MovieChat Forums > The Reflecting Skin (1990) Discussion > Could it be that Seth was the real kille...

Could it be that Seth was the real killer?

posted 16 years ago by watchamacallit
15 replies | jump to latest

maybe i saw too many films in my life. especially ones with twist ending. there was obviously no twist ending here, but there were lots of little things suggesting that perhaps Seth is responsible for those murders. first of all his dad. a sad old man that got pushed around by his insane wife for years. in the film we see him drinking gasoline and setting himself on fire with seth watching. a couple of scenes earlier we see Seth in his bedroom using matches( which look exactly like the ones his father used) to light up a lamp. twice. and then he hides them under his bed.
second thing that strikes me is that all of the bodies were found right outside of Seth's house. the only body that wasnt found there was the one of his redhead friend. the one he had a big argument just minutes (film minutes)before.
another thing is that we are never told how exactly all those poeple were killed. does it have anything to do with the giant whale spear Seth got from the vampire lady? it must serve the story somehow.
that gang in the shiney black car seemed totally disconneted to the time and space of that tiny little town. they dont belong and it's like nobody but Seth sees them( i am aware the the vampire lady does talk to them right before she gets in the car). when he first sees them he pumps gas in their car but they dont pay him. so odd.

"Holy Banana's, It's a girl's Leg!"

[–] krismacanga 9 years ago

I actually made a thread about this, somehow I didn't see this thread. So I will just post my opinions here.
It seems we agree, even though we came to the conclusions by ourselves.

On start of the movie, we can see him killing a frog in really brutal way, for his own amusement.

His friends are killed, one after another, yet he always somehow survives.

It was especially interesting,when he was there watching while his friend was taken by people from the black car.
They didn't notice him or care that he is there, watching them, which could lead to them being arrested, no?

In few situations, he is able to do something, but he always runs away or stays silent.

I am not sure about this, but when the black car comes to their house, it seems like he is the only that one that notices that car.
Did his father comment anything? Did they give him any money? What if the car is just a part of his imagination?

One of his friends is found in the water next to his house. Another one is killed while running with his flag. I am not sure what was the location where they found that body.

Was Dolphin Blue waiting for car near his house?
It was a bit strange that he was so sure she was killed, and he didn't let his brother see it.

He was definitely abused in different ways, from his mother, and maybe even by his father.
It was also really strange when he slept with fetus. And how he enjoyed destroying the room of Dolphin Blue.
Even his name is kinda suspicious.

"It's a beautiful day, isn't it, Seth Dove?"

I am not sure what all of this really means.

Him being a killer is interesting idea, but I am guessing there is a whole another meaning behind this.

Who is he really? What is the meaning behind this character?

What do you think?

[–] juveron 9 years ago

The children kill a frog in a brutal way and then get killed themselves in such a way which the sheriff doesn't want to describe by any means "he does things to children". But what things? Here I think there are two variants: either those car boys are some kinda sexual perverts, maybe excessively violent, or just pure fantasy - them being the actual vampires that aren't afraid of anybody, be it a witness(Seth) or the police, keeping murdering people though the whole state is after them and can't find. There is other explanation to that: perhaps they are just this way by nature, I mean, fearless, or just dumb, choose what you like best, and so they don't get scared by Seth's seeing them kidnapping that boy, or they just didn't see him. Well, if you remember, his friend wouldn't have noticed him if Seth hadn't cried out his name, maybe that was exactly why the drivers didn't noticed him. Though he was standing just in the middle of the road and not in the bush or wheat field but that can be just a mistake of the director or the operator, maybe it's just a simple overlook and we were supposed to believe that Seth wasn't seen by the drivers. Why, people make mistakes sometimes, and the director is just another human being and there is nothing strange to it. There was one scene in the film with the photos on the table, Seth made them lie on the table in the order he liked and when he was going out of the room he gave a look back over his shoulder at the photos and they were already placed differently. Was it a mistake? If you think it was, then the scene of the kidnapping could also have this drawback concerning location of objects. But it doesn't explain why the drivers let Seth go away after they had taken Dolphin with them, knowing that it was the last time Seth saw her and that he could lead the sheriff to them. They definitely liked the boy. Perhaps they were simply young and careless. Maybe they had relatives in the police. Maybe the sheriff was even the father of one of those boys, who knows. Interpret it how you like. Seth didn't have anything to do with the killings except for that he stayed silent about them. He didn't say anything to anybody because in fact he had nobody to listen to him. Surprised? And at the end he tried to discourage his brother from going to the corpse of Dolphin because he was sure that the sheriff would certainly harm somehow his brother. Just recall how he addressed them at the cemetery and how he spoke to Seth after finding that boy in the flag. Seth clearly was scared of that man and didn't trust him. His mother only beat him. His father never stood up for him in front of the mother and later died at all. The brother never paid attention to him also. Whom did Seth have to tell about all this? Don't you see the tragedy of this child, forgotten by everybody and still living his life like nothing strange had occurred because it was all he had seen in his life, it was the environment where he had been born and raised, like in the tribes of cannibals, you know, they also have children who eventually do not see anything wrong about eating men. The kid just got used to the total delirium around him and continued making up fantasies until the inevitable realization came to his head.

