Unless you’ve read the original novel, you won’t know until late in the film that Under The Skin is the story of an alien in human form. Still, the filmmakers reveal in interviews: “part road movie, part science fiction, part real, it’s a film about seeing our world through alien eyes.”

Spoilers Would Have Helped

In fairness, I would have enjoyed the film a whole lot better if I knew this before watching. Perhaps this confusion about what to reveal and what not lies at the basis of director Jonathan Glazer’s mixed success at the box office.

Glazer is what you would call a cult director. He has a smallish, dedicated following. His debut Sexy Beast grossed only about $10m worldwide, but it established him as a force in the indie world. For Birth, his next, he had $20m to play with (most of which I suspect went to Nicole Kidman’s fee).

That movie barely made its money back, and it took Glazer nine years before getting another picture into the theatres. With a production budget of $13m and a reported worldwide gross of just over $5m for Under The Skin, one wonders if he’ll be helming again any time soon.

Under Your Skin

Still, I’ll always be interested in Glazer’s movies. They are eerie, unnerving. They linger in your memory, and get under your skin. To me, this is a sign of relevant cinema.

In this picture, Scarlett Johansson plays a woman who roams Scotland seducing men, then killing them. This ritual repeats itself over and over, until she too meets a harrowing end. The scenes of seduction and sex are disorienting and alienating, to an extent that we can’t really tell what is going on, how and why.

Scarlett Johansson’s Skin

It is one of those stories I kept watching out of intrigue (contrary, of course, to those who confessed to keep watching for the substantial amount of Scarlett in the flesh). Where could this all possibly lead?

When any answer is ultimately lacking, you are left with the choice to accept this as art – or dismiss it as nonsense. I’m divided. In my view, great cinema doesn’t leave the viewers in the dark, with an attitude of “Didn’t you get it?”

Or was this film intended for readers of the original novel only? Not a convincing business model, if you ask me.

Glazer’s Idea Of Beach Fun

That said, Under The Skin has one scene that represents Glazer’s style of filmmaking.

If you haven’t seen the movie, I’m not sure whether it will draw you in, or turn you off completely (I guess this may also depend on your appetite for Scarlett Johansson). But it may haunt you forever… if you’re a human.

The scene sits about twenty-five minutes in, and is set at the beach during wild weather. Our heroine watches the drowning of a couple in the waves while their infant child is left alone, crying. As a parent, I found this the most heart-wrenching scene ever.

But it’s not over yet.

This is only the setup – being a long one – for what is to come. Unmoved, the woman observes how a swimmer in wetsuit fails to rescue the couple, and washes up on the beach, exhausted.

What happens next, is profoundly disturbing, and if you’re in need of something to cheer you up, perhaps leave this one for later.

Or pour yourself something strong.

-Karel Segers

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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He explains how he doesn’t want to see a movie about war or terrorism but rather something larger than life.

What JJ Abrams means is really how he wants to tell mythological stories and transcend reality while still talking about our reality. He also talks about the influence of  Jaws and Alien on Cloverfield.

With thanks to Louise Lee Mei and Niels Abercrombie.

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With a prequel to the 1979 hit flick Alien directed by Ridley Scott in the works, Bryn Tilly re-opens the case on the original film and dissects what is brooding under its surface…

“The people who made the first Alien were artists, Ridley Scott, Giger, the writers – they invented everything. The rest of us who follow are artisans. That first film is a work of art, an entity all its own.” -Jean-Pierre Jeunet

I heard through the cyber-grapevine that my favourite horror movie Alien was going to be remade. I was dreadfully upset, thinking how any director and production team could do anything as remotely atmospheric and powerful as Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi flick from 1979.

Then I was corrected; it wasn’t going to be a remake, but instead a prequel and Ridley Scott had signed on to direct. How bizarre; what on earth could possibly be done with a prequel to Alien?! Two possibilities floated around my mind, both of them tenuous at best.

The first idea was that the prequel would concern an earlier attempt by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation at trying to bring back the alien species to earth. But I dismissed this as a rather pointless plot.

