In 1914, a young Englishman travels to a remote island in the South Atlantic to work for one year as a weather observer. It soon becomes obvious that the man he is replacing is missing. The only other inhabitant of the island is the caretaker of the crudely fortified lighthouse, Gruner. Gruner says the previous weather observer cannot return with the ship as he has died from typhus, possibly swimming in the sea, and there is no body.
The unnamed man explores the island, seeing strange rock circles on the beach. When he returns to the cabin he finds the diary of the previous meteorologist with drawings of local wildlife including strange creatures from the sea. Soon after reading this he is beset at night by the creatures trying to gain entry to his cabin. The next day he calls to Gruner to let him into the lighthouse, but to no avail. That night when the creatures come again he lights a fire against them, only to burn down most of his cabin.
The next day as the man explores the island, he discovers a female sea creature. He raises his gun, but Gruner arrives and prevents him from shooting her and shows that she is "tame." Gruner gives the man the name "Friend" and he explains that like a dog she will not leave her master (Gruner) no matter how cruel he is.
Friend offers to share ammunition and other supplies to bribe Gruner into letting him stay in the lighthouse, which Gruner accepts. That night creatures climb the lighthouse, and Gruner savagely butchers them. Friend faints and Gruner becomes angry, stating he has no use for him if he cannot fight. The next night Gruner locks Friend outside on the balcony with his gun and an axe, leaving him to die. In the morning Gruner discovers him covered in creature blood but still alive.
The two men settle into a routine; they spend their nights alternating between battling the creatures and keeping watch. Friend grows to like the captive female creature, and names her Aneris, but does not intervene while Gruner continually physically and sexually abuses her. Friend also wonders if the creatures keep coming to the lighthouse because they want to reclaim the female sea creature, who sits on the balcony and sings in strange sounds at night, when they come. Gruner belittles Friend's ideas, stating the creatures possess no higher sensibilities. Friend ironically recalls why he came to the island: to find peace in nothingness.
One night, the duo come perilously close to being killed when they are overrun by the creatures. When Friend tries to signal a passing ship the next day, Gruner attacks him. Aneris tries to protect him, enraging Gruner. That night the two men have a conversation about why Gruner did not want to be rescued and return to civilization. The question arises as to whether or not there is civility in society: many evils exist in society but are often masked. Friend makes a veiled comment that farmers also see animals as having no higher sensibilities, and though they care for their animals and give then cute names, ultimately the farmer uses and kills them for his own ends. Gruner misses this and states that things on the island have always been as they are, with nothing to read into.
Friend takes a walk on the beach, finding whale bones and carves one into a boat to show to Aneris and communicates he needs one to leave the island. She leads him to an abandoned boat on the beach. Gruner says the boat is too small for an escape from the island, remaining from a Portuguese shipwreck. He says the ship's cargo contained dynamite, but what washed up was water-logged.
Friend shows interest in exploring the shipwreck, while Gruner does not. However, after seeing Friend swimming in a pool with Aneris, Gruner changes his mind. They use the boat to row out to the wreck and Friend dons an old diving suit and jumps in. Once several boxes of dynamite have been retrieved, Gruner does not pull up Friend and stops pumping air to him, leaving him on the sea floor to die. Friend escapes the suit and climbs into the boat with the knowledge Gruner has tried to kill him for the second time. Back to the lighthouse, they discover that the recovered dynamite is dry enough to use.
Friend and Gruner form a plan to lure as many sea creatures to the lighthouse as possible before setting off the dynamite, believing that the show of force will kill many and drive them off. The plan succeeds with the resulting blast killing many of the creatures and knocking both Friend and himself unconscious.
In the morning, Gruner finishes off the wounded and dying creatures that are lying on the beach with a harpoon, and Friend once again tries to convince Gruner that the creatures are more civilized than Gruner makes them out to be after seeing one of the dead creatures wearing a necklace. Gruner, enraged, hurls it into the sea.
Later that evening, Gruner reveals that he found Aneris trapped in his net in the sea and freed her from it. She believed that she owed him her life, which is why she does not leave him despite his many abuses. The following night the creatures do not attack, and a great wailing sound comes from the sea which Friend takes to be mourning. Aneris disappears for the first time. While Gruner sleeps, Friend discovers a photo of Gruner as a young man with a wife. Friend sees that the woman in the picture is the same one as in the picture he found in the previous science officer's log in the cabin. Friend reevaluates Gruners speeches of "this is how things have always been here," which had convinced Friend to participate in the violence and tolerate the abuses to Aneris.
Friend leaves a present of the carved boat for the creatures in a rock circle on the beach. He discovers a child creature investigating his present, and Aneris returns, standing upright for the first time and appearing more confident and bold. They are interrupted by Gruner firing a gun. Friend tries to tell him that the creatures – more of whom have calmly appeared behind Aneris – want a truce. Gruner commands Aneris to return to him but she refuses, causing him to scream that "no one leaves Gruner". He runs back to the lighthouse and shoots a flare at the child, striking him in the chest and killing him. Friend runs after Gruner as he continues to fire flares, and after a struggle throws him to the ground and stabs his leg. Gruner gains the upper hand and attempts to kill Friend with an axe, but Friend reveals to Gruner he knows he is the previous meteorologist and urges Gruner to stop, asking Gruner to remember the man he once was, and to remember love, stating that what he was doing here was not love. Friend explains that Gruner had misunderstood the entire situation on the island, saying the creatures are not naturally violent, and all his actions and understandings were wrong. Suddenly and painfully enlightened by this knowledge, Gruner solemnly drops the axe and staggers outside to face his fate, and is killed by the sea creatures that he has so grievously wronged.
Many months later, the next ship arrives to replace Friend. The captain mistakes him for the lighthouse-keeper Gruner and Friend does not correct him. Friend resembles the previous man in all aspects. He also states the previous science officer was killed by typhus. He maintains the Gruner role as a self-inflicted punishment, knowing he is no longer the man who arrived at the island. The man who once sought peace in solitude now finds torment in it. What is the point of escaping the island if he is unable to escape the knowledge of the inhuman things he has done? The sea captain states he is unfit for duty and is taking him back to the mainland on the ship. Seeing the ship, whose image Friend had shown to her many times as the way he would leave the island, Aneris leaps into the sea and swims away to her freedom.
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Cold Skin has grossed a worldwide total of $737,478.[3] On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 48% based on 27 reviews, and an average rating of 6.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Cold Skin exerts a strong visual pull, even if all that icy atmosphere isn't a truly satisfying substitute for a story that dares to go somewhere different." American metal band Cactus Cathedral wrote their song "For A Fool" from their first album The Forgotten Frontier about the film.[7]
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