In Her Skin

The film begins when 15-year-old Rachel Barber misses her tram home one night to meet with her father, Mike. Mike then relays this unusual action to his wife and Rachel's mother, Elizabeth. Initially only moderately concerned, hours drag on and the Barber family begin a frantic search for her.

It is established that Rachel is a well lauded dancer in her neighbourhood, a confident and gifted girl who follows her passion of dancing and is loved unconditionally by her moderately liberal parents and her caring boyfriend, Emmanuel "Manni" Carella.

The next day, the Barbers report the incident to the police (despite an original attempt the same night of her disappearance — which was advised against by the officer Elizabeth was speaking to as it had only been a short time since her absence, and a missing persons investigation normally requires more time for certainty). The officer in charge quickly shows he is indifferent to the idea of yet another teenage runaway case: Rachel had gone missing with her backpack, with several of her most favourite possessions, making it look like she was leaving. As a result, the support he and his colleagues give is minor and distant. Everybody in Rachel's circle of friends and extended family is astounded by this story as she was believed to be very content in her life. Despite the pleas of the Barber family, the police take the case lightly and refuse an extensive search for their daughter.

The film then focuses on the life of Caroline Reed Robertson; a former neighbour and babysitter of Rachel and the Barber family. Caroline is a disturbed teenager who has struggled all her life with an elevated state of depression due to inferiority complex and parental rejection. Caroline is overweight, epileptic and has extreme self-loathing. She is very self-conscious about her weight and remains constantly apprehensive about going to school, where she is bullied.

She tries to seek comfort in her rich and successful but estranged father, David Reid, by writing him endearing letters informing him about her day-to-day troubles and anxieties. After David divorces Caroline's mother, Gail, she seeks comfort in her sympathetic neighbour, Elizabeth Barber. Distraught Caroline follows her mother to the neighbour's house and sees the happy household of the Barbers. There she notices their daughter, Rachel, a much younger and beautiful girl in a great outfit practising a beautiful dance. She immediately sees her as an embodiment of the perfect person she wants to be. She develops an obsession to study her and be like her. At her home, she continually practices how to be best friends with Rachel but fails to confront her in reality. Caroline distances herself from her depressed mother and tries to be closer to her father by putting her flaws on the table so he can comfort her. However, David's indifference towards Caroline grows with time; he sees her only as a liability, and minimises her anger and tantrums.

As Caroline grows up to be independent in her ever-disturbed state of mind, she secludes herself in a dingy apartment and ignores everyone who actually cares about her, her mother and her sympathetic friends at work. She focuses on two people whom she admires and wants affection from: her callous father, and the unaware Rachel. While the Barbers forget about Caroline as her family moves away, Caroline continually observes Rachel and keeps making notes in order to emulate her in every way. She keeps failing, and as a result suffers ever more self-loathing. Caroline gets frustrated one day and devises a plan to murder Rachel and steal the identity of the girl she wants to be — effectively "replacing" her with herself.

She gathers herself and in her private, insecure state of mind puts on a confident public face. Very convincingly, she lures Rachel into her trap by asking her to take part in a confidential research study that would award Rachel with $500 and much beautiful clothing to take away. Young and naive Rachel is attracted to the offer and readily agrees to Caroline's seemingly harmless offer. In the meantime, Rachel enjoys time with Manni; she mentions to him her confidential high-paying job while ogling a pair of expensive shoes. Despite his concern, she refuses to divulge to him the nature of the job. She plans to execute the job, earn enough money to buy the shoes, and tell him all about it later.

Caroline takes Rachel to her apartment, gets her to relax and casually socialise over drinks, and then meditate as a part of the study. And then Caroline brutally strangles her to death.

When Rachel goes missing, Manni eventually reveals to Elizabeth about the mysterious job. Upon learning this, the Barbers strongly believe their daughter's disappearance to be a kidnapping by a local brothel; they attempt to coax the local police to investigate further. Once again, the effort fails due to the police's indifference. A few days later, an analyst with the police's Missing Persons department, Max DePyle, notices the missing persons posters of Rachel all over Melbourne (placed painstakingly by her family over very full and long hours of effort on the street). DePyle himself is a devoted father; he dedicates himself to aiding the Barbers as much as he can, as he senses something is wrong with Rachel's case.

DePyle calls in a favor with a friend at Australia's Most Wanted. He is able to get special attention from the media, and more people come forward to comfort and help the Barber family in pursuit of their missing daughter.

