Scarlett Johansson has left her mark across a wide array of genres, from Sofia Coppola’s complex dramedy Lost In Translation, the warm, sonically alluring A.I. Samantha in Her, or as Natasha Romanoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Her ability to slide seamlessly into such different roles and genres hinges on a wide range of skills, including excellent action chops, precise comedic timing, and the capacity to exhibit a strong emotional range (to devastating effect in Marriage Story, for one). Her best showcase, however, came with the masterful 2013 sci-fi horror entry Under the Skin, from The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer.
‘Under The Skin’ Is A Surreal Nightmare, Thanks In Large Part to a Stellar Scarlett Johansson Performance
Under the Skin sees Johansson portray a mysterious woman in Glasgow who drives around town, seducing men into her van. She takes these men, her victims, into a place that hides a featureless void that submerges the men in a mysterious liquid, and she is (spoilers!) an extraterrestrial woman in disguise as a human seductress. The alien slowly comes to empathize with her human prey, which causes problems for her and her role in the aliens’ plans. It all builds towards a surreal and memorable conclusion, and the journey as a whole is a testament to Glazer’s ability to tell a captivating story with images and subtleties, thanks in large part to the layers Johansson gives her otherworldly character.
Much of Johansson’s dialogue in Under the Skin doesn’t really matter. They’re mundane niceties, pulling over to ask for directions or to see if a pedestrian needs a lift. It’s disarming and inconsequential by design, banking on the fact that men wouldn’t be afraid of an attractive young woman (and certainly wouldn’t turn down a ride). It’s an interesting reversal of the predator-prey relationship that would normally be threatened in situations like this. She laughs at their stupid jokes, asks if they have a girlfriend. Asks if they think she’s pretty. Next thing they know, they’re driven into a pitch black room, then… nothing.
‘Under the Skin’ Is a Haunting Take on an Alien Tale
In a performance that relies more on nuance and visuals than exposition or introspective dialogue, Johansson magnificently delivers complex character development and change with the most subtle of expressions: the twitch of an eye, the complexity of a pause, and so on. All of that is necessary because when we get to see her true form… what’s under the skin, you could say. We see that she’s a nearly featureless, pitch black alien being. The personhood she exhibits is practiced, just as we hear vocal practice voiceover in the film’s captivating but abstract beginning… they’re preparing the human suit and linguistic ability they’ll use to lure men in.
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“The past is just a story we tell ourselves.”
What makes Under the Skin so unnerving is how well Glazer and Johansson replicated this alienness. It becomes clear that she’s luring men to their doom. We don’t know why, exactly. We don’t know how the space works, or how it captivates men to the extent that they willingly walk themselves into the dark void. This dark room seems to process these men into a skin suit alongside a river of liquefied meat, essentially. Do they use our skins for their disguises? Are we their food? Where are ‘they’? We can assume this is a regular practice the aliens engage in, but it’s all an otherworldly mystery! With so little concrete information to go on, what makes it work is Glazer’s gorgeous and surreal worldbuilding, alongside Johansson’s ability to create and maintain a captivating character with complexity to match.
Under the Skin is available to stream on Kanopy and Hoopla in the U.S.
- Release Date
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April 4, 2014
- Runtime
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108 minutes
- Director
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Jonathan Glazer
- Writers
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Jonathan Glazer, Walter Campbell
