Scarlett Johansson has spent years playing some of sci-fi’s most recognizable women. Luc Besson transformed her into something approaching a god in 2014’s Lucy, and the much-maligned live-action Ghost in the Shell gave her a fully cybernetically enhanced body to play around with in a near-future Newport City. Of course, there’s also Black Widow, the former assassin who became one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most dependable heroes across nine films, from Iron Man 2 to Black Widow.
Johansson has built a career playing characters who straddle the line between human and something otherworldly, but you’ve never seen ScarJo quite like this. Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin is a different kind of sci-fi movie, one that trades gun-fu action and elaborate world-building for something far more disturbing. The film stars Johansson as an unnamed extraterrestrial who takes the form of a woman and prowls the streets of Scotland picking up unsuspecting men in her van, before luring them toward a fate they couldn’t possibly imagine.
If that sounds like the setup for a conventional alien invasion thriller, rest assured Glazer has something much stranger in mind. The movie is a hypnotic nightmare that strips sci-fi down to pure sensory horror, and it’s set to leave Netflix on October 31, making Halloween the perfect excuse to experience one of Johansson’s most haunting performances. The true terror of Under the Skin lies in its refusal to explain anything.
Early on, the Female (Johansson) encounters a swimmer on a beach while a family struggles against the waves. A dog is swept out to sea, and the parents rush into the water to save it. The swimmer manages to help the father but collapses from exhaustion.
Rather than offer assistance, the Female approaches the incapacitated man, drags him away, and leaves the family to its fate. There’s no triumphant musical cue or dramatic declaration of evil. She simply carries on with her work, utterly indifferent to the suffering happening around her.
It’s a horrifying sequence, but it also establishes the film’s central tension. We understand the tragedy unfolding before us because we’re human, while the Female doesn’t. Glazer shoots the scene with a cold, observational distance that makes it feel more like a nature documentary focusing on a predator that happens to look just like an ordinary human being.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
