Following 4K restorations of Gregg Araki’s 90s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy—Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere—a stunning new 4K version of the filmmaker’s acclaimed 2004 adaption of Scott Heim’s novel, Mysterious Skin, opens theatrically in New York today. The intensely powerful chronicle of childhood innocence lost features starmaking turns from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet alongside outstanding performances from Michelle
Trachtenberg, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Oscar-nominee Elisabeth Shue.
Set in 1980s rural Kansas, Neil (Chase Ellison/Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Brian (George Webster/Brady Corbet) played on the same little league baseball team when they were eight years old. Ten years on, the two boys couldn’t be more different. Neil is a charismatic but emotionally aloof hustler, while Brian is a nervous introvert obsessed with the idea that he has been abducted by a UFO. When the boys’ parallel lives inevitably intersect, the pair unearth dark, repressed secrets on a harrowing and unforgettable journey of self-discovery.
With Mysterious Skin opening in New York at IFC Center today and in Los Angeles at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown on Friday, August 21st, followed by a nationwide rollout from Strand Releasing, Gregg Araki speaks exclusively with The Queer Review’s editor James Kleinmann about his memories of making the film, what the 4K restoration process allowed him to accomplish, the legacy of the New Queer Cinema movement, and his admiration for the work of Derek Jarman.
James Kleinmann, The Queer Review: you initially passed on adapting Scott Heim’s book several times, what eventually convinced you to bring it to the screen?
Gregg Araki: “I loved the book so much. I found it so moving. It was devastating to read. It seemed unfilmable to me because I really wanted to include the part with the kids. It wasn’t until I figured out editorially and stylistically how to do that—where the kids could be protected from the subject matter—that I started to think, maybe there is a way to do the book. It took years for me to figure that out, then it all happened.”
That was essentially a decision to use POV shots, which allowed you to have child actors in it without them having to be in any disturbing scenes from their perspective, but what did that approach offer in terms of the viewer experience?
“I think it’s one reason why the movie is so tense because it’s very much told from a subjective point of view. So it’s really like you’re experiencing what the kids are experiencing in real time. I think that’s one reason why the movie is so impactful for people because you go through everything that the characters are going through.”
When it comes to the early abuse and the later sexual assault, other filmmakers might have set the scene and then panned away and left things to our own imaginations. Why did you want to keep us in the room with the characters?
“Because those are the parts of the book that really shocked me, but also really affected me. It was so real and so authentic and felt so lived-in. I wasn’t interested in making the more PG-13, TV movie version of it where the door closes and the violins start to play. There have been other movies about child abuse and sexual trauma that have done that already. For me, those are exactly the parts that make the book so special. It was what stood out for me in the book so it was important to me to put that in the movie and if not then I didn’t want to make the movie at all. I was not interested in doing any other version of it.”
It’s an unsettling film but the music choices never manipulate us or set us on edge. What was your approach with the original score and the beautiful songs that you use on the soundtrack?
“It was very much part of the fabric of the movie. The score by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd is so incredibly beautiful and lyrical and dreamlike. A lot of the source cues like the Slowdive songs are the same. It’s very much in that 90s shoegaze genre which is a sound that I was very into and that I still am into. Most importantly, Scott was very into it too and he used to listen to shoegaze and dream pop music while he was writing the book. He listens to music while he writes and so do I. That’s why the score becomes so much more than accompanying music, it’s actually the spirit and the soul of the movie. The score is incredible and I’m so thrilled that it’s going to be released on vinyl for the first time on 4AD Records in September.”
That’s wonderful. I remember the days of coming out of a movie that you loved and heading straight to the record store to buy the soundtrack from Tower Records or whatever your local equivalent was.
“Yeah, it was usually Virgin Mega Store for me.”
The film looks really beautiful in this new 4K restoration, I love the color palette and the cinematography. What did revisiting the film all these years on allow you to bring out in it?
“I’m so excited about the restoration because we didn’t have money when we made Mysterious Skin because the vision of it was so uncompromising. The budget was very low, around one million dollars. I still don’t even know how we did it because it’s shot on 35mm, it’s a period piece, it has kids in it and all kinds of stuff that you’re not supposed to do on a small budget. Because of that when it came to post-production we didn’t have the money to make a digital intermediate and we couldn’t really finish the film properly in a digital way. It wasn’t until we did the remaster that we were able to go back into it in detail. For me, each image is very much like a painting. So we went back in and really fine tuned all of the visuals as well as remixing the sound so that it is technically up to the standard of 2026. Also, I’m a better filmmaker today than I was 20 years ago and so it was about applying everything I know about filmmaking now that I didn’t know then to this old movie. I was able to really get in there and finish the movie as I would have if we’d had more money back in the day.”
