Under The Skin [DVD] [2014]

This film needs its star rating increased! The one-star raters are, well, ignoramuses. While hauntingly mysterious, there is nothing 'incomprehensible' about this film at all. An alien in human form very gradually becomes humanised and more vulnerable, leading to her destruction. At first 'she' is concerned about the need to 'consume' men in some sort of alien way, with no thought of the consequences (the beach scene for example), then the fascination about people (crowded street scenes), developing empathy (letting the disabled man free), to trying food and sex without success. Putting an A-list Hollywood star in the title role, driving a transit fan around grubby Scottish streets interacting with little known or non-actors is a brilliant stroke, and the contrast with beautiful Highland scenery. Then there is the gender-bending aspect - at first, 'she' attacks unsuspecting men, by the end she is a terrified assault victim.Notice all the little touches - the opening sequence and the briefly seen lights in the sky early on, for example. Her aggressive fast-driving motor-bike minders, aware of her transgressions, ultimately fail to find her. One of the most intelligent thought-provoking sci-fi films ever made, I've seen it 3 (or 4?) times, it gets better each time!

A massive star like Scarlett Johansson driving around in a van, in Scotland no less, looking for prey, it all feels so out of place. Her presence is a clever device employed in the movie to invoke a feeling in the viewer that something's amiss, and really helps give a sense of the alien perspective the director was aiming for. And that's only one of a myriad of cinematic devices used in this movie to help the viewer start to shift their perceptions and view the familiar from an increasingly alien viewpoint. At some points it's not an easy watch. It manages to mix the mundane setting with the incredibly creepy overtures fairly well. By the end of the movie, ordinary things start to feel very alien indeed. It's a movie that really tries to mess with your perception of reality, and pulls out all the stops to do so. It's a masterpiece that knows what its trying to do, and does it well. But its success in achieving this may be a double edged sword, in that some viewers may not be able to go the whole way in letting the movie subvert their sense of reality, and get less out of it as a result. But for those who are happy to let the movie it do its thing, it's an incredible watch.

IMO: Elements of the essence of classic science fiction. Not big budget Hollywood, but a thought provoking story. Sometimes slow in pace which emphasises the very ordinary setting: everyday life. Observing what it means to be human in a modern society, the main character lures men to their end and by the end attempts to explore (becoming?) what it is to be one of those humans.Fascinating to watch male behaviour when faced with a beautiful woman chatting them up from a white transit van and again when offered the prospect of sex they are quite willing to enter a derelict house...If the main character were male chatting up females in these locations, the story wouldn’t have worked!

I must admit I held back from watching this film for a long time. Michel Faber is a brilliant writer (I would recommend 'The book of strange new things'), and I thought it would be a disservice to him not to read the book first. However, eventually I couldn't resist; therefore I can't compare the two. While the book may have a lot more to offer, however, I think the film holds great value in its own right as a piece of art.I started the film with the knowledge that it's about an alien in disguise as a human who picks up male hitchhikers, seduces, ensnares and then leads them to their deaths. That is certainly the gist of the film, however I did not expect something nearly so twisted and strange as the tale I was presented with. This is certainly a slow paced film, with many scenes depicting ordinary, everyday life, but the unsettling score kept me riveted to the screen with a tight feeling in the pit of my stomach all the way through. I'm not generally a lover of the dark and deadly, but I could not take my eyes from this film. The protaganist lures you into her world, just as she lures men into her derelict cottage. She captivates the viewer just as strongly as she captivates her victims with her beauty, so that they wade deeper into the black abyss even as it rises up to consume them. At first horrified at her actions, I later began to feel a stirring of empathy. After all, while apparently the monster, in reality she is alone on a strange planet, fending for herself in what is for her an alien environment, forced to disguise her true form. And as the final scene demonstrates, once stripped of her false skin, she is just a vulnerable individual, scared and alone in the forest.I must admit, a couple of the scenes were very upsetting to watch and for this reason I don't think I could go through the experience again. Certain images will no doubt stick in my mind for a while. However, I could give this no less than 5 stars, it is definitely the most compelling sci-fi horror film I've ever seen.