Director: Kevin Chicken
Writer: Kevin Chicken, Dusan Tolmac (Screenplay)
Starring: Richard Brake, Natalia Kostrzewa, Kasia Koleczek, Perry Jaques, Jagoda Kamov, Danny Worthington, Jo Woodcock
Plot: Katia Matuschak, 18, a Romanian ex au pair is now adrift in London. She befriends Bob Reid, a seemingly friendly tattoo artist but Bob is not who he seems to be. His life is spiralling out of control and in his final attempt to fulfill his dream he kidnaps her, intending her to be his muse for his lasting work of art. Her body will be his canvas.
Tagline – Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
Runtime: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Perfect Skin starts when Katia Mutaschek (Kostrzewa) finds herself homeless in London at 18, turning to her friend Lucy (Woodcock) who offers her a place to stay, introducing her to a tattoo artist Bob Reid (Brake) who offers to give Katia her first tattoo.
When Bob sees and believes that Katia has perfect skin, he waits for his chance to take her to create his own masterpiece on her skin, using his own tattoo designs to make the perfect canvas, as Katia starts to transform.
Thoughts on Perfect Skin
Characters & Performances – Bob Reid is a tattooist that has been going through a divorce and has a reputation of being one of the best artists in town, he meets Katia and sees what he could give her for a tattoo on what he sees as her perfect skin. He abducts her to make her his latest project, using her skin to make his perfect canvas. Richard Brake does bring us this disturbingly calm character that will give us a character that believes they are doing right for their vision. Katia is an 18-year-old living in London, needing to turn to friends for a place to stay as she looks for a job, she attracts the attention of Bob, who wants to give her a tattoo and ends up finding herself trapped by him, having her body transformed by Bob. Natalia Kostrzewa does a good job in this role, with her character learning to adapt to the changes she is being forced through. When it comes to the other characters Lucy is the friend that offers Katia a place to stay and is the only one searching for her once she goes missing, with this character flipping between concern for her friend or anger towards her friend.
Story – The story here follows a young woman that gets abducted by an obsessed tattoo artist who wants to make her skin his perfect canvas, as he slowly starts to transform her into his vision of beauty. This might not be the deepest of stories, as we see each chapter slowly see Katia end up with new tattoos, waiting to see just where the final vision of her will be, we focus more on the relationship between Bob and Katia, as they look to learn from each other, with Katia almost embracing her position, while also wanting to escape this world. The side story of Lucy trying to figure out what happened does seem to get in the way of the main story, as it feels like we could have dived deeper into what is making this obsessive nature come out in Bob. This does have a few pacing problems too, as it could easily have been shorter for what we see happen, as we go through the same thing quite often, without getting the reveal until later in the film.
Themes – Perfect Skin is a horror that shows how someone would look to transform somebody else’s body to make it their perfect vision, holding them hostage in the world they find themselves in. we use the London setting showing us how strange things can be happening in the city without other people knowing what is going on.
Perfect Skin is filled with a disturbing presence without hitting the heights of pure terror, despite the body transformation forced upon the victim.
