I knew going in that The Skin I Live In had something to do with a doctor played by Antonio Banderas working with skin grafts. I knew that he was experimenting on human subjects and that the movie looked like it was going to be a little bit crazy and a little bit disorienting. But it wasn’t until I was about halfway through the thing that I realized what I was watching wasn’t a twisted character piece with some underlying sci-fi elements, but instead a horror movie. The Skin I Live In doesn’t have a horror movie aesthetic, it doesn’t have spooky music or a creepy sense of dread hanging over it; but by the end of the journey there is no doubt that what you just watched was traumatizing and horrific. Though it’s more cerebral than most, this is a mad scientist movie in every sense of the word.
Also, it’s the sort of movie where it’s best to know as little as possible going in. Every word you read will lessen the experience of exploring this universe, getting to know these characters, and figuring out the secrets they are hiding, a little bit more. These are characters that need to be peeled like onions, layer by layer, so you completely understand every aspect of why they are who they are. The timeline jumps around and is a little jumbled, and I was even annoyed that the focus had shifted to something I wasn’t very interested in somewhere in the middle; but keep watching. Everything happens for a reason and your patience gets rewarded. The Skin I Live In has award worthy performances from its stars Antonio Banderas and Elena Anaya it’s beautiful to look at, it’s a unique, impressive effort by director Pedro Almodóvar, and it’s my favorite thing I’ve seen from him so far.
