Under the Skin Analysis - Humanity

Spoilers

Human nature is complicated. There are many people that inhibit quality traits such as manors, kindness, compassion, and honor. Our nature also contains many emotions; anger, sorrowfulness, bitterness, rudeness, hatred, etc. This film ventures through many of these traits and emotions that we inhibit from an unearthly perspective. An unbiased perspective of an extraterrestrial being who is tasked to understand human intimacy to lure men to their demise.

As the film started there were many vague images being shown. These images eventually formed into an eye. A voice could be heard reciting many vowels and words in English, as the mystery voice seemed to be learning the language. The voice and eye eventually showed us that a human skin was being formed; a female skin. Soon after that, the film presented us with a scene of a mysterious man bringing a girl back to a disclosed location. From there the nameless character simply referred to as "Her" or "She", was shown undressing the woman and putting her clothes on. This was the same woman that was being created. This scene gave the audience a taste of the incredibly haunting score by Mica Levi and the wonderful cinematography. After she finished dressing she went out to a town in Scotland to "fulfill her duties". From here there wasn't a clear motive or goal, she simply asked for directions for a good while. The extras that helped give her directions did a pretty fantastic job, mostly since they weren't actors. The director, Jonathan Glazer, decided to hide cameras and get genuine people to help her out. The impact of this would be more realized later in the film. Eventually, she asked for directions from a man who decided to take a ride home from her. She started to seduce him, and he decided to go with it. She then led him to a mysterious black void and started to undress. The man,  who was unaware of his surroundings, followed her blindly. Lust had consumed him, all that flooded his mind was sex and his desire to be with her. He didn't see a female, he saw an object of pleasure. His lust soon led him to be consumed by a strange liquid; he then disappeared. Her goal was still vague, but seducing the man seemed to be what she was after. What we were presented was nothing short of haunting, especially with how preventable his demise was.

She continued to prowl for men. On a beach, she saw a man who decided to risk his life for another woman. She observed and you can slightly tell she was interested in this new found kindness that this person had. Her mission was still a priority, so she knocked him out as soon as he came to shore and kidnapped him. The woman he tried to save never came back; she had a child with her. That's when we got a chilling shot of the baby crying as he was left by himself on the beach at night. Abandonment is another part of human nature, even it isn't on purpose.

The second man she seduced was, once again, completely oblivious to the black void. He focused on her features until he walked into the strange liquid. Here we got to see the man floating; helplessly. He looked across from him to see the previous man bloated and wrinkled. The bloated man was then sucked of his insides, and all that was left of him was his hollow skin. This was by far the most horrifying scene in the film, and one of the scariest scenes in any film period. It was the first time I felt genuinely scared during a film. When things are kept vague, they tend to be more frightening. 

As the film transitioned to the second act we saw more kindness being exhibited by people. Such an act was from a man who cut himself while handing out flowers to people in traffic. Despite his injury, he continued. Another event was when she tripped onto the ground and two men helped her up. Once again, these two men were real people, adding to the authentic nature of the film. This choice helped fully realize the study of people's actions and behavior. We eventually were introduced to another man who was physically disfigured. He seemed to be nervous when she tried seducing him due to his insecurity. When he entered the dark void, he mentioned that he was "cold". Not all his attention was on her. But due to his insecurity, she managed to take advantage of him and he fell into the liquid. However, something did change in her. She stared at herself in the mirror only to see an innocent, helpless fly trying to escape the building she was in. She turned back towards the mirror and displayed concern and guilt across her face. She decided to rescue the disfigured man, she then ran away.

During her escape, she met a man. The man offered to give her a place to stay and she accepted. From there the man displayed kindness as he fed her and kept her warm. She began to understand how complicated emotions were when she felt genuine feelings for the man but also felt discomfort when they were about to have sex. She decided to run away out of confusion and fear. Eventually, she was lost in the woods and ran into a man who tried to rape her and take advantage of her; fear started to take control of her. This ultimately led her to reveal her true skin due to the struggling against the man. She then took her human face off to reveal a blank, cold, emotionless face underneath. She then looked down to see her human eyes full of tears. The man who tried to rape her then lights her on fire. The film cut to a distant shot of her slowly falling to the ground and die. From there the cycle continued, as the woman, in the beginning, was the previous hunter who started to exhibit human emotions.

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Background: https://slipthroughmovies.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/deconstructing-under-the-skin/