The Skin I Live In

Anything for Halloween? Id vouch for The Skin I Live In, a scary, sexy and terrifically twisted horror film from the artist known as Pedro Almodvar, Spains stylish maestro of kink and flamboyant emotion. Skin reunites Almodvar with Antonio Banderas for the first time since 1990s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Director and star still bring out the wicked, badass best in each other.

Banderas plays Dr. Robert Ledgard, a widower plastic surgeon who uses his isolated mansion to hide a suicidal patient whom we see only in a head bandage and a body stocking. Shes called Vera (Elena Anaya), and when Robert is not experimenting on her with synthetic skin grafts, hes observing her behind glass with a voyeuristic perversity that evokes Hitchcocks 1958 masterpiece, Vertigo. Banderas is magnetic with a vengeance, the fire in his eyes a constant threat to the surgical precision of the scientist he plays. Hes a new-century Dr. Frankenstein and twice as bone-chilling for that. Vera has no memories; shes a blank canvas on which Robert (and by extension the audience) does all the painting.

You can tell Vera badly wants out; she even tries to seduce Robert, who looks guilty but tempted. Roberts housekeeper, Marilia (the excellent Marisa Paredes), is a fierce guard. That is, until her hood son Zeca (Roberto lamo) breaks in (wearing a tiger mask) and decides to take carnal advantage of this beautiful bird in a gilded cage.

Theres a teasing allure in the way Almodvar uncovers the secrets Robert hides. Adapting Thierry Jonquets novel Mygale, director and co-writer Almodvar never lets the creeping terror obliterate the bruised humanity of the characters. Few directors have Almodvars skill at swerving from outrageous camp to unspeakable terror without tipping into absurdity. Even when the films frigid elegance, perfectly captured by cinematographer Jos Luis Alcaine, becomes off-puttingly clinical, Almodvars passion burns through. The skin he lives in is alive to challenge no matter what warped form it takes.

Related
Video: Bad Eighties Remakes Hit Theaters
Peter Travers: The 10 Scariest Movie Scenes of the Last Decade
Peter Travers Fall Movie Preview