Dir. Jonathan Glazer | Now Streaming On: HBOMax | Rating: 4/5

I didn’t know much about this film going into it and it totally emotionally wrecked me. Under the Skin doesn’t fit neatly into any of the horror genre’s tropes, which may make my positive opinion on this pretty unpopular. The storytelling is a bit bare, but the message it delivers is a hard hitting and raw take on the feminine experience. 

This an interesting project at its core, since most of this was filmed with hidden cameras and used real reactions of random people, not actors. Though it’s praised by critics, it bombed at the box office. Generally, this film will not impress most horror viewers. The scares are minimal – this whole film is pretty minimal. As we watch our main character interact with the world as an alien pretending to be a human woman, the feminine experience is likened to watching an animal at the zoo. 

Scarlett Johansson does a stellar job portraying emotion while also remaining a blank canvas in a way. We are not giving much context other than what’s on the surface, so much of the impact has to be interpreted by the viewer. Usually, I’m not a fan of needing to do a bunch of thinking but this film was nuanced in a way I appreciate. 

It’s an aesthetically gorgeous film with rich shots of color, moving from black, to red, to gold, then white – potentially describing the transition of the main character to humanity. This pokes fun at human nature, especially from the point of view of sexual gratification, by flipping the “traditional” role of a woman in sexual encounters. The main character transitions from predator to prey in the same way she transitions from alien to human. 

The ending is gut wrenching and upsetting. This was nonchalantly violent in a way that felt so close to real life. The ending notes comments on who we are under the surface, and when we are vulnerable, whether by our choice or someone else’s. 

Know Before You Watch: Features nudity, sex, sexual assault.