Replace, the Canadian-German co-production, recently had its Premiere at Fantasia and stars Rebecca Forsythe as Kira (the Japanese transliteration of the English word “killer”), a beautiful young woman who is suffering from a mysterious skin affliction. Beginning on her hand and slowly spreading throughout her body, the strange disease ages the infected areas to the point the skin dries out and simply crumbles away. Upon seeking help from Dr. Rafaela Crober (Barbara Crampton), Kira finds she also suffers from severe memory loss as a side effect of her condition and can only account for what transpired in the last 7 days.
As the infection worsens, Kira discovers that she is able to remove her dead tissue and replace it with skin only from a living donor. This sends the desperate woman on a killing spree to stave off the effects of the disease while maintaining her good looks by skinning the beautiful women unlucky enough to cross her path.
Replace is like The Neon Demon, as if it were directed by a young David Cronenberg. The film definitely comes strong from the body-horror sub-genre, but does so while attempting to tackle the same broader themes like the limited shelf life of beauty and how far some would go to get it. It’s these underlying themes that add a bit more leverage to the narrative, which is supplemented by a lush dreamlike world created by director Norbert Keil, working off a script co-written with Richard Stanley (The Island of Dr. Moreau, Dust Devi, Hardware). While the film definitely has some grand ideas and some beautiful visuals, its budgetary and performance shortcomings tend to get the best of this narrative.
Rebecca Forsythe, however, is the film’s saving grace as Kira, who helps the film overcome some of these limitations by giving her all every second she is on screen. While the film falls short with its forced lesbian tryst subplot, it’s Kira’s personal struggle trying to recover her true identity that carries the film. While the first act of Replace is a bit rough around the edges and the dialogue at times can be a bit clunky overall, once the film gets going it’s surprisingly engaging and ends with a third act reminiscent of Martyrs. As much as I enjoyed Replace, I really just couldn’t get over how derivative it was of The Neon Demon both story-wise and visually. While Replace isn’t a bad film, it wasn’t a good film either, and I really wanted to like it more. The film’s lack of originality and limitations makes this a rainy day watch on Netflix at best for those curious enough to seek it out.