*Spoiler Alert*
This sci-fi flick follows the character of 'the woman', seemingly an alien disguised in human form, as she goes on a journey through Scotland in her van picking up men. This film may not be easy to follow and whilst watching you will have many questions that will go unanswered but that does not matter. The intriguing aspect of this film is not the suspense of what is happening but the underlying message of our society.
We follow the emotionless Scarlett Johansson through Scotland as she tricks men into getting into her van taking them back to her home to lure them into what I would argue to be a black void. Here the men are stripped down to just their skin and are turned into a meat like substance. Whilst on her mission a man on a bike ('the biker') follows 'the woman' watching her every move and keeping check on her. Throughout the film, the unnamed woman has no problem with completing her mission until she meets a man who is deformed and everything changes for her.
The underlying message of this film is how society perceives our superficial view of beauty. When Johansson (who is an alien) discovers life on earth she watches humans and their interactions and the first thing that she notices is our superficial view of beauty. 'The woman' tries to copy this by wearing makeup and applying a bright red lipstick, presenting that to fit into our society and to look 'beautiful' makeup is needed. We never see 'the woman' naked even when she is luring the men, making them think they are going to have sex, until she starts to feel empathy, presenting her humanity. However, when she meets a man who looks after her and she isn't looking for prey she discovers her physical beauty by looking at herself in a mirror. In the last scene of the film it could be argued that it sums up our perception, when 'the woman' is alone in the woods the woodman attacks her trying to rape her. However, he accidentally peels off a bit of her skin revealing her true skin, he is shocked by this discovery and kills her setting her on fire. When he sees her true self (under the skin) and kills her it illustrates that in our society we mainly have a perception of beauty being physical, not what is on the inside of a person. Killing her is a powerful statement that once people take off their mask of beauty many people do not see their true reflection being beautiful as that is not what society has shown.
Throughout the film 'the woman' is the hunter looking for her prey to complete her mission. In the scenes when she is hunting the same music is played whilst she is luring her prey in her van. This hunter theme switches during the last scene when 'the woman' is being hunted by the woodman, the same music occurs in this scene which portrays that she is now the prey. This switch in the hunter and prey dynamic occurs when 'the woman' has an epiphany about her morals and humanity. Johansson examines and carefully watches normal people doing what we would see as small everyday tasks, however to her these are acts of humanity that are unknown to her. The presentation of her humanity seeping through is shown in her noticing small acts of kindness: the man selling roses hands bleeding due to the thorns on the rose, people rushing to help her when she falls over.
The biggest change in 'the women's' character is when she lures a deformed man into her van who tells her how he has never had a girlfriend or friends because people judge him for his looks. 'The woman' still leads him into the black void ready for him to be broken down into meet, however, when she sees a fly trapped in between a window, vulnerable and unable to escape she has a realisation. 'The woman' sees similarities between this vulnerable fly and the deformed man, taking pity on him and letting him go, this illustrates a sudden change in her personality. Throughout the film 'the woman' only ever watched the humans and only came into contact with them when it was necessary for her mission, however, after this epiphany and change in morals for the character she starts to try and experience being human. 'The woman' tries eating cake and having sex, however they both do not go to plan as she is not human no matter how much she tries and pretends she is.
Overall, Under the Skin at first glance just sounds like a stereotypical sci-fi film about an alien experiencing earth for the first time, but this film is much more than that. I would argue that the whole film is a metaphor about society's view of what superficial beauty is, and the idea of morals. We follow an alien with no humanity posing as a human luring men to turn into meat, but when she fully experiences what makes us human she decides to let the humanity seep into her personality. It is important that the kindness that she experiences leads her to see earth as a place of goodness, however, she ends up getting attacked and sexualy assualted, showing her true skin and getting killed. It illustrates that she becomes good due to the kindness she sees but this is not always the case, there will always be acts of violence and discrimination committed showing the darkness in our world. Under the Skin, starts with 'the woman' witnessing our superficial view of beauty and ends with her first hand experience of the effects of this, as in our society we perceive that beauty is on the outside not the inside (under the skin!)