Under The Skin (2013)

Under The Skin (R)

A mysterious woman drives around Scotland luring strange men into her van and into certain doom in director Jonathan Glazer's newest film, Under The Skin.

The woman is played by blockbuster stunner Scarlet Johansen (Lost in Translation), and in a nice twist she drives about luring men to their visually splendid, yet weirdly ambiguous,  demise using her sexuality.  It's not the first Horror genre pic to play the "most dangerous gender" card, but it works.  However when she flees the situation after meeting a disfigured man and her motorcycle male handlers start combing the countryside for her, the movie takes a sharp turn towards "meh."

Glazer is a master of unsettling visuals (Sexy Beast was his first feature film after excelling in creeping out MTV for years).  The abduction scenes were spellbinding, they take place in a dark space that her victims slowly sink through the floor.  The music in these scenes is also fantastic and drives home an otherworldy creepy mood that pervades the WTF.  And yet the film throws all that mystery away just to begin a drawn out run-away, is she human? plot that centers on rainy cold Scottish scenery and little to no dialog.  In the end, the hypnotic visuals and sounds can't overcome the very simple plot.  The ending moments elevate it back into watchable, but only by the skin of it's teeth.

4.5 ScarJo's In and Out of Her Lingerie out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)