of it previously, a pleasing though not perfect upgrade.
Audio on the disc comes by way of an English PCM 20 stereo presentation with optional English subtitles. Everything is crisp and clean sounding, there were no issues with hiss or distortion, and the big score from Nick Bicât is magnificent and sounds terrific.
Extras include an audio commentary with writer/director Philip Ridley that digs deep into the making of the film, plus a 44-min making of retrospective 'Angels & Atom Bombs: The Making of The Reflecting Skin' with interviews from the director, Viggo Mortenson, plus a 20-page booklet with notes on the restoration from the director, plus a pair of essays on the film by writers Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche. For the sake of comparison I now that the UK Blu-ray from Soda Pictures also features a pair of Philip Ridley's short films and an isolated music score, which are not found on this release.
The single-disc release comes housed in a clear Blu-ray keepcase with a two-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster, with the reverse side featuring a scene from the film, with the disc featuring the same artwork as the wrap.
Special Features:
- Angels & Atom Bombs: The Making of The Reflecting Skin (44 min)
- Audio Commentary with writer/director Philip Ridley
- Booklet with introduction by Philip Ridley and new essay by Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche
Fans of disturbed youth cinema like Butcher Boy (1997) or The Other (1972) definitely need to check this one out, it's a kindred spirit, a film that channels the small town dread of Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) with a bit of that enigmatic children's allegory of The Spirit of the Beehive (1973). It's great to see this one finally getting a good-looking Blu-ray in the proper aspect ratio in the U.S., hopefully it brings this under-seen gem some deserved glory, and also be sure to check out Ridley Philip's haunting film Heartless (2009).
