A Vampire Movie of Sorts — With a Twist
We had been thinking about “point of view” (cf. December 3, et al.). Now imagine this. Imagine a being from another planet disguised as a human, wearing a woman-suit, or a “skin,” but functionally a sort of vampire. Her job* is to lure lonely men, men who will not be missed, into her lair where they’ll be “transmitted” to her home world (never mind the details, they just sink as it were into a dark pool) where they’re presumably considered food(?). Ick! But here’s the twist. The film is shown almost entirely from the “woman’s” point of view, that of an alien who only gradually gets used to Earth and the ways of its people — who slowly becomes an Earth person herself, or at least learns the ropes, including becoming a victim in turn (yes, [image error]there’s some sexual satire here, but wait for the end). As such the film moves slowly: she’s slowly absorbed, one might say, into “Earthiness” just as in their own fashion her victims are absorbed through the dark pool into peopleburgers.
The movie: UNDER THE SKIN, i.e., what’s beneath the Earthwoman surface, Saturday night’s science fiction fare (sorry) at the Indiana University Cinema. To quote the catalog blurb: Programmed by IU Cinema Lead House Manager Elizabeth Roell. UNDER THE SKIN examines the human experience from the perspective of a mysterious young woman (Scarlett Johansson) who seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland, luring them back to her strange, dark lair. However, a string of events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery. Contains explicit content, including sexual violence, strong language, and violence. The trick, though, as a couple of Amazon reviewers have suggested too, is to see the movie as a kind of documentary, but one made for the aliens — to take for oneself an alien point of view and learn, with the woman, what’s going on with this strange new world.
But pay attention: the film may move slowly, but even the smallest details are important.
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*With sometime assistance by a man with a motorcycle.
