(1990) *****So the thing that kind of bums be out about coming to the horror genre this late in the game is that supernatural elements can't really scare me anymore. Devils? Don't believe. Ghosts? Nope. Zombies? What the fuck? I don't even understand why that's a thing now, and you can call me a girl for that confusion if you'd like. (And you will be right. As demonstrated by my super fineness and lack of affinity for Doodle Jump, I'm all girl.)
So finally, along comes a movie about the shit that actually scares me: real people and how horrible we are, right down to the bone and starting from an early age. We're doomed to be absolute fuckers, prone to deluded and superstitious beliefs that cause us to kill each other in bafflingly cruel and creative ways, either one on one or en masse. At best, here's what you can hope for: you find someone to love who dies by accident or of old age, which sure ain't pretty either.
Thanks, Reflecting Skin, for finally putting a beautiful frame around the real horror of real life. I won't ruin it for you, but when you find out what the title means--ew, super duper yuck.
I have only one quibble with Octo's review (and we discussed this and had to agree to disagree). I think that the dead baby Seth finds has been abandoned at birth. It only looks "aborted" to Octo, because it's so skinny and wretched (and our own baby was so pleasingly plump). The baby is definitely a weird little tangent to the plot, but the message is clear that wherever you look, you gonna find you some awful shit that people done. And I think abandoned baby makes more sense in context. While an abandoned baby makes me think, "Aw, fuck no, we don't have a chance; right from the start we're doomed," an aborted fetus just makes me wonder if the mother made it okay. (That's the feminist in me, though, the same one that can't fathom playing video games all day long, so I'm sure all of you big, burly nerd men will jump on the abortion wagon. Just like always. JUST LIKE ALWAYS! Boo hoo....) But aside from more clearly backing up the overall theme of the flick, I just think that's what Seth found. It just looked like it.
That's what you get from this film. A fun little debate about, "What's the kid carrying around? Is that a dead baby or an aborted fetus?"
I am writing this review at almost 2:00 a.m., since I fell asleep at 8:00 p.m. Even my earplugs cannot block the sound of Octo snoring. Toldja. Life is a grim affair.
6 comments:
Finally! Written evidence that my snoring can cause existential despair in the listener. And so finely written, too!
I didn't mean to rule out the abandoned baby angle, but for the sake of supporting my super fine lady I'm sticking with my story.
"That's what you get from this film. A fun little debate about, "What's the kid carrying around? Is that a dead baby or an aborted fetus?"
I am writing this review at almost 2:00 a.m., since I fell asleep at 8:00 p.m. Even my earplugs cannot block the sound of Octo snoring. Toldja. Life is a grim affair."
Ha! This blog just keeps delivering the goods. Awesome review, Julie.
Terrific and funny review, Julie. You guys have sold me on The Reflecting Skin, it sounds great. I agree that the scariest films are the ones that could actually take place.
God don't even get me started on Octo's snoring! I don't know how you do it, Julie. When we were kids and had sleepovers it was like trying to sleep with a chainsaw in the room. Get a CPAP, dude!
You're not the boss of me.
Great review. Now I want to see it even more than I did before. I didn't get the part about the burly nerds jumping on the bandwagon though.
It enrages me that this movie is unavailable.
I'll find it JSP and share with you:)
Great review Julie and I must say I feel your pain. I wear earplugs every night too and sometimes Tony's wretched snortling just rips right through like a hot knife through butter.
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