Local film distributor Anticipate Pictures (Amoeba, Perfect Days) will release Mysterious Skin - 4K Restoration exclusively at Filmhouse starting 27 August with a Mysterious Skin OST Listening Party at Filmhouse on 11 September.
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Anticipate Pictures is proud to present Mysterious Skin in a brand new, director-approved 4K restoration, began screening exclusively in Singapore at Filmhouse on 27 August 2026. The 2005 cult masterpiece was first unveiled by director Gregg Araki (I Want Your Sex) at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on 19 September 2025, where it went on to play at the Sundance Film Festival 2026, 21 years after its phenomenal debut in the same acclaimed film festival.
To celebrate the film’s release, local film distributor Anticipate Pictures will host a listening party of the film’s original soundtrack (OST) at Filmhouse on 11 September. The transportive, shoegazey OST was written and performed by the late Harold Budd, a longtime collaborator of Brian Eno, and Robin Guthrie, co-founder of the dream pop band Cocteau Twins.
TWO EARLY PERFORMANCES BY GENERATIONAL TALENTS: JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT AND BRADY CORBET FORM THE SENSITIVE EMOTIONAL CORE OF MYSTERIOUS SKIN
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Pictured: (from L-R) Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as “Neil McCormick”), Brady Corbet (as “Brian Lackey”)
Writer-director Gregg Araki (I Want Your Sex, Nowhere) adapted Mysterious Skin from Scott Heim’s acclaimed novel of the same name. Often cited as Araki’s best work, it enjoys lasting critical acclaim and is considered a cult classic, with an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a stunning 4.2 of 5 stars on Letterboxd. It won the Best Director and Best Actor Awards at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2005, the Jury Award at the 2004 Bergen International Film Festival, Best Movie at the 2006 Polished Apple Awards, and Best Fictional Work at the 2006 Icelandic Queer Film Festival.
Mysterious Skin is an intensely powerful chronicle of childhood innocence lost. Set in rural Kansas, the film follows two teenage boys who once played on the same baseball team—Neil McCormick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a charismatic but emotionally aloof male hustler, and Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet), a nervous introvert obsessed with the idea that he has been abducted by a UFO. When the boys’ parallel lives inevitably intersect, the pair unearth dark, repressed secrets on a harrowing and unforgettable journey of self-discovery.
The film features starmaking turns from then-22 year old Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer, Inception), and then-16 year old Brady Corbet (Oscar-nominated director of The Brutalist) alongside the outstanding performances from co-stars Michelle Trachtenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl ), Mary Lynn Rajskub (24), and Academy Award© nominee Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas).
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Pictured: (from L-R) Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as “Neil McCormick”), Jeff Licon (as “Eric Preston”), Michelle Trachtenberg (as “Wendy”)
Mysterious Skin is widely praised for the strong performances by the whole cast, as well as Araki’s sensitive depiction of the difficult topics of child sexual abuse and sexual violence.
Gordon-Levitt’s performance in particular garnered wide praise for its physicality and palpable charm, including fans approaching him on the street to voice their appreciation, and in The Guardian, which describes “a physical, uninhibited and affecting performance”.
MYSTERIOUS SKIN SOUNDTRACK LISTENING PARTY AT FILMHOUSE, 11 SEPTEMBER 2026
Pictured: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as “Neil McCormick”)
As part of Mysterious Skin’s launch in Singapore, Anticipate Pictures will host a listening party of the film’s iconic music and score at Filmhouse on Friday 11 September starting at 8:30pm.
Mysterious Skin features an Original Soundtrack written for the film by beloved American post-rock musicians, Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie. Additionally, it features songs by Cocteau Twins, Sigur Rós, and the seminal shoegaze band Slowdive.
“[This] soundtrack is much, much more than mere background music,” writes Araki in the OST’s CD liner notes, “it’s the heart and soul of the whole movie”. The sirenic music was laid into the story’s DNA even before Araki’s adaptation: “[Novelist] Scott Heim wrote Mysterious Skin listening to Slowdive, and listening to Cocteau Twins [...] all that sort of shoegazy, dreamy music. That’s why the vibe of Mysterious Skin so fit with my vibe. Like we were cut from the same cloth,” says Araki.
With the proliferation of numerous shoegaze bands in Singapore, it is safe to say that the lush, ethereal, and altogether transportive music genre is popular amongst young Singaporeans. The listening party will thus spotlight the film’s music, gathering filmgoers to celebrate the release of Mysterious Skin - 4K Restoration in an aurally nourishing evening out. There will be a corner to share written reflections about the film while enjoying the party, as a way of facilitating communal reflection on this deeply moving film. Guests will also enjoy a collectible souvenir (limited quantity - while stocks last), allowing them to revisit the music after the event is over.
