Replace, directed by Norbert Keil, is about aging and skin disease and murder. At least it tries to be. Shot in moody darkness, the film takes place in an unfriendly Toronto where glass condos and graffiti art set the scene for this mix of body horror and psychological thriller.

When Kira Mabon’s (Rebecca Forsyth) skin begins to dry out, she finds herself on a journey for answers and healing. Unfortunately for Kira, her skin condition worsens by the day and when she discovers that she can replace her peeling skin with the flesh of the living, she vows to find out the truth about her condition and her past. She also starts murdering people and taking their skin because apparently moisturizer is too expensive.

Along the way, Kira falls in love with her neighbour, Sophia (Lucie Aron), and faces off against an evil doctor, Dr. Crober, played by horror film icon and soap opera star, Barbara Compton.

Except Kira doesn’t look like she’s aging, nor is it clear why she’s so upset about her own mortality – at least until the final thirty minutes of the film. Her skin disease doesn’t make her look old, it makes her look like she forgot to wear SPF on a beach day. Regardless, there are multiple scenes of Kira ripping off pieces of her skin, and other people’s skin, and just lots of skin ripping and bleeding and more skin ripping. It’s uncomfortable body horror, but for those that enjoy stomach churning self-flaying, Replace takes particular joy in the endless scenes of Kira’s obsessive skin grafting process.

The inclusion of a love story between Kira and Sophia, and their mutual attempt to free Kira from the hellish medical experiment she seems part of, feel very much like another Toronto-based project, Orphan Black. The look of the film and the plot twist regarding Sophia towards the end of the movie undeniably echoes Orphan Black’s popular queer lovers Cosima (Tatiana Maslany), the victim of a medical experiment, and her morally dubious, but devoted partner, Delphine (Evelyne Brochu).

Replace is a sleek looking film, mostly because Toronto provides a compelling backdrop, but the pacing is uneven, and Keil is, at times, more interested in experimental camera angles, which hurts the clarity of this ambitious project. Kira’s illness includes memory loss and between her confusion over her past, the sudden appearance of Sophia in her life, all the murder, and the mad scientist Dr. Crober, Keil and co-writer Richard Stanley are juggling a lot of ideas that never smoothly come together.

Replace wants to be about society’s fear of aging, the pressure placed on women to stay young, and the lengths people go to hold onto their youth. Unfortunately, while it successfully pulls off its grosser moments, it can’t quite seem to articulate its own vision.

Fans of Orphan Black or complex Korean skin-care regiments may enjoy the film. But the true mystery at its heart is not Kira’s illness, but rather, her ability to afford a massive loft apartment in Toronto without needing seven roommates.