Between Skins is a visual artefact and psychological thriller that intertwines research and inquiry to stage the internal experience of second-generation immigrants and descendants of Black British diasporic upbringings. Anchored in understandings of identity as an everchanging mosaic, the film exists in the underdeveloped cinematic gap where the second-generation diaspora intersects with horror registers of liminality and haunting. By animating these concepts to screen, these registers lend themselves to a rich visual language that depicts the inner feeling of in-betweenness felt within diasporic subjects.
Following protagonist Grace, who chases perfection in a regimented and idealistic classical world of ballet, the story unfolds through movement and sound as Grace encounters a Tiv (Nigerian Tribe) ancestor. Their relationship becomes one of 'refusal, repair, and reclamation' (Ikpeh, 2026).
As a psychological horror, the film harnesses popular motifs in first-generation folkloric haunting on screen alongside the fractious resistance of the second generation. It interrogates the fear of losing touch with one's culture, culminating in a final scene that brings to life Bhabha's 'Third Space' — a performance that marks a reclamation of Grace's hybridity, ultimately forming a new, liberated space of belonging.