The Reflecting Skin is a 1990 coming-of-age horror film[6][7] written and directed by Philip Ridley and starring Jeremy Cooper, Viggo Mortensen, and Lindsay Duncan.

Set in 1950s rural Idaho, the film follows an impressionable young boy who comes to believe that a neighboring widow is a vampire responsible for a number of disappearances in the community.

Described by its director as a "mythical interpretation" of childhood,[8] the film weaves elements of vampirism, surrealism, black comedy, symbolism, and religious zealotry throughout its narrative.

Seth retreats back to the small gas station where he lives with his overworked, harsh, longing mother Ruth and shy, closeted, detached father Luke.

Surrounded by artefacts from her husband's family's whaling past, Seth takes some of her self-pitying remarks (she claims to be "two hundred years old") literally.

Cameron and Dolphin begin to make love; running in terror from the house, Seth witnesses the men in the Cadillac abducting Kim.

Philip Ridley was inspired to write the screenplay for The Reflecting Skin after completing a sequence of artworks titled American Gothic whilst studying at St Martin's School of Art.

[10] In collaboration with director of photography Dick Pope, Ridley channelled his artistic influences (including Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper) to create a hyper-realised vision of a "mythical, hallucinogenic summer in the life of a child.

"[9] This extended to Ridley personally spray-painting the wheatfields a brighter shade of yellow, and shooting exterior scenes at 'magic hour', "when the sun was at its most intense and golden."

[22] The word of mouth about the film, particularly the notorious "exploding frog" opening, was so intense that extra screenings had to be scheduled in order to cater to demand.

[11] Although some critics were outraged by the film's "abnormal situations and morbid characters",[23] among the more prominent admirers of The Reflecting Skin was Roger Ebert, who said it "reminded me of Blue Velvet and the other works of David Lynch, but I think it's better… it's not really about America at all, it's about nightmares, and I'm not easily going to forget it.

"[24][25] Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers wrote that "Ridley is a visionary, and his haunting film, luminously shot by Dick Pope, exerts a hypnotic pull.

"[26] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "an amazing film, studded with selfless, luminous performances and shot through with dark humor, that risks sheer over-the-top outrageousness at every turn but is so simultaneously inspired and controlled that it gets away with everything.

"[30] Reviewing the special edition Blu-ray on BBC News, Mark Kermode said "Philip Ridley is an extraordinary filmmaker... A really strange, interesting, disturbing, weird piece of work that has found its audience over the years.