Pueblo en llamas

I don't get why this is classified as horror? I watched this because I heard it was a drama about child abuse, which I suppose is partially true. It is filled with truly terrible people, but there is no horror in the traditional sense to speak of. Yes, people get lit on fire, animals are either tortured or torture is described, and and that's just the tip of the ice burg here. However, you may read that going "Sounds like horror to me", it isn't presented in that way, however, it is written both hamfistedly moralistic and morally vague, what with the characters who describe awful things as though they are talking about a recipe for scones at times.

Many will call this artsy fartsy, and I suppose they are not wrong, it definitely has ambitions for high art. If you have watched any of the films by Todd Solondz and liked them, you will enjoy this(I don't like Solondz, but I did enjoy this film, so it isn't a prerequisite). His films are all shock, and little style, whereas the reflecting skin is a highly allegorical tale shot in a beautiful and artistic matter. The shots of fields of grain are just breathtakingly beautiful.

The acting here is fantastic, especially given the surreal and bizarre events of the film. Even the child actors do a great job. Again, technically this film is so well-made, it is one of the prettiest films, at times, I have watched. who thought a wheat field could look so beautiful? Some people may see flaws in the script due to it's horrible characters, but it is obvious this film was not written to have characters you like... So that is not a flaw in the script, it is personal preference of the viewer. The main child character, somehow garners sympathy, even though he is just as awful, if not more so than the adults.

This film stands the test of time, and far exceeds many of the films that were it's contemporaries in most regards, but as technically proficient as it is, it is not a film for the masses. If you look at this as an allegory for the end of childhood innocence and death, it will probably make a heck of a lot more sense.

God Bless ~Amy

I only read the most recent 12 reviews, but it seems you either really appreciate this film or you think it sucks. Apparently, some folks see art in the tragic and angst-ridden characters, and others are disgusted by their actions and the depressing imagery. Personally, my motives were not too sophisticated: I found it in the "horror" section at the video store and it looked pretty stylish and of course, Aragorn was in it, so I said what the heck. I thought the film, though disturbing, was indeed a fascinating and thought-provoking piece of cinematic art.

Anyway, I'm wondering if Philip Ridley was commenting on the narcissism, arrogance, violence, and corruption of U.S. culture. Not that others couldn't be accused of similar vices, but... I think the boy Seth and the other lead characters symbolize our national conscience. We run around blowing up frogs and tearing up peoples' property with no remorse, then create our own moral/spiritual sources to console us out of empty, dead things (like a stillborn child). We wallow in our domestic dysfunctions, while excelling at denial about them (like the nutty mother). We like a good witch hunt, accusing the depressed widow or the agonized former pedophile, while ignoring the obvious handsome suspects in the nice Caddy. We flit around wrapped in our flag thinking we're innocent, all the while nuking children in war only to focus on how their radiated skin looks like a mirror in which we can see our lovely reflections. But someone else gets the last laugh, since we're all self-destructing as a result of it all, and while at first Seth's screaming frenzy as the finale confused me, I realize now it's a fitting end to that interpretation.

Or something like that. It might just be about a bored rural kid with no conscience and a wild imagination whose failure to tell the truth ends up hurting everyone around him. Or about the price of tea in China. It's worth the view, though, if you like Gothic thrillers.

Trying to describe THE REFLECTING SKIN is impossible. You must experience it for yourself. I can say that it's about a kid named Seth. Seth does something horrible to a frog and then some really bad things happen to Seth,involving a mummified baby,his neighbor- a woman named Dolphin Blue-and a pack of teenagers in an ominous black car. THE REFLECTING SKIN is a pastoral film,but underneath the

beauty is genuine menace.

Ok that anyone thought this was funny must mean that they are two years old or that they are mentally slow and cant think. There is alot of people on here who post reviews who cant think. It must be some new disease you get by watching eddie murphy movies like haunted Mansion. This film is beautifully shot and captures the isolation and pain of growing up when you are stuck in the middle of a family crisis. The film is easy to follow and makes perfect sense throughout. There is never anything that is hard to understand or relate to if you have even half a brain. The metaphors with the vampires are very easy to understand. I would say its even something a 12 year old would understand although this film is not for kids. I wont list any details cuz i dont want to spoil it for you but if you enjoy dark films with something more to say that life sucks then this film will touch you and leave you breathless i think. Its one of my favorites and i hope you give it a try. You wont be disappointed.

Reflecting Skin is in many ways a unique creation. It operates at many levels, each of which should be taken on its own terms and understood within its own logic. Devastating social critique is entangled together with brilliantly shot natural landscapes (especially the combination of azure skies and sweeping fields of golden wheat). Dark and semi-psychotic scenes of Seth's father's self-immolation are entwined with the gentle lyricism of Cameron's "falling in love" with the "vampire woman," Dolphin Blue. Taken together, all these elements produce a dark, unsettling, relentlessly haunting atmosphere of the most profound spiritual crisis. Reflecting Skin is about the rock-bottom of socio-cultural devastation, it is about the wasteland lying inside each of us.

Philip Ridley shows us the isolated world totally devoid of all GENUINE sense of moral direction. The actor who plays a 9-year old Seth is absolutely excellent in portraying a frightened, well-meaning rural boy who has already absorbed all the unspeakable cruelty of his family and wider local milieu. The greatest nighmare of the film, it seems to me, is the destructively stubborn denial within which all characters are deeply and inextricably mired. There is nothing they are afraid more of than looking at themselves, at the profound evil which had already turned their souls into the most frightening desert. They are prepared to look around for vampires, witches and other incarnations of evil rather than to confront the layers of hypocrisy, sanctimony, and callousness within which they are hopelessly bogged down. They are blind to their own faults but are filled with immeasurable hate towards the "evil forces" out there. One is simply astonished at how successfully Ridley portrays the reservoirs of hatred and existential frustration hovering over the settlement. The movie traces how this hatred, this stubborn blindness progressively corrodes and ruins an impoverished rural community in the mid1950s. This movie is in many ways an examination of the local and deeply psychological sources of fascism (not in its more historical and specific meaning but as a cultural phenomenon of the modern world). Seth's desperate shriek for "salvation" amid the rays of the slowly setting sun and clouds of dust is perhaps the most powerful and unsettling scene in the film. Yet, watch closely: Seth's face is not covered with tears and genuine grief! His soul has been turned into stone -- he has grown to accept the ubiquity of death and cruelty. He will grow up to be a truly scary human being, able to kill and plunder with no remorse or doubt.

Great cinematographic gem. Should be appreciated by everybody interested in challenging, controversial, and ambiguous art. Profound social and even religious message about the evils of sanctimonious fundamentalism of any type of faith.