Cold Skin (film)

Cold Skin is a 2017 French-Spanish science fiction-horror film directed by Xavier Gens and based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Albert Sánchez Piñol. The film was released on 20 October 2017 in Spain.

Plot
In 1914, a young Englishman travels to a remote island in the South Atlantic to work for one year as a weather observer. The only other inhabitant of the island is the caretaker of the crudely fortified lighthouse, Gruner. Gruner says the previous weather observer died from typhus and there is no body.

After the unnamed man explores the island, he finds the diary of the previous meteorologist with drawings of strange sea creatures. His cabin is then besieged by those creatures at night. The next day he unsuccessfully asks Gruner to let him into the lighthouse. When the night creatures return, he lights a fire, only to burn down his cabin. The next day, he discovers a female amphibious creature outside. Gruner prevents him from shooting her and shows that she is "tame". Gruner gives the man the name "Friend" and he explains the creature will not leave her master no matter how cruel he is.

Friend successfully bribes Gruner into letting him stay in the lighthouse. That night creatures climb the lighthouse, and Gruner butchers them as Friend faints. Gruner locks Friend outside on the balcony, leaving him to die. In the morning Gruner discovers him covered in creature blood but still alive.

The two men settle into a routine. Friend grows to like the captive female creature (treated as a sex slave by Gruner) and names her Aneris. Friend also wonders if the creatures keep coming because they want to reclaim the female sea creature, who sings when they come. Gruner belittles Friend's ideas.

One night, the duo come perilously close to being killed when they are overrun by the creatures. When Friend tries to signal a passing ship the next day, Gruner attacks him. Aneris tries to protect him. The two men have a conversation about why Gruner did not want to be rescued.

Friend manages to communicate to Aneris that he needs to leave the island. She leads him to an abandoned boat. Friend and Gruner use the boat to row out to a shipwreck and Friend dons an old diving suit and jumps in. Once several boxes of dynamite have been retrieved, Gruner does not pull up Friend and stops pumping air to him. Friend escapes the suit and climbs into the boat aware that Gruner had tried to kill him again. Back to the lighthouse, they discover that the recovered dynamite is dry enough to use.

Friend and Gruner form a plan to lure as many sea creatures to the lighthouse as possible before setting off the dynamite, believing that the show of force will kill many and drive them off. The plan largely succeeds. In the morning, Gruner finishes off the remaining creatures, and Friend once again tries to convince Gruner that the creatures are more civilized than Gruner makes them out to be after seeing one of the dead creatures wearing a necklace.

Later that evening, Gruner reveals that he found Aneris trapped in his net in the sea and freed her from it. The following night the creatures do not attack, and a great wailing sound comes from the sea. Aneris disappears for the first time. While Gruner sleeps, Friend discovers a photo of Gruner as a young man with a wife. Friend sees that the woman in the picture is the same one as in the picture he found in the previous science officer's log.

Friend leaves a present for the creatures. He discovers a child creature investigating his present. A more confident Aneris re-appears. Friend tries to tell Gruner that the creatures want a truce. Gruner commands Aneris to return to him but she refuses. He runs back to the lighthouse and kills the child creature with a flare. While Friend and Gruner fight, Friend tells Gruner he knows he is the previous meteorologist and asks him to remember love. Gruner solemnly drops his axe and is killed by the sea creatures outside.

Many months later, the next ship arrives to replace Friend. The captain mistakes him for the lighthouse-keeper Gruner and says that he is taking him back to the mainland. Seeing the ship, Aneris leaps into the sea and swims away.

Production
Cold Skin was produced by Babieka Films and Skin Producciones AIE alongside Pontas Films and Kanzaman France with the participation of RTVE and TV3 and backing from ICAA and ICEC. The sets were designed by Gil Parrondo, to whom the film is dedicated.

Release
The film was released theatrically in Spain by Diamond Films on 20 October 2017. Samuel Goldwyn Films released the film in the United States.

Reception
Cold Skin has grossed a worldwide total of $737,478. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 48% based on 27 reviews, and an average rating of 6.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Cold Skin exerts a strong visual pull, even if all that icy atmosphere isn't a truly satisfying substitute for a story that dares to go somewhere different."

David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a 'C+' rating, deeming it to be "a gruesome but uncommonly philosophical creature feature" hinting at "a Lovecraftian ambition that it never fully assumes for itself".

Dennis Harvey of Variety assessed that the film "offers a good-looking and well-crafted if familiar chunk of creature-siege horror".