12 Foreign Films That Show Hollywood How A Genre Film Should Be Done
9. The Skin I Live In
Country: Spain
Genre: Horror
Plot: A surgeon attempts to create the perfect synthetic skin following some past family tragedies.
The Skin I Live In is a unique entry among Pedro Almodovar's films, as he moves away from his usual romantic dramas and goes into horror territory. He does it brilliantly as well.
TSILI is not like any other horror film you've seen, since it isn't scary in the traditional sense. There's melodrama instead of atmosphere and disturbing twists instead of scares, so it's more of a drama in many ways. The horrifying elements are used to tell a harrowing and tragic story, and the shocks are used to hammer in the messages, so the horror genre is used as a device to back up this powerful story of identity, grief and obssession. If only all horror films were this focused on story and subtext.
It's nearly a foregone conclusion that Hollywood would just do shocks for shock's sake and that Hollywood would settle for a more conventionally scary movie. TSILI is a reminder of how important it is to break with convention and to add subtext beneath the scares.
It's a film many will be unsure if they love or hate. Many modern horror films would never have that effect on anyone.
Remake?
Definitely not. No-one can really replicate Pedro Almodovar's singular vision and Hollywood would never do a horror film so un-commercial and messed up.