Cold Skin

A young man (David Oakes) accepts a year-long position as weather observer on an island somewhere south of Australia. His predecessor died of typhus, according to the extremely ragged looking man named Gruner (Ray Stevenson) that mans the lighthouse. Gruner appears to be the only other inhabitant, until the second night, when it turns out their a race of amphibious humans that live off-shore. 

They quickly destroy his cabin, or rather, he destroys it in his dumbass attempts to fend them off. I really can't see how he thought the firebreak consisting of every book he brought was worthwhile. It's a one night solution, and you've got 362 more nights to go! The fact he has coffee, tobacco, gin, and lots of bullets convince Gruner to allow him haven within the lighthouse, gussied up like a siege tower. Where he finds Gruner has one of the fish-people (Aura Garrido) living there, as his pet. Or slave. Or sex toy.

I guess this movie was for dudes who watched Shape of Water and said, "where's equal opportunity for the men who want sex with fish? Lady fish, obviously."

Anyway, things progress unsteadily from there. Friend (as Gruner calls the young man) makes halting attempts to understand the fish-lady. Even gives her a name. He considers ways to escape, but also ways to finish off the frequent attacks once and for all. Gruner seemingly doesn't want anything to change. There's a whole thing how both of them are running from things they don't want to deal with. Gruner the loss of someone, Friend from World War 1. Except he wound up in his own war, with only a crazy man by his side. There's even a scene the day after a big attack where the two of them wander amongst the dead and dying in a charred, torn up landscape.

Stevenson plays Gruner as unhinged, but ultimately kind of pitiful. He's fine with this life so long as he thinks he has everything under control. It makes him feel like God, he decides who is safe or not, who lives or dies. If someone starts to go against his will, he tries to shout them down, and if that fails, he sort of falls apart. Kind of a classic abuser, although I think he really is falling to pieces, rather than it being a ploy for sympathy.

Friend is torn between recognizing that meeting a new form of intelligent life is extraordinary, and he should be trying to understand them, and being terrified he's going to die and trying to kill them. And we never see enough of their culture to really understand their perspective. They don't seem to get that if you bust down the door of someone's house and tear it apart looking for them, they may stab you when you get close. So what's that mean about how they live under the sea?

I did wonder why Friend didn't just take his supplies and go further inland. It's unclear how big the island is, but there are clearly hills visible in the background. They're getting timber for Gruner's defense from someplace. Get away from shore and let them attack Gruner every night.

The expansive shots of the ocean and the shoreline are beautiful, especially as the weather changes across months. The use of the lighthouse to temporarily spotlight the fish-people is a nice touch. There's some very moody music at times, usually in the quieter moments, that I really enjoyed, but can't describe well. It just captured the isolation somehow.