Oct 8, 2026 · 35 min · 13 segments
Tonight we're taking on THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990) — one of the strangest, most unsettling pieces of 1990 horror. We're going in fresh to talk about the story, performances, atmosphere, disturbing…
All right.
Eight-year-old Seth Dove is growing up in post-World War II rural Idaho without a care or rules or school.
He spends his days with his two best buddies, Eben and Kim, blowing up frogs and tormenting the local widow without much remorse or repercussions.
It's all fancy free fun and games for Seth until a couple kids go missing and later found dead.
Since Seth's only education seems to be a comic book about vampires he got from his dad, this brings him to the only logical conclusion: the old widow Blue is a vampire.
With every passing scandal and tragedy, Seth's childhood and innocence slowly begin to fall away.
Fortunately for Seth, his older brother Cam comes home from the war in the Pacific just in time to help put things back together.
Unfortunately for Seth, Cam soon becomes enamored with that vampire widow.
It's up to Seth to save his brother's youth from being sucked dry before the sun sets on this American gothic dream.
Or nightmare forever.
[laughs] And yes, this movie is just that.
It's sort of like this weird nightmare set on this, like, beautiful sprawling wheat fields, like golden wheat fields.
What did you think?
The scenery was lovely.
I did like the sprawling wheat fields, and apparently according to a li- Google search that I did, the writer-director, Philip Ridley, he hand-painted some of this wheat more yellow to make it more vibrant.
Oh, wow.
So he really wanted to present this American dream.
He's not American, but he said that he grew up watching American movies, and he produced the American image that he had in his head as a child.
And you said the, um, painting American Gothic.
Yes.
I can totally see that.
Um, this movie is also would be more along the lines of, like, a dark drama with maybe, um, what I've seen some people describing as some surreal elements as opposed to maybe, like, a straightforward horror movie.
If you're expecting something like Ghoul School, you're gonna be severely disappointed.
So don't expect that.
All right.
Eight-year-old Seth Dove is growing up in post-World War II rural Idaho without a care or rules or school.
He spends his days with his two best buddies, Eben and Kim, blowing up frogs and tormenting the local widow without much remorse or repercussions.
It's all fancy free fun and games for Seth until a couple kids go missing and later found dead.
Since Seth's only education seems to be a comic book about vampires he got from his dad, this brings him to the only logical conclusion: the old widow Blue is a vampire.
With every passing scandal and tragedy, Seth's childhood and innocence slowly begin to fall away.
Fortunately for Seth, his older brother Cam comes home from the war in the Pacific just in time to help put things back together.
Unfortunately for Seth, Cam soon becomes enamored with that vampire widow.
It's up to Seth to save his brother's youth from being sucked dry before the sun sets on this American gothic dream.
Or nightmare forever.
[laughs] And yes, this movie is just that.
It's sort of like this weird nightmare set on this, like, beautiful sprawling wheat fields, like golden wheat fields.
What did you think?
The scenery was lovely.
I did like the sprawling wheat fields, and apparently according to a li- Google search that I did, the writer-director, Philip Ridley, he hand-painted some of this wheat more yellow to make it more vibrant.
Oh, wow.
So he really wanted to present this American dream.
He's not American, but he said that he grew up watching American movies, and he produced the American image that he had in his head as a child.
And you said the, um, painting American Gothic.
Yes.
I can totally see that.
Um, this movie is also would be more along the lines of, like, a dark drama with maybe, um, what I've seen some people describing as some surreal elements as opposed to maybe, like, a straightforward horror movie.
If you're expecting something like Ghoul School, you're gonna be severely disappointed.
So don't expect that.
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