Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar offers up a grisly Halloween trick-and-treat in his first full-out horror movie, an eye-popping and genuinely shocking gender-bending twist on Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.’’
Working with his acting mentor for the first time in more than two decades, Antonio Banderas delivers his strongest performance in years as a mad plastic surgeon who has developed a super-durable artificial skin in a highly unethical manner.
What his medical colleagues don’t know is that Banderas’ guinea pig for this long-term experiment has been a gorgeous young woman (Elena Anaya) in a flesh-colored leotard whom he has long held captive in a locked room at his sprawling estate in Toledo, Spain.
Their truly twisted relationship gets even weirder after the arrival of a violent fugitive (Roberto Ãlamo) in a tiger costume who turns out to be the son of Banderas’ protective housekeeper (Marisa Paredes).
After the intruder’s death, the housekeeper, who monitors the captive on TV screens, slowly reveals the film’s secrets.
They involve not only Banderas’ parentage but the lurid and deeply disturbing back story behind Anaya’s character.
Flashbacks detail a couple of suicides, one of them Banderas’ wife, a burn victim who bears a disturbing resemblance to Anaya — who has come to replace the wife in Banderas’ life in at least one crucial way.
And — it’s only fair to warn you — we see the attempted rape of Banderas’ daughter (Blanca Suárez) by a young man (Jan Cornet).
After her death, the culprit finds himself being subjected to an especially unusual and intimate form of revenge at Banderas’ hands.
This deeply warped, modern-day take on “Frankenstein” is laced with some camp humor and Almodóvar’s trademark homages to 1950s melodramas.
Though gorgeously designed and photographed, with a lush score by Alberto Iglesias, this is Almodóvar’s darkest film to date.
And for once, he doesn’t leaven his penchant for perversity with much affection for his bizarre characters.
I didn’t have a problem with this. It’s great to see a horror movie that isn’t aimed at the “Saw’’ crowd.
But this one may be a bit much even for Almodóvar’s longtime fans.