In writer/director Aleister V’s horror short En la piel de nadie (Skinbound), Diego Martínez Ruiz is Samuel, a man with questions about the meaning of the universe, life, and himself. His therapist, Amparo (Alejandra Campos), tries to learn the source of her client’s mental instability, until he tells her of the presence that lurks in the dark corners of his domicile. Samuel sees this creepy entity as he drifts between that happy no-man’s-land of being not asleep and not quite awake. Samuel feels it near, lurking, skulking. But what does it want? Samuel ponders what is special and integral about himself, and this blanket of dread that shadows him like a little black rain cloud. Despite that, confounded, he questions what it is he could possess that someone, or something, wants to requisition.
” Samuel sees this creepy entity as he drifts between that happy no-man’s-land of being not asleep and not quite awake.”
En la piel de nadie (Skinbound) gives off Body Snatcher energy. But it’s more like Abel Ferrara’s take than Philip Kaufman’s. I think what Aleister V, with his cast and crew, has made here is a fascinating fragment of celluloid that distills the frightening, inescapable terror at the heart of any picture in the body-snatching subgenre. The question that drives the horror is “If I were to be taken over by an alien or paranormal entity, would I know it? Could anyone else tell the difference?”
En la piel de nadie (Skinbound) is a crisp production with a creepy undertone that is as exciting as it is unsettling; bring on the invasion.
"…as exciting as it is unsettling..."
