Am I Gonna Watch This?

Although one of our past writers did do a “preview” of Under the Skin, we thought it’d be fitting, seeing how close it is to release, to have another one done. Enjoy.

–D. Alexander, The Editor

Scarlett Johansson is starring in a new film from Jonathan Glazer called Under the Skin. It will be released in the U.S. on April 4, 2014. This film is an adaptation of the Michel Faber novel by the same title. I’ve seen the trailer, and I was a little on the fence. After some internet digging, I found that the book version looks really good.

Set in Scotland, an alien, disguised as a super sexy human female, lures men (the desperate, loner kind) with her hotness, drugs them, then sends the suckers packing to her homeworld. While there, the men are fattened and served up as a delicacy. Sounds good right? Who doesn’t love a good human eating story? It’s an interesting take on an alien invasion, but why not just take down the whole planet? Why pick us one by one, and only the males? There must be an entire organization of aliens that look like humans, men and women, harvesting us for food. Ah but there isn’t. What is the purpose of using this method to force the human population on Earth (after a gazillion years) to be completely female? I’m overthinking this a bit, but we’ve seen monstrous depictions of aliens, attacking us directly. How many are there where the monstrosity is more subtle, where there’s a chance that this impostor can learn about the depths of human intimacy? Not many. But you know, most movie adaptations screw everything up (Anna Karenina, Beautiful Creatures, [insert your own movie title here]), so it makes me a little wary to see if what I read is what I’m going to get.

The trailer looks artsy and elusive, dark yet thoughtful. The reviews are good. It got an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7/10 stars on IMDb. We all know that Johansson can play the hell out of a seductress role, but can she deliver a human-eating alien?

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