Cold Skin: Movie Review

Just yesterday I posted a review for the movie, The Lighthouse. I wanted to post this review shortly after because I actually watched Cold Skin a few weeks ago on Shudder (the horror channel offered by Amazon) and Cold Skin is a movie with a similar premise to The Lighthouse.

This review is spoiler-free! 

The Movie

 Cold Skin was released in 2017 and is a French-Spanish (the film is in English though) sci-fi horror directed by Xavier Gens. It’s based on novel of the same name, published in 2002, by Albert Sánchez Piñol.

On the edge of the Antarctic circle, a steamship approaches a desolate island. On board is a young man, poised to take up the post of weather observer, to live in solitude far from civilization. But on shore he finds no trace of the man he has been sent to replace, just a deranged brute in the lighthouse who has witnessed a horror he refuses to name. For the next twelve months his entire world will consist of a deserted cabin, rocks, silence and the surrounding sea. Then night begins to fall… - Samuel Goldwyn Films website

It stars Ray Stevenson, David Oakes, and Aura Garrido. 

Review

I really enjoyed this film! It was fun and really gave me Lovecraft vibes, since the sea creatures definitely rock that Innsmouth look. In the very beginning of the movie, the protagonist – Friend – lands on this desolate island whose lighthouse has been barricaded and there are wooden spikes built onto the outside of it!

The lighthouse keeper is immediately a suspicious character and things escalate quickly to keep you on the edge of your seat.The ending is surprisingly heart-wrenching and tragic. It is completely an under-rated indie film and I would recommend that any fellow Lovecraft fans out there watch it (Shudder has a free seven day trial, hint hint).

After watching The Lighthouse, I did compare these movies. Ultimately, they are very different but when I watched previews for The Lighthouse and heard references about mermaids in it, I thought they might be rather similar.

Cold Skin was way more straight forward, had a very classic linear plot, and Lovecraftian Deep Ones-type creatures. Obviously your girl here preferred Cold Skin over The Lighthouse. If you’re looking for a satisfactory thrill ride and a realistic take on how humans might react to humanoid-fish monsters, this is the movie for you. I might just re-watch it to get the icky taste of The Lighthouse off my brain.

Score: 7/10

x P.L. McMillan