Cold Skin - Island of Creatures
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Cold Skin - Island of Creatures |
| Original title | Cold skin |
| Country of production |
Spain , France |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| length | 106 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Xavier Gens |
| script |
Jesús Olmo , Eron Sheean |
| production |
Mark Albela , Denise O'Dell |
| music | Victor Reyes |
| camera | Daniel Aranyó |
| occupation | |
| |
Cold Skin - Insel der Kreaturen (Original title: Cold Skin ) is a 2017 horror fairy tale based on Albert Sánchez Piñol's novel Im Rausch der Stille from 2002. The film is directed by the French filmmaker Xavier Gens . The film opened in German cinemas on August 17, 2018.
"Anyone who fights with monsters can see that he does not become a monster. And if you look into an abyss for a long time, the abyss also looks into you." Director Xavier Gens prefaces his film with this quote from Friedrich Nietzsche .
action
In 1914 a young Irishman named Friend travels to a remote island in the South Atlantic to work as a weather observer. When he arrived there, he found out that his predecessor had died of typhus . After a year it should be replaced again. The only other resident of the island is the lighthouse keeper Gruner, who greets Friend rather coldly. The young, handsome weather observer soon realizes that the death of his predecessor was not due to typhus, but to unknown creatures crawling out of the sea after sunset.
When exploring the island for the first time, he discovers strange rock circles on the beach. When he returns to his hut, he finds his predecessor's diary, which speaks of strange creatures from the sea. Shortly after reading it, he was attacked by the sea creatures on one of the first nights on the island. Friend hides in the basement of the hut and defends himself with a knife through the slits in the floorboards. The next day he goes to see Gruner, who doesn't let him into his lighthouse. In the hut, Friend finds a rifle between the luggage, with which he can defend himself against the sea creatures. He holed up in his hut. After dark, Friend can stop another attack by the sea creatures with the rifle. When he tries to fend them off with a fire in front of the hut, the flames spread to the hut. Friend has to hide in the rocks. The burning hut is extinguished by the onset of rain, but remains uninhabitable.
The next day he watched Gruner leave the lighthouse. He follows him and discovers a female specimen of the unknown marine creatures at a fresh water source near Gruner. He learns that Gruner made the creature his pet and sex slave. He offers Gruner ammunition and other supplies when he is ready to take him into his lighthouse. Gruner accepts this and Friend moves to the lighthouse. The creatures attack again in the night, but Friend faints while defending the lighthouse. The next morning Gruner made it clear to Friend that he couldn't use any useless ballast and ordered Friend to fetch water. When the creatures attack again the next night, Gruner locks him out alone on the balcony and indicates that this is his last chance to prove himself. Friend survives the night after a hard fight against the sea creatures. As a result, Friend has to do various tasks for Gruner, such as: B. Fetch firewood and water to keep its place in the lighthouse.
The two men have to defend themselves against the creatures again and again over the next few nights. Occasionally there is tension about the treatment of Gruner's female creature, to which Friend builds more and more sympathy, while Gruner continues to abuse her physically and sexually. Gruner even refuses to signal a passing ship. One night they are finally almost overrun and killed by the always attacking creatures. You must lock yourself in the lighthouse light until dawn.
The two will not be attacked for the next few weeks. Friend goes for walks on the beach, collects whale bones, and carves. He gives Gruner's marine creature a name: Aneris. One day he discovers an old lifeboat on the beach and asks Gruner about it. He learns that it is the boat of a Portuguese ship that was stranded off the island some time ago. The entire crew was killed by the sea creatures. He also learns that the cargo on the boat contained dynamite, among other things. Friend convinces Gruner to let him use an old diving suit to retrieve the dynamite from the ship. The action is successful and the two men manage to recover some dynamite.
Friend and Gruner plan to finally destroy the sea creatures with the dynamite. They plan to lure them into the immediate vicinity of the lighthouse by leaving the door open and then blowing it up with the dynamite. The creatures attack as planned, but Gruner fails to trigger the detonation, so Friend has to run to him to reconnect the wires and trigger the first detonation. The explosion kills a multitude of the creatures and Gruner immediately triggers a second detonation, much closer to the lighthouse. Both of them become unconscious. The next morning Gruner kills the wounded creatures and is happy about the successful outcome of the plan. Meanwhile, Friend finds a kind of necklace on one of the dead and questions the killing of the creatures. The next night the creatures stop attacking, instead a sad wail can be heard. Friend goes to the beach one more time and sees a younger creature playing in the water. He builds a stone circle and leaves a ship carved from the whale bones as a gift.
The next day, Friend goes to the beach and rediscovers the young sea creature that has accepted his gift. Now many of the creatures appear along with Aneris. Suddenly Gruner appears on the beach: Friend stands up to him and says that the creatures want a truce. When Gruner discovers Aneris and she refuses to follow him despite his orders, he runs back to the lighthouse. After a while, the creatures are shot at from the lighthouse with ammunition from Gruner's flare gun. The boy is fatally hit. The creatures leave Friend and he rushes to the lighthouse to find Gruner. The two fight each other. Before Gruner can attack Friend with an ax, Friend addresses him by his real name Aldor Vigeland (the name of the weather observer who allegedly died of typhus). The so addressed pauses, runs outside and is killed by the waiting creatures.
Sometime later one morning, a ship's crew landed on the island with the replacement of the weather observer. You can find the half-naked, sleeping and completely neglected friend in the lighthouse. He is mistaken for the lighthouse keeper Gruner and asked about the whereabouts of the weather observer Friend. But Friend alias Gruner doesn't answer.
Another scene shows Aneris jumping into the sea from the beach and diving away.
Reviews
“Conclusion: 'Cold Skin - Insel der Kreaturen' is recommendable for both monster film fans and fans of philosophical-archaic stories like 'Moby Dick' - even if the last kick is missing and Xavier Gens is content with his central metaphor 'just 'to pull through consistently. "
“A barren island, two men, lots of strange monsters: 'Cold Skin' combines frosty creature horror with a moral eco-label to create a bloody festival for fans. The film adaptation is particularly convincing in terms of atmosphere, even if it becomes explicit a bit quickly and the music is applied too thickly. "
“Based on Albert Sánchez Piñol's novel 'Im Rausch der Stille', director Xavier Gens ('Frontier (s) - Do you know your pain threshold?') Tells an atmospheric parable about the clash of two different cultures. Are people really as civilized as they say they are? The dark monster horror captivates with its minimal setting, which relates to the relationship between the weather observer, the lighthouse keeper and his slave. The main roles are cast with David Oakes ('The Pillars of the Earth') and Ray Stevenson ('Thor: Day of Decision'), the siren Aneris is played by the Spanish actress Aura Garrido ('Stockholm'). "
“Cold Skin - Isle of Creatures delivers 105 minutes of atmospheric entertainment and convincing actors. Even the visual effects are consistently convincing and the template and its dialogues are beyond any doubt. Certainly the most ambitious film by Xavier Gens so far, but perhaps also the best because of its otherness. "
Web links
- Official website
- Cold Skin - Island of the creatures in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Cold Skin - Isle of Creatures . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; June 2018; test number: 179 131 K).
- ↑ Christian Fußy: Cold Skin - Isle of Creatures . In: filmstarts.de . Webedia GmbH. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
- ↑ Oliver Armknecht: Cold Skin . In: film-rezensions.de . WakeUp Media GbR. January 17, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
- ↑ Cold Skin . In: kino.de . STRÖER Media Brands GmbH. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
- ↑ Timo Wolters: Cold Skin - Isle of Creatures . In: blu-ray-rezensions.net . Timo Wolters. Retrieved March 10, 2019.