[–] krismacanga 9 years ago

Is he the driver of the car? Someone he wants to become, or someone he will actually become?

They look alike, driver shows some affection to Seth, they both want to be in the center of attention, they both have buddies.

This is one of reasons why the movie is named "The Reflective Skin".

I think this is also connected with his brother hating America.

"I make my mom cry all the time. Sometimes I just look at her, and she cries."

[–] Cherry-Princess 9 years ago

After seeing a Q&A with the director - everything is told from the childs POV, and its not always what you see... and yes Seth is the real killer.

[–] juveron 9 years ago

I really wish people watched less films like Fight Club, because then they tend to think that every second film is about schizos, it just irritates. You can explain every film in this way in fact. Mind that if the director really wanted us to think about it so, he would leave some hints concerning this disease, something like it running in the family or somewhat fantastic visions, but here we have neither this nor that nor any kind of other means. All we see in this film is precisely what happens in real world, maybe to some extent bizarre, but hey, haven't you ever had events in your life that you couldn't explain? But here it's explainable, though pretty difficult. I don't know what you heard at that interview and I wish you presented some proof or reference to this interview, to some site maybe. Personally I think that the car boys were real, everything about this movie just depicts inimical environment in which Seth is all the time walking on an edge, when death is so close but doesn't stretch claws to him yet. Look at the symbols, pay special attention to them, for example when he sits in the vampire's house with the spear, behind him there is a skull with the mouth wide open but he sits with his back to it, while the skull seems to cut its fangs into Seth's head in any moment. It is clearly an allusion to the whole situation with the murders, he is so close to be killed but stays alive despite all due to some circumstances or some other things. Seth is not the killer. If he was, then explain the following thing: why didn't he choose the vampire as his first victim? It would be far more logical than choosing those boys who were actually friends to him. And in the scene of the kidnapping, remember how looked Seth, his eyes especially? There was a close-up of his face, which clearly meant that this event would be etched in his mind forever and he would never completely get over it, you see, I mean, whether he understood it or not at that moment that the boys were the real killers and not the widow, at the end we see him agonizing over it, over all of his mistakes that cost people lives. If he was the killer how would you explain his crying at the end of the movie?

[–] Bozotheclown (1) a year ago

Just watched the film and I agree with your take on it. I was reminded of a film from 1972 called "The Other" about a child with a dubious grasp on reality. It became clear the car full of perverts was a metaphor for death. I think the father killed himself but everyone else was killed by Seth. The kid was nuts. Child killers and adult serial killers begin by abusing animals. The abuse of the frog was how the film opened and it became obvious that Seth was a twisted little sociopath. He killed his friends after arguing with them and then Dolphin Blue because she was taking her brother away from him. Before she got into the car with the perverts, she was kneeling in front of Seth, giving him an opportunity to do her in. Anyway, that's how I saw it. Not a common take but it works for me. Watch "The Other" sometime. "Holland, where's the baby?".