The second concept was that perhaps the prequel would tell the plight of the alternate alien species in the giant derelict spacecraft that the crew of the Nostromo come across on the planetoid; the infamous long-dead Space Jockey astride his driving console (or could it be some kind of monstrous biotech laser cannon?). That idea didn’t really seem plausible either since it wouldn’t involve any human actors.

I’m relieved Scott is at the helm, but I’m not very impressed at the whole idea of a prequel. It is a lot better than the remake I was dreading. I suppose a remake is inevitable, and sooner rather than later. But I digress.

With Alien being topical for the first time since French visualist extraordinaire Jeunet tried his hand directing Alien Resurrection (and a flawed, but under-rated movie it is) back in 1997, I thought I’d illustrate the sexual symbolism of Alien, which layers the movie’s mise-en-scene: the subtle elements of sexuality; vaginal and phallic imagery, penetration, copulation, and reproduction.

Much of this symbolism is rife in the phantasmogorical, biomechanical production design aesthetics of Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger. But Ridley Scott, coming from an art department background and being a stickler for detail, is also very much responsible for the graphic and implied carnal imagery, both sensual and violent.

Much can be made of Freudian associations to Alien’s production design, symbolism and special effects, but I like to think of these elements as less intellectually singular, and instead a broader more immediate scope of primal carnality within a male-female context, or to be more precise; a maternal perspective, a sub-textual nightmare of life and death.

The following is a chronological dissection of scenes and sequences:

The Hyper-Sleep Chamber

The crew of the commercial mining spaceship Nostromo slowly rise one by one from hyper-sleep, each member has been cocooned in a pristine, womb-like existence; the surrounding whiteness and time lapse creates a false sense of security, a protective, maternal realm.

They’ve had their travel hibernation interrupted courtesy of ship computer Mother who has intersected what appears to be a distress signal from an unknown nearby planet.

The Derelict Spacecraft

After landing on the planets inhospitable surface Captain Dallas, Navigator Lambert, and Executive Officer Kane track the source of the signal, which leads them to a strange-looking spacecraft shaped like a massive horseshoe.

Upon closer inspection they discover an entrance, which is in the middle of the ship’s curve; a kind of vaginal-orifice between rounded thighs.

The Space Jockey

Once inside the giant and apparently derelict ship the intrepid explorers climb up onto an enormous round platform, which reveals an extra-terrestrial creature astride some kind of huge phallic driving console pointed upward.

The pilot is long-dead, sporting a nasty looking explosive wound from its chest. The sight of the “space jockey”, fossilized and seemingly fused bio-mechanically to its erect hardware is grotesque and perverse.

The Alien Eggs

Kane explores further down into the ship’s bewilderingly cavernous hull beneath the bridge leaving the other two above. While edging along a ledge-like protrusion he slips and falls into a bed of thousands of large, leathery-looking eggs. He approaches one of them, the light from his helmet illuminating a fluttering embryo inside, and one of the eggs (sensing his proximity) reacts, its top peeling open like a blossoming flower to the eager bee. Kane peers inside where he sees what appears to be a fleshy, throbbing muscle. Suddenly the life-form shoots out like a jack-in-the-box.

The Face-Hugger

Kane – with creature attached – is rushed back to the Nostromo. Warrant Officer Ripley cites quarantine protocol, but Science Officer Ash intervenes. A crab-like face-hugging life-form has attached itself to Kane; and an x-ray reveals the creature has a tube running down his esophagus, keeping him alive. When they try to cut off one of the face-hugger’s digits, its acidic blood burns a hole through several decks, almost breaching the hull.

The Chest-Burster

With Kane apparently unharmed, the crew decides on a meal before re-entering hyper-sleep, but Kane begins to choke on food. His choking turns to violent convulsions and the others try to help him. Suddenly blood spreads across Kane’s torso, and seconds later a large eel-like creature bursts from his chest spraying blood everywhere. It momentarily eyes its dumbstruck audience, screeches, and escapes.

The Adult Alien

After disposing of Kane’s body – his mummy-like coffin being shot like a missile into deep space – the others begin searching for the alien. Engineer Technician Brett separates from the others to recover Jones the cat. He locates the terrified animal, along with the alien, now fully grown into a nine-foot tall humanoid beast.

