Why wasn't The Skin I Live In (2011) a bigger hit?

Tools    





Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
The movie was great I thought and still do. I actually feel it is the Psycho (1960) of our time, even outdoing the original Psycho, IMO.

But for some reason the movie has not really caught on and no one I know has even heard of this movie. What do you think, is it underrated?



Weird is relative.
I loved it - watched it the year it came out. I can see that it's rather "alternative" though so it's not going to appeal to everyone.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Oh okay, what do you mean by alternative in that context?



Welcome to the human race...
Let's see - it's a foreign film, it's by Almodóvar so people who know of him are probably expecting some sort of campy melodrama (which isn't helped by the posters making it look like a romance between a plastic surgeon and his patient), it's a "bad revenge" film and people like "good revenge" films, and it's one of those films where you effectively have to spoil it in order to convince people that it's worth watching (and even then that might not work). It's a good film and all, but it's just really hard to sell to people.
__________________
I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Oh okay, what do you mean by 'bad reven't film as oppose to good one?



Welcome to the human race...
I mean in the sense that they portray revenge as either justified under the right circumstances ("good") or just as bad - if not more so - than whatever inspired the revenge ("bad"). For example, Commando is a "good revenge" movie because the protagonist kills everyone involved with kidnapping his innocent daughter while Oldboy is a "bad revenge" movie because it's about the protagonist and antagonist being stuck in a horrible cycle of revenge over the wrongs they committed (however deliberately) against one another.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Oh I see, well I usually prefer the bad revenge movies, as they make me think harder and get inside my head more, but maybe The Skin I Live In, is not most people's cup of tea .

I would definitely say it's comparable to Oldboy, but I think it's even better, yet even Oldboy was a much bigger hit as a bad revenge movie, why is that?



Welcome to the human race...
I'd put that down to Oldboy being more obviously appealing on a base level by advertising itself as a straightforward revenge action thriller before it gets complicated, whereas The Skin I Live In is more of a slow-burning psychological drama that you don't even realise is a revenge movie until about halfway through.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Yeah that's true.