| Director: | Cecelia Condit |
| Starring: | Jill Sands Jennifer Dunegan Marian Condit Mary Jo Toles Stephen Vogel Robert Biederman Lisa Kohn Judith Allston |
| Music: | Karen Skladany, Alice Malloy |
| Runtime: | 11:30 |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Beneath the Skin is a 1981 short film created by Cecelia Condit. It follows a woman's thoughts and musings towards a recent incident in which she discovered that her boyfriend was hiding the body of his ex-girlfriend in his closet.
Skin is based on a real-life incident that occurred in Condit's life when she dated Ira Einhorn, also known as the Unicorn Killer. Ira had murdered his ex-girlfriend, Holly Maddux, and hidden her corpse in his closet.[1] Condit, who began dating Einhorn, never found Maddux's corpse due to being on medication that hindered her sense of smell.[2]
Condit considers it to be part of the "Jill Sands trilogy", which refers to three of her films which star the actress Jill Sands; Beneath the Skin, Possibly in Michigan, and Not a Jealous Bone.
The movie follows the narration an unnamed woman recounting a series of events surrounding her four-year relationship with an unnamed man, and how the corpse of his ex-girlfriend was discovered in his apartment after other tenants began to complain of a pungent smell.
The film was noted for its humorous play with the macabre.[3] [4] [5] Its feminist approach was also commented on.[6] [7] [8] [9]
Some people have made connections between Skin and Possibly in Michigan, another film created by Condit. A popular theory is that Michigan is a subtle retelling of Skin where Condit imagines a scenario where she avoids a dangerous, cannibalistic man and kills him to avenge his female victims.