The Reflecting Skin

In fifties Idaho, Seth, who lives in a house in the middle of the wheat fields, decides the widow next door is a vampire. At the same time children start disappearing in the area and Seth's older brother Cameron comes home from nuclear tests in the Pacific. In his first film Philip Ridley uses a child's view as the source of the horror: Seth's explanation is wrong but the dread around him is real, and the two stay tangled to the end. The yellow fields and the empty sky produce the exact opposite of the calm they promise. Viggo Mortensen plays the brother. The exploding frog in the opening warns you within a minute what kind of place you are in. Who it is for: viewers who like American rural gothic and imagery designed to disturb. Who it is not for: anyone avoiding stories in which children come to harm.