That guy's ripped... his... skin... off...

September 14, 2008 11:34 PM

Another what's-that-movie question. This time might be tougher to figure out: a man who peeled his skin off to reveal a black-fleshed person...

I remember only one scene. I saw it in the early 90s on TV, possibly earlier. The scene: a man looks at the camera, then grabs the sides of his mouth and starts ripping his mouth apart. The skin tears in half and reveals, well, a person without skin, but the flesh is black. The skinless result kind of reminds me of the Terminator, but it's definitely not that movie or any of its sequels.

Yeah, this one's a toughie. And what the hell was I watching as a kid?

posted by curagea to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

This sounds vaguely like one of the weird dreams the paranormal researchers have when they come to stay at the house from Poltergeist; could also be any number of scenes from Hellraiser, in which one character wanders around with no skin anywhere--not just his face--for most of the film. Finally, there's at least one "crack open the face to reveal another scary face" scene in Dead Alive (aka Brain Dead).

Wow. Stop me before I list another. This is like therapy for the twelve year old me who would scare himself shitless on these kinds of movies. Good luck!
posted by littlerobothead at 12:02 AM on September 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

It is a comic, not a movie, but your description matches pretty closely a scene in the first few issues of The Invisibles.
posted by paradoxflow at 12:07 AM on September 15, 2008

TV is really not my department, but I remember a vaguely similar scene in a miniseries I think might've been called "V," in which lizard-like aliens disguised as humans infiltrated society...
posted by jon1270 at 3:17 AM on September 15, 2008

It sounds like Poltergeist III to me. The foolish, foolish teens who were stupid enough to get caught by the evil puddle (or was it swimming pool? mirror?) in the high rise apartment building reappear later in the movie with the peeling skin and rotten black flesh underneath. That movie made a big impression on me when I was about 8 years old. Do you remember roughly what year you saw this movie?
posted by mustard seeds at 4:54 AM on September 15, 2008

Yeah, V comes to mind for me as well. Several times during the series, an alien has his/her skin peeled back on the arm or face to reveal dark green lizard skin.

But I would think you would remember the lizard-like mouth and teeth if it was V.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 5:29 AM on September 15, 2008

I second the vote for Poltergeist III. It's what came to mind for me also.
posted by mrbarrett.com at 9:20 AM on September 15, 2008

I know the scene you mean, but I can't think of it. I want to say Hellraiser.
posted by bleucube at 9:21 AM on September 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I wanted to say Hellraiser too, but it happens in reverse: the skinless man grows normal flesh over time.
posted by lekvar at 11:30 AM on September 15, 2008

Response by poster: mustard seeds: I can't remember what year it was. It was probably between '92 and '95.

Funny thing is, under the skin, the guy looked like a perfectly normal, uh, skinless person - no lizard-teeth or tongue or whatever. The only thing abnormal was the color of the flesh, black with MAYBE tinges of blue.

Oh, and behind him was a crowd of teenagers, and they looked unsurprised by the peeling man. And it seemed like the man tore his skin off like it was totally a normal thing to do.

Sorry if my description is icky. It's been too long...
posted by curagea at 11:49 AM on September 15, 2008