‘The Skin I Live In’: Pedro Almodovar’s horror one of the best films this year
Pedro Almodovar has a welcome home in the gothic horror genre. The director known for creating so many moving pieces of art has constructed a brilliant, disturbing film that doesn’t sacrifice substantial portraits of believable characters in order to deliver a truly haunting story.
A renowned but disturbed plastic surgeon unleashes his internal Dr. Frankenstein after losing his wife to the aftereffects of a terrible burning in a car accident. In the first scene, we see that he has a patient locked up in his house, peacefully performing a yoga routine, creating sculptures out of her ripped-up clothes. That placid moment takes revelatory meaning by the film’s halfway point.
And that’s what makes this film so stunning. Almodovar plays with expectations in a way that’s exhilirating and challenging. He leaks clues, little details, for the audience to put together. He doesn’t pander with obvious explanations. It’s a tremendous film.
