In Her Skin (2009)

• Year: 2009
• Released: N/A
• Country: Australia
• Adwords: 2 wins
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995851/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_her_skin
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Drama, Thriller
• Runtime: 107 min
• Writer: Simone North
• Director: Simone North
• Cast: Guy Pearce, Miranda Otto, Ruth Bradley
• Keywords: babysitter, based on true story, missing person, epileptic seizure, woman director,

6.4/10

In Her Skin Storyline

A young teenage girl goes missing from a very loving home of two sisters and her parents. When attempted, the assistance from expected resources is limited in response to their pleas and the parents begin to experience worry which almost immediately is confirmed.When pretty 15-year-old Rachel (Kate Bell) goes missing, the police dismiss the incident as a runaway, but her parents don’t believe it. Soon everyone suspects envious 19-year-old Caroline (Ruth Bradley), a heavyset, acne-ridden daughter of a domineering father (Sam Neill). Simone North writes and directs this Australian drama, which is based on a 1999 news story. Guy Pearce and Miranda Otto also star.

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In Her Skin Movie Reviews

Disturbing but excellent Aussie drama

I have always been a fan of Guy Pearce (who will always be remembered as Mike from Neighbours in the UK)who is an actor that always seems to appear in decent films. On that basis I decided to watch this small Australian film.

The film covers a real life case of a 15 year old girl who inexplicably goes missing from home. We see the reaction of her parents the excellent Pearce and Miranda Otto as they struggle to get the police to take the disappearance seriously. The film then concentrates on of the suspects a former babysitter played with chilling menace by Ruth Bradley and her father played by the dependable Sam Neill. The final part and weakest part of the film follows the missing girl.

The subject matter doesn’t really make for happy viewing and for that i cannot bring myself to give it a higher mark, yet it is an excellently made film and one of the best of it’s type I have seen. It certainly deserves a wider audience.

Be warned that one of the scenes in particular is extremely disturbing and may upset a lot of viewers.

Got under my skin

Based on a true story of a 15 year old Rachel Barber’s abduction in Australia, In Her Skin is disturbing to say the least. The movie chronicles the real events that happened before, after, and during this tragic abduction and the many different lives it touched.

Rachel Barber goes missing and everyone that knew her knew something was amiss but the Barber family was forced to wait 48 hours before the police would get involved. As her parents frantically look for her and blanket the neighborhood with pictures, we get to see glimpses of her past and the pasts of many people involved in this case .It soon unfolds and the truth is revealed in this psychological thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Guy Pearce and Miranda Otto translate incredible emotion and anger as Rachel’s parents but for me the standout here was Ruth Bradley as Caroline Reid. Sam Neill also played an overwhelmed, distant parent of Caroline very well as this movie moves swiftly and smoothly through the horrifying truth of this well directed and acted film.

I watched this film on demand and was impressed with the overall production. In Her Skin reminded me a lot of The Lovely Bones, which I also enjoyed, that starred Mark Wahlberg. This movie is definitely worth a watch in my opinion

Very hard to take…

I could hardly get through this film, I had to hit pause several times and get it together. Having never heard of this gut-wrenching story until now, it was very saddening to read the synopsis (parents of a missing girl launch a frantic search for their daughter not knowing that her former babysitter has killed her. This is a true story) and then proceed to watch the film.

I happened upon the movie while channel surfing and caught the scene where it looked like a girl (in a hospital bed) was being encouraged by an older man (played by Sam Neil) to talk to another man who was out of the frame but still visible. I pressed the info. button and the afore mentioned synopsis showed up. From the synopsis, I formed an opinion that the girl on the bed was either about to die and was being pumped for information or that she was the mother of the missing child. (BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!)

Interested in the film, I switched to another channel to keep the spoilers at bay then I did a search for the movie to see if it would air at another date so I could watch it from the beginning, set it to record and forgot all about it. I found the film on my DVR two days later and proceeded to watch it. Three things that stood out to me were as follows: The negligence of the local police, the supernatural power of love and bond in the Barber family (the mother knew her daughter wasn’t dead initially when she went missing —if the police had issued an AMBER alert they would have found her— and the father eerily almost suffocated from an asthma attack after which he confirmed Rachel’s death —Rachel was suffocated to death—) and failure of society to pay attention to such a psychotic person as Caroline Reed who according to the film suffers from epilepsy, bouts of depression, severe envy and self-loathing. Those scenes, if you choose to watch the film will be hard to watch. Then, at the very end when Rachel’s younger sister comes to her dad (played by Guy Pearce) and tells him that it’s her fault her sister is dead because she is the reason her family knew the Reeds in the first place and her father’s response to her. That was such a powerful scene.

It’s psychologically multi-dimensional film-making at its best in the sense that you experience what the victim is feeling how she lived her life at the same time you experience what the perpetrator is feeling and how she lived her life, you see the parents on both sides, the children and you get to experience how all these people are feeling while all of this is going on.

Yes, we have seen and read horrific tales of child abductions and killings in the past and yes we’ve seen them made into films many times before but this film is different. This is the type of true-story movie that will haunt you long after you’ve watched it. It’s the kind of story that would make you want to reach out to the parents and family of Rachel Barber (the 15 yr old girl who was abducted and killed) and extend your condolences. It’s the kind of film that will make you scream at the screen right before the end credits role revealing that Caroline Reed (the psychotic killer) will be eligible for parole in the year 2013. It is the kind of film that will have you break down in tears when the picture of the real Rachel Barber (1983-1999) is shown in her obituary right before the screen fades to black.