Under The Skin (2013 Film)

Source: IMDb

What is it?

The 2013 science fiction film Under The Skin that was directed and co-written by Jonathan Glazer, was somewhat based on the novel Under The Skin by the author Michel Faber, and stars the actress Scarlett Johansson.

What is it about?

This his how Rotten Tomatoes describes this movie:

From visionary director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast, Birth) comes a stunning career transformation, a masterpiece of existential science fiction that journeys to the heart of what it means to be human, extraterrestrial–or something in between.

A voluptuous woman of unknown origin (Scarlett Johansson) combs the highways in search of isolated or forsaken men, luring a succession of lost souls into an otherworldly lair.

They are seduced, stripped of their humanity, and never heard from again.

Based on the novel by Michel Faber (The Crimson Petal and the White), Under The Skin examines human experience from the perspective of an unforgettable heroine who grows too comfortable in her borrowed skin, until she is abducted into humanity with devastating results.

My Thoughts

I think that I first found out about this film several years ago thanks to Grace Randolph when I saw a video on her YouTube channel Beyond The Trailer called: Under the Skin Official Trailer + Trailer Review – Scarlett Johansson : HD PLUS.

The movie trailer looked interesting and it looked like a movie that I wanted to see, there was something about the trailer that I can not describe exactly and there was a dream-like (surreal-like) feel to the trailer, and I wanted to see this movie at a movie theater but it did not play in my area because it was a limited release film.

Back then I remember trying to find this movie online but I could not, and it was not until many months later that it was finally available for me to watch so I finally was able to watch this film.

This film is not exactly a traditional type film, it seemed more like an art film in some ways, and some of the minor characters in the movie have very hard to understand possibly Scottish accents and most of those characters who were hard to understand were probably not actors / actresses but were probably people who did not realize that they were in a movie at first.

This is definitely not a film for everyone and it definitely has its flaws but some parts of the film work well, like the all black room which I wish was shown more, and the amazing eerie and somewhat alien music by Mica Levi (Micachu) which really saved this film for me and the music went well with most of the scenes.

Mica Levi (Micachu) deserves more recognition for her amazing music for this film that helped to save this film, because the music was one of the best things about this film, here is a good short featurette about the music for this film:

Here is a YouTube playlist of the soundtrack:

This film would be better if some parts of it were filmed again with actors / actresses instead of people who did not realize that they were in a movie at first, if the dialogue for some characters was dubbed so that you can understand what they are saying, and if it was reedited to be more accessible to a larger audience and if some new scenes were added to better explain and show more of the science fiction elements of this film.

Even though this film was not what I had expected and it was not as good as I had expected (or I did not like it as much as I had expected) there was still something about this film that I can not quite describe, it was one of those films where I felt that maybe I needed to watch it again to better form my opinion of how I really feel about this film and that maybe I will like the film better if I watch it again, but I still have not watched it again yet.

Here is Chris Stuckmann’s review of this film:

The end,

-John Jr