Cold Skin  ★★★

THE studio behind Cold Skin describes the film as ‘the darker side of The Shape of Water’.

For those who thought Del Toro’s Oscar winner was pretty bleak anyway, that might be a turn-off.

A Spanish/French co-production, Cold Skin does examine some of the same themes and contains a slight love story.

But it’s still primarily a B-Grade action/horror film, albeit well-made and acted and showcasing a terrific location.

The film is set on an isolated island in the South Atlantic but in reality was filmed in and around the Canary Islands off north-west Africa.

It starts with a title card featuring that familiar Nitzche quotation about staring into the abyss and seeing yourself staring back at you, before the narrator and lead character, whom we only ever know as Friend, describes being dropped off at the island in 1914.

Friend is there to replace the weather official for the next 12 months but the current employee is nowhere to be found.

Friend and the crew of the ship that is dropping him off go to the island’s only other structure, the lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper, Grunner, is completely uncommunicative and hostile.

The crew leave and Friend settles into the weather official’s shack but is quickly disturbed by something trying to enter that night. He hides in the cellar and the place is ransacked, presumably by an animal looking for food.

It’s not really a spoiler because it’s part of the film’s marketing, but the animal is actually some kind of sea creature. Friend quickly realises the only potential safe haven is the lighthouse with Grunner.

There is a fair bit to like about the technique on display in this film. The location is spectacular and the production design, by 95 year-old Spanish veteran Gil Parrondo, is inventive and atmospheric. There is also a good music score by Victor Reyes.

It’s directed by Frenchman Xavier Gens whose 2007 debut was the terrific extreme horror film Fronteir(s). Unfortunately Gens’ output since then has been uneven at best, more recently the weak comedy Budapest.

In terms of on-screen performances the film is a three-hander. British television actor David Oakes is decent as Friend while Irishman Ray Stevenson, usually a villain in B-Grade fare, gives one of his best performances as Grunner.

The trio is completed by Spanish actress Arra Garrido under a ton of make-up playing one of the creatures who has been captured and domesticated by Grunner.

While the script by Jesus Olmo doesn’t live up to some of its more lofty ambitions, the execution makes it worth a watch for Spanish horror fans in particular.