Under The Skin

Jonathan Glazer returns with a deeply creepy film that, despite its science-fiction premise, is just as much a horror flick of disassociation. Putting the 'alien' in 'alienating', Glazer’s third feature fuses a cryptic stranger-in-a-strange-land narrative, guerrilla shooting approach, and a tightly contained audiovisual scheme that makes for a claustrophobically seamless and unnerving drama of self-awakening... Glazer successfully creates a scenario in which an alien being for once feels genuinely strange... Johansson's fresh obliging manner, offset by her solemn expressions, makes a surprisingly good match for the extraterrestrial's blank-slate state. But as for certain other cinematic sojourners from other worlds, life on Earth brings unforeseen challenges, and the film saves its most terrifying moments for the end.
Nicolas Rapold, Film Comment