A young girl named Carolyn goes missing after a date with a jock and the rest of the town slowly begins to unravel due to it. Knives and Skin has a dash of Twin Peaks, some Riverdale, and a little bit of Short Cuts and puts them in a blender to create one of the strangest, but most unique films that I've seen in years.
Knives and Skin doesn't always work, but when it does, it's quite an experience. The pacing is slow and deliberate and it's more character study than plot driven whodunit. This lack of any tangible plot and its constant tonal shifts do hurt the film. At times, it seems like it wants to be a dark comedy and, other times, it wants to be a straight drama, but there are so many odd characters and strange sequences that throw you for a loop and make you question everything you're seeing.
At nearly 2 hours, it's a bit long, but by the end when everything comes together, you won't even remember the run time, but you'll remember how it made you feel. People expecting a creepy murder mystery or slasher film will be incredibly disappointed, but those who can judge a film on its own merits might really enjoy this and they'll certainly have to enjoy the performance of Marika Engelhardt as the missing girl's mother who has a slow descent into madness throughout the film. It's a brave, committed performance that deserves awards attention.
