One of the most wonderful things about watching great movies is the sense of relaxation one feels, that moment of being simultaneously stimulated by and taken away from the everyday by a top-notch cinematic outing.

One movie that is both well made and acted but will have you in a state akin to a quivering wreck by the time the end credits roll however, is In Their Skin, showing on Rialto.

One of the most wonderful things about watching great movies is the sense of relaxation one feels, that moment of being simultaneously stimulated by and taken away from the everyday by a top-notch cinematic outing.

One movie that is both well made and acted but will have you in a state akin to a quivering wreck by the time the end credits roll however, is In Their Skin, showing on Rialto.

Called everything from horror to thriller to art house screamer, it is a beautifully filmed, unnerving home-invasion number that achieves full creepy impact without succumbing to cheap genre thrills or overt displays of gore.

When you’re a youngster, the films that really scare the holy hell out of you usually involve monsters, ghosts or talking dolls and the like, and are rarely rooted in actual reality. As I’ve gotten older and become a mother, my deepest fears have changed dramatically – and I’ve turned into the one forever saying, “No, it doesn’t exist… seriously.” As a grown woman with more to lose, I began to feel increasingly affected by more "realistic" type of horror, and few horror flicks are as terrifying in their realism as kidnapping and/or home invasion-type flicks.

To kick off this one, a brief prologue shows the Hughes family in crisis after the accidental death of their daughter, then six months later, mother Mary (Selma Blair) still in a deep depression while dad Mark (Josh Close, who also wrote the film) has responded by burying himself in work. In an effort to save their marriage and for the sake of their eight-year-old son they decide to take a break at the family vacation home in the woods. It’s still chilly and the forest dark, unpopulated and eerie but hey, when you’re going through hell a break is a break, huh? The fact that the house is dead flash is clearly another factor, and well stocked with decent wine.

The still-broken trio are awoken the following morning by an unexpected visit from their “neighbours,” the Zakowskis, who are creepily chopping wood for them. This is where things faltered a little for me as dad Mark ignores what for anyone else would be the first set of giant of warning bells and invites them into his home. Sure Zakowski dad Bobby (a seriously creep, Norman Bates-esque James D’Arcy) and his kooky spouse, Jane (Rachel Miner) are quite bloody pushy, but they have a son, Jared (Alex Ferris, supposedly Brendon’s age, though he looks several years older) and hey, a family is a family.

All goes well enough at first despite being a little stressful at time, but after the boys have a scrap upstairs the neighbouring family are thrown out — not waiting until morning to pay their neighbours another visit…

It rapidly turns into a hostage situation as well as social comment, with the poorer, less upwardly mobile family clearly wanting what the Hughes have, including their back story. This go from bad to worse and I swear I didn’t exhale for about ten solid minutes, turning my Saturday night on the couch into something akin to an exhausting couple of hours. Worth it though as the acting is great and the tale really quite compelling.

The film is by no means flawless - the ending wraps up too neatly by half – but it’s interesting to explore the outcome when “ordinary people” go beyond what they ever thought they were capable of in order to survive.

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