Under The Skin (2013)
Under the Skin is an entirely different kind of horror movie, in that it really isn’t even trying to play to the genre all that much. Many folks would probably argue with my classification of the movie, and that’s fine. Nonetheless, it is eerie as hell watching Scarlet Johansson drive a van around as a detached alien observing the human condition, pick up men around town, and subsume them into a nebulous void. The nothingness of this liminal and distinctly alien place is only exacerbated by the impeccable and sparse set design and score of the scenes that take place there. Under the Skin feels like a miracle: a quietly hostile feat of filmmaking that just needs to be seen to be absorbed and understood, and it’s a testament to the skill of director Jonathan Glazer that it came out as fully formed, bewitching, and confident as it is. — Moises Taveras
