In My Skin

The story is about Esther, a cheerful Parisian woman in her thirties. The young woman works in marketing and aspires to be hired by the company where she is currently on assignment. With her boyfriend Vincent, she plans to buy an apartment. During a party, Esther falls and doesn’t realize until she gets home that she has injured her leg. This deep wound becomes an obsession for her. Esther develops a fascination with her own flesh and begins to cut herself, while hiding this new passion from those around her.

When the movie is released, it’s a shock. The French and international press praises the young filmmaker’s virtuosity, and In My Skin quickly gains a reputation among fans of transgressive cinema inspired by David Cronenberg, as well as among viewers impressed by the film’s symbolic dimension. Marina De Van would later describe her addictions and her relationship with dependency and self-destruction in her books, which already formed the basis of her first film.

In My Skin also appears to be a precursor to the wave of “radical” French horror films that would emerge in the 2000s: High Tension (2003) by Alexandre Aja, Inside (2007) by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, Frontière(s) (2007) by Xavier Gens, Martyrs (2008) by Pascal Laugier, and The Horde (2009) by Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher.

Although it became a benchmark in the body horror genre, In My Skin had gradually fallen into obscurity in recent years, with no releases on television, video on demand or physical media since the DVD that followed its theatrical release. This was mainly due to technical reasons: shot in 35 mm, the film was post-produced digitally. All the footage from the shoot, the rushes, were digitized in high definition, with all the limitations of the technical solutions available in 2002. The film was edited on Avid, then transferred to film for the production of 35 mm copies for theatrical release. The digital export of the edit served as the film’s “negative,” with a quality well below current standards.

When we launched ourselves into the creation of a new 4K master in line with current standards, in collaboration with the LTC Patrimoine laboratory and Severin Films, we had to digitize the 50 reels of rushes in 4K, then reconstruct the film shot by shot in order to faithfully recreate the original edit. It took nearly two years of work to achieve a stunning new 4K HDR master, approved by director Marina De Van and cinematographer Pierre Barougier.

We are delighted to offer you this edition, which we are sharing with Severin Films, available in two versions:

• The UltraHD/Blu-ray combo with slipcover, strictly limited to 500 copies
• The single Blu-ray of the film, also limited to 500 copies

L’UHD comme le blu-ray comportent le film en français et en anglais, avec sous-titres anglais sur le film et sous-titres français sur les bonus

Disc 1: 4K UHD (Film + Special Features)

• The film in 4K HDR
• Commentary By Writer/Director/Star Marina De Van
  Commentary By Film Critic/Fantasia International Film Festival Programmer Justine Smith
  Exclusive Faculty Of Horror Episode On IN MY SKIN With Andrea Subissati And Alexandra West
• French Trailer
• US Trailer

Disc 2: Blu-ray (Film + Special Features)

• The film in HD
• Commentary By Writer/Director/Star Marina De Van
  Commentary By Film Critic/Fantasia International Film Festival Programmer Justine Smith
  Exclusive Faculty Of Horror Episode On IN MY SKIN With Andrea Subissati And Alexandra West
• Introduction By Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic Women
• Exposed Skin – Interview With Marina De Van
• Fear Of A Female Cannibal – Barbara Creed, Author Of The Monstrous-Feminine, On In My Skin
• Under The Surface – Video Essay By Dr. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Author Of 1000 Women In Horror, 1895-2018
• French Trailer
• US Trailer
• Marina De Van’s Student Shorts : Bien sous tous rapports (1996) and Rétention (1997)
• Cadavre exquis (2012), short film by Léa Mysius
• A Fermenting Woman (2024), court-métrage de Priscilla Galvez, avec sous-titres français