image of person or book cover 7411724241063796433.jpg
Screen cap from promotional trailer
form y separately published work icon Under the Skin single work   film/TV   science fiction  
Adaptation of Under the Skin Michel Faber , 2000 single work novel
Issue Details: First known date: 2013... 2013 Under the Skin
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A mysterious woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. Events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.' (Production summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Non/human Appetites and the Perils of Consumption in Under the Skin Luke Hortle , Hannah Stark , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Critique (Washington) , vol. 60 no. 2 2019; (p. 157-168)

'This article examines the complex and shifting appetites for meat and sex in Michel Faber’s 2000 novel Under the Skin and the 2013 Jonathan Glazer film adaptation of the book. Although almost unrecognizable at the level of plot, this article argues that considering these texts together highlights their deep and unsettling rendering of misogyny in relation to the pleasures and perils of consumption. In engaging with the confronting and, at times, politically ambiguous treatment of consumption in these texts, this article offers a reading of the intersectional relationship between the oppression of women in a patriarchal society and the exploitation of nonhuman animals as a resource for human endeavors.' (Publication abstract)

Johansson's Real Performance : Documentary Style in Under the Skin Alicia Byrnes , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Science Fiction Film and Television , Spring vol. 11 no. 1 2018; (p. 29-35)

'Sf might seem an odd genre in which to place documentary values, even though it has historically utilised principles of realism to enhance its verisimilitude.1 It characteristically prizes the fantastical, and Under the Skin is exemplary of the genre insofar as the unnamed alien protagonist scours the streets of Glasgow for male civilians to capture and process.The setting is portrayed with strategic familiarity - plainly dressed shoppers, indiscernible chatter, harsh fluorescent lighting and the recognisable signage of chain stores distinguish the space.Eight bespoke cameras were fitted into the front of the actress/ heroine's van - behind mirrors, headrests and vents - to document the pickups.Under the Skins marketing campaign participates in this destabilisation of Johansson's image by drawing the audience's attention to the presence of the real within the cruising scenes.'  (Publication abstract)

Fault Lines in Under the Skin (Glazer, 2013) : An Ethics and Aesthetics of the ‘monstrous’ David Roche , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Horror Studies , April vol. 8 no. 1 2017; (p. 45-59)

'An adaptation of Michel Faber’s 2000 novel about alien invasion that updates the scifi horror tradition of the 1970s in an art-cinema mode, Under the Skin (Glazer, 2013) offers a stellar example of the ‘monstrous’ as both figure and form. Generally speaking, the interstitiality of the ‘monstrous’ demands strategies grounded in the disconnection between categories (image and sound, diegetic and nondiegetic), some of which have become horror movie clichés. Under the Skin is no exception. Its aesthetics of instability, correlated to a ‘monstrous’ figure that casts a defamiliarizing gaze on our world before attempting to ‘become human’, produces a complex subtext on contemporary alienation and identity politics, that puts the viewer in a position where he or she must both take moral responsibility for the categories he or she constructs (such as the ’monstrous’), and experience the mysterious physicality at the core of life itself.' (Publication summary)

Scarlett Johansson's Loving the Alien in Under the Skin Christos Tsiolkas , 2014 single work
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 14 June 2014;

— Review of Under the Skin Walter Campbell , Michel Faber , Jonathan Glazer , 2013 single work film/TV
Alien Ways Iain Stasukevich (interviewer), 2014 single work interview
— Appears in: American Cinematographer , May vol. 95 no. 5 2014; (p. 44)
Scarlett Johansson's Loving the Alien in Under the Skin Christos Tsiolkas , 2014 single work
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 14 June 2014;

— Review of Under the Skin Walter Campbell , Michel Faber , Jonathan Glazer , 2013 single work film/TV
Alien Ways Iain Stasukevich (interviewer), 2014 single work interview
— Appears in: American Cinematographer , May vol. 95 no. 5 2014; (p. 44)
Fault Lines in Under the Skin (Glazer, 2013) : An Ethics and Aesthetics of the ‘monstrous’ David Roche , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Horror Studies , April vol. 8 no. 1 2017; (p. 45-59)

'An adaptation of Michel Faber’s 2000 novel about alien invasion that updates the scifi horror tradition of the 1970s in an art-cinema mode, Under the Skin (Glazer, 2013) offers a stellar example of the ‘monstrous’ as both figure and form. Generally speaking, the interstitiality of the ‘monstrous’ demands strategies grounded in the disconnection between categories (image and sound, diegetic and nondiegetic), some of which have become horror movie clichés. Under the Skin is no exception. Its aesthetics of instability, correlated to a ‘monstrous’ figure that casts a defamiliarizing gaze on our world before attempting to ‘become human’, produces a complex subtext on contemporary alienation and identity politics, that puts the viewer in a position where he or she must both take moral responsibility for the categories he or she constructs (such as the ’monstrous’), and experience the mysterious physicality at the core of life itself.' (Publication summary)

Johansson's Real Performance : Documentary Style in Under the Skin Alicia Byrnes , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Science Fiction Film and Television , Spring vol. 11 no. 1 2018; (p. 29-35)

'Sf might seem an odd genre in which to place documentary values, even though it has historically utilised principles of realism to enhance its verisimilitude.1 It characteristically prizes the fantastical, and Under the Skin is exemplary of the genre insofar as the unnamed alien protagonist scours the streets of Glasgow for male civilians to capture and process.The setting is portrayed with strategic familiarity - plainly dressed shoppers, indiscernible chatter, harsh fluorescent lighting and the recognisable signage of chain stores distinguish the space.Eight bespoke cameras were fitted into the front of the actress/ heroine's van - behind mirrors, headrests and vents - to document the pickups.Under the Skins marketing campaign participates in this destabilisation of Johansson's image by drawing the audience's attention to the presence of the real within the cruising scenes.'  (Publication abstract)

Non/human Appetites and the Perils of Consumption in Under the Skin Luke Hortle , Hannah Stark , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Critique (Washington) , vol. 60 no. 2 2019; (p. 157-168)

'This article examines the complex and shifting appetites for meat and sex in Michel Faber’s 2000 novel Under the Skin and the 2013 Jonathan Glazer film adaptation of the book. Although almost unrecognizable at the level of plot, this article argues that considering these texts together highlights their deep and unsettling rendering of misogyny in relation to the pleasures and perils of consumption. In engaging with the confronting and, at times, politically ambiguous treatment of consumption in these texts, this article offers a reading of the intersectional relationship between the oppression of women in a patriarchal society and the exploitation of nonhuman animals as a resource for human endeavors.' (Publication abstract)

Last amended 9 Sep 2014 11:13:39
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