Under The Skin!!!!

Under The Skin.

Hearing nothing but good reviews from a film, you kind of think to yourself that it can't be true but I have to admit that it did live up to the reviews. If not it surpassed my expectations as a film and will definitely go straight into my top films of all time as this film is incredible in its own rights. 

Starting with the most haunting of strings sounds you see the formation of what looks like a black pupil becoming a human eye but could be portrayed as an alien egg into birth. Watching a naked woman character (Scarlett Johansson) strip the clothes off the body off her dead doppelgänger and put them on just to confuse you. Dropped off in the countryside by a lone biker and left the keys to a white transit van the woman drives off into the unknown. 

Walking through busy shopping centres and looking around at the world you feel the character is learning how to adapt, language, mannerisms and how to act are all absorbed. Driving along the roads she stops and talks to men at the side of the road, asking for directions and giving them a lift to places she plays on their vulnerability. They are soon enticed by her as she takes them back to her house where she takes them for her own. Walking along and stripping off her clothes the men follow only to slowly walk into a thick black liquid never to be seen again.

As she learns about the world she starts to slip up and is soon enough rescued by a random stranger, having sex and being shocked at the realisation she has a vagina she is still learning more and more. The film for me is able to show two different sides to our woman character at the start and at the end. She starts off confident knowing what she has to do and becomes the predator but soon enough by the end is insecure about herself and becomes the prey.

The way in which the film is made is not only clever but it makes you feel uncomfortable and also amazed at times. The use of hidden cameras is what gives it that edge and gives her character a feel of loneliness in such a busy environment. Showing hidden camera footage of her picking up men in her transit van Scarlett is able to be confident and get the right information out of the men, using her charm and looks she portrays her perfectly. 

Another aspect that really has you on the edge and affects your viewing is the music, never has a film needed the right soundtrack and this has an incredible score. Whining and scratchy violin sounds bring the tense moments in well, if it wasn't for the music some of the scenes would be seen as throwaway but add the creepy music and it changes the mood of the scene.

Scarlett Johansson is perfect in this film, you feel it has that double alien feel to the film in which Scarlett is an alien in an unknown Glasgow and her character is also an alien in a new world. This has to be one of the strongest performances from her and will go down as one of her greatest films of her career so far. But it will obviously be overshadowed by other bigger named films which is a shame really. 

For any fans of intense, gripping, weird and at times uncomfortable films then PLEASE I urge you to go and watch this film. One thing you will do after seeing this film is you will leave the cinema and still be thinking about it hours after, an incredible, mesmerising, unsettling yet intense film.

10/10.