Is there a particular scene or sequence that you’re that especially satisfied with in this 4K restoration?
“All of it. I didn’t fuck with the movie. I didn’t really alter it, It’s just more polished and the images are more carefully crafted in a way. I don’t think anybody who sees the movie will even be able to tell what I did, but I can tell, I know what I did. One example is the opening title sequence, which has always bothered me because it’s so dirty because it’s white titles on a white background. I was able to go in and redo the whole thing. Now it’s pristine and it’s exactly what I wanted and what it should have been in 2004 but we couldn’t do it then because we didn’t have the technical capabilities. It’s stuff like that which is satisfying. I was never happy with the flying saucer effects and we were able to go back in with all these new lighting effects and really juice it up. I don’t think other people will notice it as much as I notice it, but we went in literally shot by shot, scene by scene with the entire movie. We put a lot of work into it.”
The performances are incredible and really hold up. What are your memories of working with this cast?
“It was a very indie, low budget shoot. I think it was 22 days so everybody had to work hard, everybody had to hustle. Despite the dark subject matter it was a very joyful set. The kids didn’t know what was going on. It was summertime and they were having a good time. It was like summer camp for them and they were happy to get free candy at craft service. Everybody was there because they loved the project and really believed in it. It was very much a passion project for everybody and so the actors jumped in and really delivered. I have such fond memories of that set. It was a hard shoot. Production was hard because it was hot, it was the valley during the summer, but it was a great shoot and everybody in the cast is so fantastic in the film.”
I loved revisiting it after all these years. It is unsettling and traumatizing, but in terms of the way that these characters are processing their trauma to what extent do you see it as quite a healing movie?
“Clearly, everybody has their own subjective experience. It is very traumatizing. One thing about Mysterious Skin that I remember from when we were doing the original press is that for such a dark, harrowing tale of trauma it’s very soft and dreamy and beautiful. It’s so lyrical, largely because of the music, but also because the cinematography is painterly. Everything about it is beautiful, dreamy, and lyrical. It’s poetic. So there’s this level of softness to a story that’s so hard. That contrast is at the heart of the movie and it’s one reason why I think people love it so much. It is traumatizing, but it’s a beautiful film and at the end of the day I think it is healing and soothing. It ends it on a note of wary optimism.”
There is some humor and there is a lightness that comes out in the relationships between the characters.
“Yeah, there’s the camaraderie and the bonds between all of the characters, but so much of that is in Scott’s book.”
As part of the New Queer Cinema movement, do you see its legacy in today’s queer cinema landscape?
“Yeah, absolutely. Back in the old days of New Queer Cinema in the early 90s, there was not almost nothing. There was Derek Jarman, who was actually kind of the forefather of New Queer Cinema, and there was John Waters and Kenneth Anger. There were precedents, but as far as what was happening in the early 90s, this was before Ellen, before Will and Grace, before Ryan Murphy, before all of it. It was shocking to see two guys kiss. I remember when we screened The Living End for the first time, people were knocked out of their seats by it. We’ve come so far in the 30 plus years since the Queer New Wave to the level of something like Heated Rivalry being such a crazy global mainstream phenomenon. The idea of queer representation and how much it matters and how big of a difference it makes is incredible. It’s a reason why there are more LGBTQ+ people—young people in particular—today than ever. With each generation it’s a higher percentage because that representation makes all the difference in the world.”
Lastly, what’s your favorite piece of LGBTQ+ culture, or a person who identifies as LGBTQ+; someone or something that has had an impact on you and resonated with you?
“I will go with Derek Jarman because I think he’s undersung. I remember seeing his movies back when I was a young, fledgling indie filmmaker and being inspired by the idea of this uncompromising queer, super artsy vision. His body of work was always so unapologetically queer and in your face. The Last of England is probably my favorite of his films.”
By James Kleinmann
The New 4K Restoration of Mysterious Skin opens in New York at IFC Center on Friday, August 14th with an opening night in-person Q&A with director Gregg Araki and novelist Scott Heim after 7:15pm showtime, plus an introduction by Araki at the 9:50pm showtime. There will also be a Q&A with director Araki following the 2:05pm show on Saturday, August 15th IFC Center.
Opens in Los Angeles at Alamo Drafthouse, Downtown LA on Friday, August 21st with a Q&A with Araki after the 6pm showtime and a Q&A with Araki after the 2pm show on Saturday, August 22nd. National rollout to follow. For more screening details head to strandreleasing.com.
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