MovieChat Forums > Under the Skin (2014) Discussion > Couldn't get through it in one sitting. ...

Couldn't get through it in one sitting. Plus questions...

posted 5 years ago by [deleted]
4 replies | jump to latest

There's no denying that there are some unconventional and creepy moments in this movie, but too often long minutes are wasted on lingering shots of a blank-faced Scarlett Johansson simply walking around, or staring vacuously at something around her.

It took me three sessions to get through it and I'd never watch it again.

I have some questions:

i. Who exactly were the motorcycle dudes? I was never clear if they were hunting her, or merely trying to find her.

ii. The seduction scenes were genuinely freaky (that music!) but I wasn't sure if this was actually happening in a real place, or if it was a metaphor. Initially, I thought it was a metaphor but the 'de-boning' scene had me re-thinking that.

If it was happening in some real place, where was this place?

iii. I guess the movie is very different from the book which provided more details. In the movie, she's revealed to be just wearing some sort of suit. During the sex scene where she panics and sits up to examines her own vag was she having an actual physical reaction to the sex? Was the sex and the reaction part of the suit's capabilities?

iv. Why was she on earth anyway? I read the various IMDB responses about the book's explanations... was it the same for the movie, or did I miss a scene or explanation?

[–] BourbonKing (5777) 5 years ago

I have the same questions because I didn't read the book (yet).

However, I tend to think that the seduction scene back at her makeshift apartment/cooking facility is both literal and metaphoric. The Black background alludes to how the male human is so laser focused on her that he disregards his surroundings. It could also be inferred that once they enter the lair a certain hallucinogen excels their distraction while they sink into the literal porridge that starts the digestive process of their bodies.

The motorbike Dudes were aliens like her but their job was to be fixers when things go awry during her catch and process outings with the lonely men.

She is wearing a suit as we see later that her alien body is a black mass with no actual mouth, eyes or even an anus and urinary/vagina orifice. When she steps away from her duties and tries to engage on a human level by eating at the restaurant or having sex with the older guy we see that she can't swallow food or engage in sexual intercourse.

From what I've read online from someone who read the book, these aliens eat humans by the process we are shown. Scarlett's character is from a lower class of aliens and is assigned her job while upper class aliens back home get to enjoy fruits of her labor. It would have been cool to see that translated onto film but like you said, there are a lot of loose ends and vague details.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

"It would have been cool to see that translated onto film..."

I agree. Or, at least give a clearer indication of that during this movie. That might have elevated this more into the horror-sci fi realm.

Since her motivations and mission were a mystery to me, I didn't know what my reaction to her was supposed to be. Fear? Sympathy?

[–] BourbonKing (5777) 5 years ago

The change in direction should have been more direct to us. It seemed to happen when she lured the deformed man and later relented her actions BUT we never got any incite to her change. Even on her personal sojourn in the small villages, countryside and brief stay with the older man we don't really see her change at all. She seemed like an indifferent malfunctioned automaton. My takeaway is that the aliens haven't perfected their hunting process and losing a female alien in the process is just part of doing business in the name of culinary demands. But again, this detail isn't given in the movie and we were suppose to infer that the dead female in the beginning is another alien that failed at its job so Scarlet was sent in to replace her. If that's the case then she's more of a slave than an agent.

[–] Verfed (24) 3 years ago

1. Motorcycle dudes were fellow aliens helping her on her mission (or making sure she fulfilled her tasks as a slave)

2. The seduction scenes were real in the story, but for us the viewer there's a lot of metaphor, like what was previously said, how a man becomes laser focused on what he wants from the woman leading up to and during sex. Now what exactly it was, we don't know, transported to another dimension or what not.