The Reflecting Skin

"The Reflecting Skin" (1990) starring Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Cooper is a strange coming of age movie that takes place in the 1950s.

It takes place in the wheat fields of Idaho.  Seth Dove (Cooper) is a young boy growing up in the rural Mid West.  He has a mother that is overbearing and always worried; a father that likes to escape from his past into pulp fiction on vampires; and an older brother, Cameron (Mortensen) that is in the military.  The rural community where he lives is filled with unique and strange characters including his neighbor, Dolphin Blue (Duncan).

Seth's friends start disappearing.  They are found dead.  Seth begins to suspect Dolphin is a vampire and that she is killing the children.  When his brother Cameron returns to town, he falls under the spell of Dolphin.

This film always has you asking "What is real and what is just in this child's mind?"  And as Dolphin says at one point, "Sometimes terrible things happen quite naturally".  This is a haunting tale about a strange place all from the viewpoint of a young boy.  If you like Twin Peaks you'll probably like this unique American Gothic tale.