‘Under the Skin’ and a Perfect Scene
One of the creepiest movies ever made offers an unsettlingly alien POV.
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Truly alien presences are tough to depict in fiction for the simple reason that we as an entire species, collectively, have never actually encountered any aliens1. It’s very difficult for us to imagine what an alien point-of-view would be because we have exactly zero examples to work with2. Sure, the power of the limitless imagination and all that, but our limitless imaginations still spend a lot of time coming up with crime procedurals and soap operas set in hospitals, so perhaps it’s not so limitless after all3.
As a result, a lot of aliens in fiction come across more like mentally disturbed humans than anything else—which, for all we know, is entirely accurate4! So let it drift. Another result is that when you cast Scarlett Johansson as an alien (at the height of her “I’ll play anything!” period that included Her, Lucy, and Ghost in the Shell) in the film Under the Skin, it’s easy to assume she’ll just be doing a riff on the “slightly confused alien who assumes shape of beautiful movie star and immediately begins taking off their clothes for ... reasons” trope.
Surprise! Under the Skin is legitimately creepy5, and does a great job of implying a truly alien presence. Kudos to Johansson, too, for conveying that off-center weirdness. But the triumph of the film is a single scene that absolutely nails the sense of an alien presence on Earth, something achieved largely without dialog.
Because It's... It's Nowhere
In Under the Skin6, Johansson plays The Female, an alien disguised as a woman who drives around Glasgow trying to entice men to come back to her place where they are ... well, it’s not entirely clear, though they become trapped in some sort of ... stuff ... and are ... dissolved ... or something. Hunting. She’s hunting, and let’s leave it at that.
Johansson does a great job in these scenes, many of which were filmed with hidden cameras to get natural reactions from the men. The way all expression drains from her face when she determines that a man isn’t worth pursuing is disturbingly well done. Combined with the presence of The Bad Man (Jeremy McWilliams), who roams about on a motorcycle assisting her, The Female manages to convey inhumanity very effectively in these early scenes.
But it’s the Beach Scene that really nails it.
If you’ve ever watched some ants in your backyard, you might recognize the tone and attitude of this scene7. The Female is still hunting, and spots a man swimming in the ocean. A couple with a small child and a dog are also on the cold, remote beach. After making contact with The Swimmer (Krystof Hádek), everything is disrupted: The dog has been swept out by the violent waves, and the woman has become trapped by the waves in an effort to save it. A tragedy unfolds at a distance: The man attempts to swim out to rescue the woman, leaving the bawling baby alone. The Swimmer rescues the man, but he immediately swims back out in pursuit of his partner8.
The Female observes this with the same calm confusion you might have when watching some ants. You see what they’re doing, but you can’t understand the why of it all9. If an ant dies, you’re not bothered by it—if you even notice. That’s the sense of The Female in this scene: She doesn’t understand why any of the humans do the things they do, and she’s not affected by it at all. When the man jumps back into the ocean to save his partner—dooming himself—The Female walks over to the exhausted Swimmer and knocks him cold, then drags the body away. The dog, man, and woman are gone, swallowed by the waves. The baby sits on the beach alone, screaming, but The Female doesn’t even glance at it—not even in irritation. It is literally meaningless to her10.
Do You Think I’m Pretty?
One reason this scene is so effective at both scaring the pants off of you and nailing the fact that The Female isn’t in any way recognizably human is the way it’s shot: Director Jonathan Glazer and Cinematographer Daniel Landin shoot the unspooling tragedy of the family on the beach from far away. The people are small and indistinct, (yes, like ants). The waves are overpoweringly loud and relentless, but the shots are steady, forcing you to watch every bad decision11. It’s a little challenging, on first watch, to be sure of what’s happening.
But part of it is the blank-faced expression on Johansson. Her utter lack of engagement with what’s happening is epic. Contrasted with the emotional response of any normal person in the audience, it’s suddenly easy to look past the famous face and conventionally attractive features and see ... nothing. Nothing you can understand, at least. In that moment The Female has no need of a mask, so there’s no awkward flirtation, no practiced human speak to blend in with the locals12. It’s just a creature watching us the way we watch ants, with zero concern over the outcome of the strange little performance before her.
I figure that’s what it will actually be like when we meet aliens. There won’t be any musical score communication codes, laser space battles, universal translator-assisted conversations, or cross-species lizard babies. It will just be some incomprehensible being staring at us in blank, uncaring perplexity until it decides to step on us. Or the other way around.
It could be worse. The aliens we meet could be like cats13. They’ll scratch us to death and bat our corpses into space, then wonder why we don’t come back to keep playing with them.
NEXT WEEK: Subtle fourth-wall breaks for the win.
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As far as we know. There’s a guy in my town I have my suspicions about.
Although we could study Gary Busey for some clues.
I have a writer acquaintance who ends every single story with the police arresting everybody, no matter the genre or the premise, and he gets irrationally angry any time I point this out.
See, again, the guy in my neighborhood. He wears what appear to be oven mitts in all weather.
This film confirmed that my vague sense of unease whenever anyone strikes up a conversation with me in public is a solid survival instinct and should be cultivated.
AKA the movie where Scarlett Johansson goes full nude and you really wish she hadn’t.
This does capture what 13-year old Jeff thought sex was like, so there’s that.
As opposed to waking up with ants all over you in bed, which is a totally different vibe.
I was once convinced to swim 1/2 mile to an island while on vacation with The Duchess. To say that I barely survived is an understatement. What I’m trying to say is that if you are swept out to sea on my watch do not expect any saving.
Although I often feel this way just watching you people live your lives. You’re all freaks.
In a short later scene The Bad Man goes to the beach some time later to clean up after The Female. The baby is still there. The baby is still screaming. The Bad Man pays it absolutely no attention. It’s terrifying in a way most horror films can’t manage. I’m sweating just writing this.
You can have the same experience hanging out at local bars in Hoboken on a Friday night. A lot of bad decisions with tragic outcomes. A lot.
I, too, practice human speak in order to blend in with you weirdos. So far it’s not working, is it, fellow humans?
In some ways cats have already conquered the world and made us their slaves, so maybe they are aliens?
For one, I'm happy to have found 1 other person on this great blue dot that likes this movie, besides me. It's sad that people just don't "get it".
For this flick, I also think the nudity is 100% called for and the best scene IMHO is when The Female comes to the realization that she is not... female. I think she is in some ways like a programmed ant, doing the hunting for the alien entity in the house unquestioningly. So while she is/may be alien (alien created being...maybe) too, some part of her believes she is human until that moment where she discovers, oh... things don't function down there like a human. Then her reality breaks.