Review of Mysterious Skin (2005) by Archibald T — 22 Mar 2011

Brian Lackey was 8 years old when he lost 5 hours of his life. Since then he's not able to remember much about what happened. He does however believe that he was abducted by aliens after witnessing an UFO. Whatever he experienced caused him to have black outs and nose bleeds. As a teenager, he has dreams. They have something to do with what happened. A boy, someone who he played little league with, keeps reoccurring in his dreams. This leads him to Neil McCormick who holds the truth about what really happened to Brian during those lost 5 hours.

Neil McCormick was 8 years old when he first met his little league coach. He had an instant attraction to him. Something he was quite aware of at his young age. The coach would pay more attention to Neil, considering him as his 'favorite'. He'd take Neil over to his house to play video games and eat junk food. Neil never had a father figure. He only had his mother. So with all the affection that Neil's coach was giving him made him feel special.

When the first sexual encounter between Neil and his coach happen is when Neil shuts down on the inside and accepts what just happened. He even mentions how he use to stare up at the ceiling in his coach's bedroom while it all would happen. Staring at the different patterns. Much of the coach's molestation takes place during that summer and we begin to understand that this doesn't just happen to Neil once, but several times with the coach. Very creepy and sad.

As Neil grew up as a teenager, those events changed his life, but not for the better. One friend of his, Wendy, sums up Neil perfectly at this point in his life: "Where normal people have a heart, Neil McCormick has a bottomless black hole. And if you don't watch out, you can fall in and get lost forever." And that is where Neil is at this point, lost. He meets older men in parks where they go to motels to have sex. He even advertises himself in a men's restroom stall.

I think Neil's biggest problem is since the coach treated him in a sexual way, he figures that is all he can be. So he becomes a prostitute.

Wendy leaves for New York City and eventually Neil follows her there. He encounters several men for whom he sleeps with, but what he never seems to learn is to be safe. When he realizes this it becomes too late. He encounters one man who is very sick in the head and sadly Neil gets sodomized in probably one of the most disturbing rape scenes.

I felt sick to my stomach after watching that scene, but that isn't exactly the only one. There are many moments involving children which are just so gut wrenching. You don't see anything explicit, but what is implied is still the more powerful especially when Brian hears the entire truth from Neil. Flashbacks conveying what took place during those lost 5 hours and they really make you want to cry. This is a very difficult film to sit through, but if you can make it through you'll realize how important the message of the film is about the effects of child abuse.

I applaud Gregg Araki and his cast and crew for being very brave. It truly takes guts to make a film like this.