Caroline dumps Rachel's body at David's farm and feels liberated from the self-imposed pressure to be like Rachel. She believes her plan to be flawless and makes preparations to flee under Rachel's name. She is still moderately insecure, but her depression begins to ebb and she feels smug to be in control. She calls the Barbers' residence, showing fake concern in order to gather knowledge about their search. She is taken aback when one of the witnesses comes forward describing Rachel's last contact with someone who looked like Caroline. Caroline's mother gets suspicious and informs her ex-husband and Caroline's father about her fears and her concern for Caroline. The police also figure out Caroline's possible involvement, and Detective Neil Paterson and DePyle come with a squad to apprehend Caroline for questioning. Caroline succumbs to the immeasurable pressure, collapses and is hospitalised. Her father, already disturbed by what Caroline may have done, kindly asks her to admit the truth to the police, saying that if she does she will be the daughter he always wanted (in truth, however, he wants to give her up to the police as an easy escape from dealing with his disappointment in his daughter forever). Moved to tears by this, Caroline confesses to Paterson that she killed Rachel. Paterson arrests Caroline and charges her with Rachel's murder.

In a tense and quiet scene; a solemn Patterson and DePyle come to the Barber household and reveal that Rachel is dead and her body recovered, and that Caroline, her killer, is in custody. The film ends with Caroline in prison awaiting trial, and Rachel's funeral being attended by her family, boyfriend, friends and many others, mourning Rachel's misfortune and death.

• Guy Pearce as Mike Barber
• Miranda Otto as Elizabeth Barber
• Kate Bell as Rachel Elizabeth Barber – a 15-year-old Australian dance student who went missing in Melbourne in 1999[3]
• Khan Chittenden as Manni Carella – Rachel's boyfriend
• Sam Neill as David Reid – Caroline's father
• Rebecca Gibney as Gail – Caroline's mother
• Ruth Bradley as Caroline Reed Robertson – Rachel's former neighbour and sitter; Bradley won a Best Actress award at the Milan International Film Festival 2010 for her performance
• Jack Finsterer as Neil Patterson - Police Detective
• Eugene Gilfedder as Max DePyle - Police Detective
• Robert Braiden as a Detective
• Jeremy Sims as McLean - Policeman
• Damien Garvey as Policeman

• Claude Minisini as Stephen Waddell - Missing Persons Boss
• Justine Clarke as Irene - Caroline's Boss
• Graeme Blundell as Ivan - Elizabeth's father
• Diane Craig as Joy - Elizabeth's mother
• Steven Vidler as Drew - Elizabeth's brother
• Kelly Abbey as Zoe - Rachel's Dance Teacher and choreographer for the film
• Veronica Neave as Yvonne - Elizabeth's friend
• Paul Bishop as Doctor
• Paul Denny as Ambulance man
• Tori Forrest as Heather Barber (nine years old)
• Amanda Dettrick as Diane - Rachel's family friend
• Dan Purdey as Missing Persons Cop
• John Wonnacott as Missing Persons Cop

In Her Skin was inspired by the 2004 book Perfect Victim by Elizabeth Southall, the pen name of Elizabeth Barber, Rachel Barber's mother,[4] and Megan Norris, an investigative reporter who as a court reporter followed the case of the murder of Rachel Barber. As alluded to in the film, Robertson went on to trial: after pleading guilty, she was sentenced and jailed in 2000 before being paroled in January 2015.[5]

The film was shot in 2008 in Brisbane and Melbourne under the title How to Change in 9 Weeks. It was the directorial debut for Simone North. She had worked extensively in the film and television industry as a Creative Producer and writer. Director Sidney Lumet mentored In Her Skin director Simone North prior to production.[3]

The Film Finance Corporation invested $3.02 million in the film. Screen Queensland cashflowed the distribution guarantee from Reliant Pictures, the distributor, which was to be repaid 12 months after delivery. Liberty Films bankrolled the Icon distribution guarantee, which was to be repaid when the film was delivered. Neither Reliant Pictures nor Icon paid these guarantees.[6]

The film screened at the Brisbane International Film Festival in 2012. It was screened on Foxtel in Australia on 2013.[10]

"Caroline", "What You Want" and "Ocean" were written and performed by John Butler Trio, Family Music, Jarrah Records. "Dawning" and "Dying Swan" were performed by Mark Seymour and Cameron McKenzie. Score music was arranged and conducted by Nico Muhly and performed by Amiina (Iceland).

Ruth Bradley won the Best Actress award at the Milan International Film Festival 2010 for her performance as Caroline Reed Robertson.[11]

• Cinema of Australia

• In Her Skin at IMDb
• In Her Skin at Rotten Tomatoes
• Movieweb News
• Comingsoon Net
• Bombippy
• Perfect Victim: A chilling account of a bizarre and callous murder. A mother's true story of her daughter's disappearance at Amazon.com
• Elizabeth Southall at Penguin Books