Given that Birth, Jonathan Glazer’s lyrical portrait of everlasting love, featured Nicole Kidman being courted by a child, it’s not particularly surprising that his horror story concerning the pleasures of the flesh should prove stranger still. That said, even admirers who’ve eagerly anticipated this long-gestating follow-up may be wholly unprepared for just how abstract and audacious it is, employing narrative rhythms and formal techniques that seem utterly alien. However, Under the Skin’s inherent strangeness ultimately makes it all the more spellbinding.
Accompanied by Mica Levi’s discordant score, an opening salvo of hallucinatory visuals establishes Glazer’s mind-bending agenda. The exhilarating sequence spills Scarlett Johansson out onto the screen as an alien predator masquerading as human. Adorned in acid-washed jeans and faux fur, she’s down market but undeniably seductive as she entices lonesome Glaswegians back to a squalid flat. Intent on getting certain portions of their anatomy wet (to paraphrase the parlance of our times), they instead find themselves suspended in viscous liquid while their skin is harvested through methods both engrossing and grotesque. Through these heinous actions, she slowly grows enchanted by the idea of experiencing humanity.
While the film’s sensibility recalls boundary-pushing ‘70s oddities like The Man Who Fell to Earth, its guerrilla tactics are distinctly 21st century, with hidden cameras used to capture Johansson’s overtures to actual unsuspecting civilians. This bold technique allows some naturalism to intrude on the otherwise stylized proceedings and also heightens the victims’ vulnerability, rendering the machinations of Johansson’s killer all the more sinister. While Glazer’s sci-fi psychedelia is rich with haunting, indelible images, the distress it induces proves equally difficult to rid yourself of.
