REMARKABLE Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar - who survived by selling used items in a flea market before launching his cinematic career - describes his edgy new offering as a “horror story without screams or frights.”
Whatever you think of it - I say it's a terrifically-twisted Frankenstein tale with the monster replaced by a ravishing brunette - it will get under your skin.
Loosely based on the French 2003 novel Tarantula, The Skin I Live In follows the startling steps of uber-suave and severely -unhinged plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) as he experiments with nightmarish science in his lavish Toledo mansion.
In a similar vein to Georges Franju's creepy 1960 noir-thriller Eyes Without a Face - where a deranged doctor abducts young women in an attempt to graft their faces onto his daughter's, which was hideously disfigured in a car accident - this quasi-masterpiece is somehow both preposterous and plausible with Hitchcock-like suspense and a triumphant twist that will have viewers gob-smacked.
If Skin tickles your fancy - and it won't everybody's - you'll surely be enticed to retrace the actions of this most interesting movie-maker.
Previous works include Talk to Her, All About My Mother, Bad Education and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
THE Skin I Live In (MA 15+)
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes
Rating: Four and a half stars
Screening: from December 26
Reviewed by: Sara Fitzpatrick