Under the Skin

Saw Under the Skin, another film involving Scarlett Johansson, this time as a mysterious woman driving around in a van in Scotland. She is clearly a hunter of some kind. She picks up men and gives them rides and quizzes them about where they live, if they have family who live nearby, if they have friends who are expecting them or who will notice if they go missing. The film was apparently improvised and these guys are not actors. Some of them seem a little skeezed out, but most are just guilelessly answering her questions and enjoying the attention.

The film is not very forthcoming with explanations, but she's clearly up to no good with her man-hunting and we get weird, impressionistic scenes of her walking in darkness while men sink into inky black at her feet. Eventually, she too begins to wonder what she's doing and why. The film has some explanations at the end that I won't spoil, but it finishes with grand, surreal imagery ala Annihilation or Ex Machina. Serene and terrible otherness shining forth into mundane reality.

The film was fairly upsetting. It's not, like, can't-bear-to-look levels of upsetting or anything, but the sight of this woman is uncomfortable as she hunts men and is hunted by men in turn, dangling herself like a worm on a hook on lonely roadways or seashores or in dance clubs. She seems increasingly confused and alarmed herself and while she seems to be some sort of monster, she is too pretty and confused by her own actions to lose my sympathy. Her flat affect hides cruelty and violence but also a childlike incomprehension. It gets uncomfortable to watch after a while.

The film is interesting. It's fairly slow, doling out surreal sequences between long stretches of man-hunting, but is eerie and disquieting. The film is shot in a digital camera, lofi kind of way, using external shots and found sets. Usually this sort of aesthetic indicates a cute little film about growing up or romance or something, and it's refreshing to see it used to evoke horror and strangeness. An eerie film.