Under the Skin (2013 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Under the Skin is a 2013 science fiction film directed by Jonathan Glazer and written by Glazer and Walter Campbell. The film is loosely based on the 2000 novel by Michel Faber. It stars Scarlett Johansson as an otherworldly woman who preys on men in Scotland. The film premiered at Telluride Film Festival on 29 August 2013. It was released in the United Kingdom on 14 March 2014 and the United States on 4 April 2014.
Glazer developed Under the Skin for over a decade; he and co-screenwriter Walter Campbell pared it back from an elaborate, special effects-heavy concept to a sparse story focusing on an alien perspective of the human world. Most of the cast was chosen from applicants without previous acting experience, and many scenes were filmed with hidden cameras.
The film grossed £5.2 million at the box office against a budget of £8 million and is widely regarded as a commercial disappointment. It received critical acclaim however, particularly for Johansson's performance, Glazer's direction, and Mica Levi's score, and received multiple awards. It ranked 61st on the BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century list complied in August 2016.
Plot
In Glasgow, a motorcyclist retrieves an inert young woman from the roadside and places her in the back of a van, where a naked woman dons her clothes. After buying clothes and make-up at a shopping centre, the woman drives the van from town to town, picking up men. She lures a man into a dilapidated house. As he undresses, following the woman into a void, he is submerged in a liquid abyss.
At a beach, the woman attempts to pick up a swimmer, but is interrupted by the cries of a drowning couple. The swimmer rescues the husband, but the husband rushes back into the water to save his wife and both drown. As the swimmer lies exhausted on the beach, the woman strikes his head with a rock, drags him to the van, and drives away, ignoring the couple's distraught baby. Later that night, the motorcyclist retrieves the swimmer's belongings, ignoring the baby, who is still on the beach.
The woman visits a nightclub and picks up another man. At the house, he follows her into the void and is submerged in the liquid. Suspended beneath the surface, he sees the swimmer floating naked beside him, alive but bloated and almost immobile. When he reaches to touch him, the swimmer's body collapses and a red mass empties through a trough.
The next day, the woman receives a rose from a street vendor, purchased from another man in traffic. She then listens to a radio report about the missing family from the beach. The woman then seduces a lonely man with facial disfigurement but lets him leave after examining herself in a mirror. The motorcyclist intercepts the man and bundles him into a car, then sets out in pursuit of the woman with three other motorcyclists.
In the Scottish Highlands, the woman abandons the van in the fog. She walks to a restaurant and attempts to eat cake, but retches and spits it out. At a bus stop, she meets a man who offers to help her. At his house, he prepares a meal for her and they watch television. Alone in her room, she examines her body in a mirror. They visit a ruined castle, where the man carries her over a puddle and helps her down some steps. At his house, they kiss and begin to have sex, but the woman stops and examines her genitals.
Wandering in a forest, the woman meets a commercial logger and shelters in a bothy. She wakes up to find the logger molesting her. She runs into the wilderness but he catches and attempts to rape her; he tears her skin, revealing a black, featureless body. As the woman extricates herself from her skin, the man douses her in fuel and burns her alive. Elsewhere, the motorcyclist stands on a mountaintop and looks out across a snowy field.
