Some films become better known through a single unforgettable clip than through the complete experience. Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce, for example, is often reduced to its vampire imagery, while A Better Tomorrow II is widely recognised for a reaction GIF featuring Chow Yun-fat.
That kind of excerpt-driven fame can flatten a film, removing its context and leaving audiences with a striking moment rather than the work surrounding it. Scarlett Johansson’s Under the Skin has experienced much the same treatment.
The 2013 science-fiction film is one of the decade’s most unsettling releases, holds an 83% score on Rotten Tomatoes, has appeared on several best-films-of-the-21st-century lists, and received numerous award nominations. Yet online discussion often focuses on Johansson’s nudity rather than the film’s deliberate mystery. After leaving Tubi, where it had been available at no cost, Under the Skin is now streaming on Netflix.
What is Under the Skin about?
Johansson plays an unnamed woman moving through a Scottish city and targeting men who appear isolated or vulnerable. She draws potential victims into secluded places, where they vanish without explanation.
The film is loosely adapted from Michel Faber’s 2000 novel. In the book, the central character is called Isserley and the purpose of the abductions is made explicit: she is part of an extraterrestrial operation that captures humans to be processed as a luxury food for another species.
Jonathan Glazer’s film removes that straightforward explanation. Its nameless protagonist may be an alien learning how to exist as a human, a predator carrying out a routine task, or the centre of a broader meditation on sex, identity and consumer culture. There is no investigating authority or exposition-heavy conspiracy to clarify events; the audience receives only the sparse information Johansson’s character offers.
The character’s curiosity is often directed towards ordinary details: insects, strangers and the unfamiliar experience of her own body. Even while she is selecting men to kill, she rarely seems angry or cruel. Her actions feel procedural, which makes them more disturbing.
The filmmaking reinforces that emotional distance. Nearly 14 minutes pass before spoken dialogue begins, and the score frequently carries information that another film might communicate through conversation. Several encounters were captured using hidden cameras, while much of the supporting cast consisted of amateurs or newcomers. The result feels less like a conventional thriller and more like an observational account of an outsider attempting to understand human behaviour.
That unusual approach helps explain both the film’s limited mainstream appeal and its lasting effect. Long static shots and an intentionally uncomfortable rhythm can initially resemble an art-school exercise. Viewers who stay with it, however, are rewarded with images and ideas that are difficult to shake.
Johansson’s uneasy relationship with fame
Under the Skin also sits within an informal trio of Johansson performances concerned with her public image. By this point, she had been working since childhood, became widely recognised after her breakthrough in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, and had recently reached a new level of fame through The Avengers.
In 2013’s Her, Johansson voices Samantha, an artificial intelligence operating system whose existence is treated as a purchasable service. The following year, Lucy begins with her character being exploited and dismissed before she develops into the most powerful person on Earth.
Under the Skin completes the pattern by presenting Johansson’s recognisable celebrity presence as a disguise for an unseen threat. Across all three films, her image is something packaged and offered to an audience, but never quite as safely or simply as it first appears.
That idea will feel familiar to anyone interested in how presentation changes the meaning of an experience, whether on a cinema screen or in a home setup. RETROCADE’s arcade blog explores the culture around games and machines, while the arcade machine buying guide covers the practical choices behind building a dedicated entertainment space. For a compact setup, browse bartop arcades; enthusiasts planning a custom cabinet can also compare DIY arcade kits.
Under the Skin is now streaming on Netflix.
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