Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In is powerful dark magic

Pedro Almodovar is one of those rare directors who can pull an audience on their reputation alone. The Spaniard's powerful new film The Skin I Live In is darker than ever and crafted with his unmistakeable touch.

This is Almodovar's eighteenth film, and it shows, says Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian. "The sheer muscular confidence of Almodovar's film-making language gives [the film] force," while also capturing "a dancer's elegance and grace".

The macabre skin-flick follows a surgeon who keeps a mysterious young woman trapped in his house while he conducts controversial skin transplant experiments, exploring the familiar themes of identity, loss and gender in the process.

• In pictures: Almoldovar's leading ladies

"Every scene, every shot, must remind you of every other Almodovar picture," says Bradshaw. But instead of his usual love of Mediterranean colour and heat, the director "brings something hypnotic to the surgery-porn aesthetic of his operating theatre of cruelty".

Despite this being the 61-year-old's first foray into horror, says Sky's Tim Evans, "it's the work of a director firmly in control of his subject and shows that there are few subjects that he can't tackle with flair".

And let’s not forget the cast. Antonio Banderas returns to work with the director who discovered him for the first time since Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! in 1990. According to Empire's Kim Newman, he is "quietly, resolutely, simmeringly insane", a change from his normal cheap-laugh roles in Hollywood. Elena Ananya is "a revelation as the perfect monster".

One cannot help but ask what this film adds to Almodovar's already stunning body of work. He has noticeably matured, says Davis Gritten in the Daily Telegraph. "The Skin I Live In is the work of a master near the top of his game".

Only Time Out's Dave Calhoun dared question the Spanish auteur’s genius. "Almodovar’s ambition sometimes overtakes his writing," Calhoun writes. "It’s also a film that’s more interesting in its unveiling than conclusion, and the last 20 minutes feel a little underwhelming and pedestrian compared to what’s come before."

The Skin I Live In is in cinemas August 26 ·