ARAKI’S MOST SERIOUS AND ACCESSIBLE WORK
Mysterious Skin stands out in Araki’s filmography as a departure from his usual absurd tone, which is seen even in his latest feature, I Want Your Sex. He explains, “my other films [...have] this kind of self-conscious irony to them, whereas Mysterious Skin is much more straightforward in that it is an emotional story. The film is much more serious and much more character-driven.” Because of this, it is also often cited as his most accessible film, a good entry point to his oeuvre. Araki goes on, “it really comes from the source material. I really wanted to tell this particular story, which I thought was an important story to tell, in a very faithful and pure way. The tone and point of view were very much dictated by Scott’s book.”
Pictured: Brady Corbet (as “Brian Lackey”)
Made on a modest budget, the leads describe being attracted to the project because of the care Araki exuded for the story and its subject matter. In a 2005 interview with IGN, Gordon-Levitt recalls, “When I first read the script, I just said, 'My God, whoever wrote this really cares, loves and believes in what they're writing.' And it's so rare…”; Corbet states, “minutes after saying 'Hello' I realized that this was a guy who cared about his story… his characters and was going to treat them with a delicate touch and with respect and care.” Michelle Trachtenberg, chose this as her first foray into independent films as she “loved the script… It's very shocking but it just read so well and it felt so beautiful just on the page, so I thought, 'Well, this must be some great effort,' so I immediately wanted to do it.”
Though Araki’s directorial approach towards child sexual abuse and sexual violence is unflinchingly truthful, making for a confronting watch, he ran a set which prioritised emotional safety and warmth. Corbet, who went on to become an award-winning writer-director, describes how “Gregg created an atmosphere where all of us felt really safe”. His time on set was both “a really pleasant experience… a very happy memory”, and a great learning experience, “I learned a lot of good tricks on Mysterious Skin, of how to shoot scenes with very young people that don’t compromise their innocence.”
The innocent and open performances from both child actors playing 8-year-old Neil and Brian (Chase Ellison and George Webster, respectively), were achieved without revealing the film’s adult contents to them. “I invented this whole separate movie that they were in to protect them from what the real movie was about,” Araki explains, “It kind of amazes me that they had no idea, because when I see the movie, their performances are so nuanced, and there is so much going on in their faces. In truth they have no idea what they are acting.”
ON THE RESTORATION
This restoration goes beyond the usual 4K rescan and cleanup of negatives. With both the visual and audio dimensions of the film, Araki took the opportunity to “fix the little things that had bothered him about the film over the years,” correcting things like lab-produced errors in shot framing, mumbled lines, and poor VFX.
With new scans of the original camera negatives, Araki and the restoration team gained more real estate on every frame, discovering along the way that an early lab error caused the widely released original version to stray from what was originally intended by the creatives. Araki reviewed every shot and personally reframed them using the post-production tool, DaVinci Resolve. The restoration was done by the Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with Sundance Institute, including bespoke color grading which the film previously could not afford. “I told the colorist, ‘I want it to look very painterly.’ Because my background is kind of in visual arts, I was really approaching the color as a painting and everything about the images like a composition,” Araki explains. Together, they achieved richer hues and more refined images which also better fit the story’s setting.
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Original 2005 version “within” the new 4K restoration, showing more of the image than before seen.
(from L-R) Brady Corbet (as “Brian Lackey”), Jeff Licon (as “Eric Preston”)
In spite of the meticulous work adjusting every shot, Araki affirms that the restoration does not impinge on the film’s fundamental DNA, “I challenge a Mysterious Skin fan to watch the movie and tell me exactly all the things changed. It’s very subtle, but when you see it, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, that is fucking better.’ That’s my take as a director.”
The result is a Mysterious Skin he is excited to present as the new definitive version for audiences old and new.
IN CLOSING
Pictured: (from L-R) Brady Corbet (as “Brian Lackey”), Mary Lynn Rajskub (as “Avalyn Friesen”)
Distributed by Anticipate Pictures, Mysterious Skin - 4K Restoration is now showing exclusively at Filmhouse starting 27 August 2026.
On 11 September 8:30pm, audiences can look forward to an intimate listening party of the Mysterious Skin OST at Filmhouse. RSVP here: https://mysteriousskinlisteningparty.peatix.com
Showtimes and tickets can be found on Filmhouse’s website at https://filmhouse.sg/film/167/mysterious-skin-4k-restoration/
For more enquiries and private bookings, please visit: anticipatepictures.com and @anticipatepictures