Monstrosity and Hybridity in Jonathan Glazer's "Under the Skin"

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Film Science, , language: English, abstract: In this text the role of the alien in the 2014 movie ¿Under the Skin¿ by Jonathan Glazer shall be examined and analyzed. The alien will be categorized and characterized as a hybrid form and embodies three different types of monstrosity which intermingle. In order to support this thesis various film scenes and motifs will be analyzed. At the beginning, I will perform a general introduction of the alien as figure in cultural history. Following this, I am going to introduce Tzvetan Todorov¿s concept of the Fantastic as the type of genre that can be related heavily to the film Under the Skin.

The main part will be occupied by an analysis of several forms of monstrosity in the film which is divided into three parts, the alien as monstrous serial killer, the alien as monster because of its alien nature and at last the alien as a symbol for female monstrosity. Within the literature that is going to be used, especially Kristeväs concept of abjection and Judith Butler¿s theory regarding performance and performativity shall be applied as two of the most important concept of the recent research. Regarding monstrosity the work of Cohen with its seven theses about monstrosity is used to provide a foundation for the analysis

The film Under the Skin was directed by Jonathan Glazer and bases on the novel of the same name by Michel Faber. It was not a big box office hit but received intense praise by critics and was described as one of the best films in 2014, not only because of its mix of different genres. The movie was released on the 14th of March and deals with a female Alien, played by Scarlett Johansson, who is killing men in Scottish towns. Many of the roles in the film were played by non-professional actors and other scenes were unscripted and filmed with hidden cameras to produce authentic scenes.