This blog must begin with a huge warning that the following will contain so many spoilers for the movie Under The Skin (directed by Jonathan Glazer) that absolutely nothing will take you by surprise should you decide to see it; in fact, you may be struck by boredom and find yourself yawning uncontrollably. I have to warn you of this, as literally ANY information I give about the plot is a spoiler, considering the grandiose lack whatsoever provided by the trailer. Seriously, watch the clip below before proceeding.
Okay, now you know a grand total of absolutely nothing about the film except it looks confusing, creepy, artsy, and implies that Scarlet Johansson gets naked. After my first viewing of the trailer I was far from intrigued. My mind folded its metaphorical arms and shook its head like a stubborn child informing me that no way in hell were we going to see that movie. However, something in me kept wanting to watch the trailer over and over and I ended up watching it at least six times and greatly contributing to its number of views on YouTube. I felt like, although I expected a few sleepless nights to follow its screening, I would almost be more bothered if I didn't see it. I decided just to do it; how bad could it be (of course, this is exactly how I felt before seeing The Exorcist which made me unable to sleep or even enter a dark room unaccompanied for a good month)?
I am one of those "crazy" people who actually enjoys spoilers. I like being properly prepared for movies such as this so I know just what to expect. Is there going to be graphic, sick and twisted violence completely downplaying that in Game of Thrones? Will it raise so many psychologically disturbing questions that my mind teeters on the brink of explosion? Do I have to watch someone get castrated or skinned? Okay sorry, even typing that last bit was a bit disturbing. You get the point. But honestly, DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT if you want the movie to remain a complete mystery and plan on seeing it. You have been warned. Twice, I might mention.
So first I went to Wikipedia which provided a brief paragraph explaining the plot, and the introductory sentence itself ruined the complete mystery in the movie. All it said was:
"In Scotland, an alien takes the body of an attractive young woman and travels the country in a van picking up men. As she lures her victims into a trap with the promise of sex, the men are immersed in a kind of preserving liquid and their flesh is harvested. She is monitored by another alien, who has the body of a male motorcyclist."
Reading this terrified me beyond belief. Harvested skin? Seriously? That seemed a bit beyond my ability to behold on the big screen. After this tidbit, I wanted to know more of what I was getting into, so I listened to some SoundCloud clip of two critics reviewing it and basically giving away every single plot point. They talked about how the alien played by Johansson leaves an abandoned baby on the beach, kidnaps a man with a horribly disfigured face but takes pity and releases him, eventually develops a curiosity about what it means to be human and tries unsuccessfully to have sex and at the end gets gasoline poured on her by a rapist-firefighter guy/park ranger after she peels off her face and skin revealing the alien underneath and burns to ashes. The end, now you know the entire film.
The floating bags of skin to be harvested were not nearly as nasty as I imagined they would be- they just resemble little scarves suspended in the "preserving liquid." I have to admit that I was far less creeped out than I thought I would be. In fact, I was a bit bored by the second half of the film but I attribute that to not being that invested or interested in artsy films. If you want to see Scarlet Johansson stark naked and that is enough motivation in itself, go see it. There is a lot of full-frontal male nudity as well though, so consider yourself warned. See it, don't see it, do what you want. If you like conventional Hollywood, skip it for sure.
Okay, now you know a grand total of absolutely nothing about the film except it looks confusing, creepy, artsy, and implies that Scarlet Johansson gets naked. After my first viewing of the trailer I was far from intrigued. My mind folded its metaphorical arms and shook its head like a stubborn child informing me that no way in hell were we going to see that movie. However, something in me kept wanting to watch the trailer over and over and I ended up watching it at least six times and greatly contributing to its number of views on YouTube. I felt like, although I expected a few sleepless nights to follow its screening, I would almost be more bothered if I didn't see it. I decided just to do it; how bad could it be (of course, this is exactly how I felt before seeing The Exorcist which made me unable to sleep or even enter a dark room unaccompanied for a good month)?
I am one of those "crazy" people who actually enjoys spoilers. I like being properly prepared for movies such as this so I know just what to expect. Is there going to be graphic, sick and twisted violence completely downplaying that in Game of Thrones? Will it raise so many psychologically disturbing questions that my mind teeters on the brink of explosion? Do I have to watch someone get castrated or skinned? Okay sorry, even typing that last bit was a bit disturbing. You get the point. But honestly, DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT if you want the movie to remain a complete mystery and plan on seeing it. You have been warned. Twice, I might mention.
So first I went to Wikipedia which provided a brief paragraph explaining the plot, and the introductory sentence itself ruined the complete mystery in the movie. All it said was:
"In Scotland, an alien takes the body of an attractive young woman and travels the country in a van picking up men. As she lures her victims into a trap with the promise of sex, the men are immersed in a kind of preserving liquid and their flesh is harvested. She is monitored by another alien, who has the body of a male motorcyclist."
Reading this terrified me beyond belief. Harvested skin? Seriously? That seemed a bit beyond my ability to behold on the big screen. After this tidbit, I wanted to know more of what I was getting into, so I listened to some SoundCloud clip of two critics reviewing it and basically giving away every single plot point. They talked about how the alien played by Johansson leaves an abandoned baby on the beach, kidnaps a man with a horribly disfigured face but takes pity and releases him, eventually develops a curiosity about what it means to be human and tries unsuccessfully to have sex and at the end gets gasoline poured on her by a rapist-firefighter guy/park ranger after she peels off her face and skin revealing the alien underneath and burns to ashes. The end, now you know the entire film.
The floating bags of skin to be harvested were not nearly as nasty as I imagined they would be- they just resemble little scarves suspended in the "preserving liquid." I have to admit that I was far less creeped out than I thought I would be. In fact, I was a bit bored by the second half of the film but I attribute that to not being that invested or interested in artsy films. If you want to see Scarlet Johansson stark naked and that is enough motivation in itself, go see it. There is a lot of full-frontal male nudity as well though, so consider yourself warned. See it, don't see it, do what you want. If you like conventional Hollywood, skip it for sure.
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