"Under the Skin" is a unique movie in its subdued alien portrayal. In fact, the only time when the true alien skin is show is at the very end of it. The movie opens with a man carrying a woman into a van. Later it will be clear that both the woman and the man are aliens. In the van, the main character, played by Scarlet Johansson, takes off the woman’s clothes to wear them herself. The alien woman is shown to be alive with a single tear traveling down her face.
The alien woman starts to observe the human species, seeing how women are dressing up and using makeup, so she does the same. She starts her hunt over the rural areas of Scotland. She is solely hunting men who are easily tricked by her beauty. The alien lures them into a black empty space, and while she slowly takes off her clothes, they unknowingly sink into the black liquid.
As the movie progresses, it shows that the black liquid drains their body of all the parts aside from the shell of their skin. The alien woman observes the humanity while on her hunt, and starts to see them with different eyes, not only as prey. She comes across a man with a deformed face and notices that he is different from the other men she lured in. He is more focused on his environment than her, which makes it difficult to lure him into the black liquid. This is when the alien woman has a change of heart. She releases the man and runs off, with the alien man trailing behind her.
The alien woman soon discovers that she can’t be a part of humanity, despite her desire. She is also faced with human cruelty with a man trying to rape her in the woods. While taking off her clothes, her human skin comes off. Seeing her true skin, he lights her on fire. She tries to run but falls and her body evaporates, with the final cut on the alien man still searching for her.
For a movie about aliens, it is different in its lack of special effects. The focus lies on the inner, psychological aspect, rather than shock value. It explores themes of human superficiality, beauty, feminism, and human cruelty. The movie also unfolds without much dialogue, with the events speaking for themselves and actress’s ability to emote with her face making the plot progress.
The final message after the final scene of the movie speaks for the idea that it doesn’t matter if the majority of the humanity shows compassion and kindness, it takes one cruel individual for the complete destruction to take place, making the movie have a quite an environmentalist message.