Brett is transfixed by the monstrous creature as it towers in front of him, revealing its salivating twin jaws, one lascivious set of razor-sharp teeth opening, whilst another phallic projectile set shoots out directly into Brett’s forehead at lightning speed.

Ash, Ripley, and the Magazine

Ripley tries to get answers from Mother, and accesses classified information indicating the alien was to be brought back to earth, with crew expendable, and Ash knew all along. Ash confronts Ripley and tries to suffocate her with a rolled up magazine by stuffing it into her mouth. He overheats with a milky (semen-like) perspiration. Chief Engineer Parker comes to Ripley’s rescue and after overpowering Ash Ripley knocks the traitor’s head off, the white artificial substance spraying everywhere. Ash is revealed as an android.

The Alien that Kills Parker and Lambert

The surviving crew decides to abandon the ship in the escape shuttle. Whilst Ripley is trying to locate Jones, Lambert and Parker go to gather the coolant tanks for the shuttle’s life-support system. But the alien intercepts them, tearing a deadly chunk from Parker’s chest with its ferocious jaws, and impaling (suggestively) Lambert with its powerful spiked tail.

The Alien’s Demise

After failing to convince Mother to disengage the Nostromo’s self-destruct system (“You bitch!) Ripley is safely in the escape shuttle with Jones in his special box, and the Nostromo destroyed. Ripley prepares for hyper-sleep, but the alien has stowed away on board. Ripley dons a spacesuit and manages to provoke the alien, opens the airlock, fires a grappling gun at the beast pushing it outside, where it clings and climbs into one of the huge thruster pipes. Ripley guns the engine and the creature is incinerated.

As described the movie has numerous references to phallus-like extensions, penetration, ejaculation, impaling and protrusions; including Ash’s surgical probe, Brett’s electrical cattle-prod, Dallas and Ripley’s flame-throwers, the pistons of the self-destruct mechanism.

Special note must be made of the life-cycle of the main alien. After killing the first life-form (the space jockey) the main alien was obviously using their spacecraft as an incubator for its eggs. From the egg comes the face-hugger which deposits another embryo in its host, which when large enough bursts free to grow swiftly into an imposing creature with arms, legs, and a tail, and a phallic-like head and mouth. The sequel, Aliens, elaborates on the life-cycle to include the alien queen mother.

H.R. Giger’s sexually-charged designs are deeply and potently provocative; from the bone-like meshes of the first alien spacecraft, complete with its erectile jockey and womb-like hull, to the primordial, serpent-cum-crustacean-like parasitic alien with acid for blood and the morality of a demon.

Ridley Scott and screenwriter Dan O’Bannon counter Giger’s dual alien designs with the Nostromo’s claustrophobic interiors, especially the air-shafts and those creepy mechanized junction gates, Mother’s womb-like communication room, juxtaposing with the crews’ “virginal” white undergarments and tranquil hyper-sleep chamber, and the movie’s most abstract scene in the expansive freight facility freely dripping condensation, where Brett locates Jones, and inadvertently the adult alien coiled in hiding.

Alien is a seething, pulsating, throbbing, visceral lair of carnality that is at once blatant, as it is suggestive. Very few science fiction or horror movies have come close in incorporating such sexually provocative imagery in such imaginative and nightmarish ways since.

Bryn Tilly is a shameless cinephile, freelance writer and pro DJ who spends his daytime hosting Horrorphile and Cult Projections. At night he spins deep funk for jazzed souls at Sydney’s glam hotspots such as The Ivy and The Opera Bar. He provides a ‘Movie of the Month’ review for lifestyle website FreshMag.

Cherie Lee

I studied acting for three years and hold a graduate diploma in writing from Sydney’s UTS. My interest in film and writing was solidified through interning at The Story Department and gave me the opportunity to fine tune my skills. I’ve been involved with several film projects, the most recent of which was shortlisted for Tropfest.

With the knowledge gained from university and my experience at The Story Department, I’m now specialising in professional feedback on short films and documentaries.