Appearance
Under the Skin
Directed by Jonathan Glazer and adapted from Michel Faber's 2000 novel, Under the Skin (2013) is a science fiction horror film of extraordinary atmosphere and restraint. Scarlett Johansson plays a nameless alien predator in human form, cruising the streets of Glasgow in a white transit van in search of unattached men who won't be missed. Shot almost entirely chronologically over eight weeks using guerrilla filmmaking techniques — hidden cameras, real members of the public, and Johansson disguised in a dark wig — the film transforms the familiar landscape of contemporary Scotland into something profoundly alien.
Johansson was rarely recognised during filming, allowing her to move among real crowds in busy shopping centres and city streets without detection. Many of the men who appear in the film had no idea they were being filmed and later consented to their footage being used.
Location(s)
Under the Skin was filmed entirely on location across Scotland, ranging from the streets of Glasgow to remote Highland forests, a windswept east coast beach, and a ruined clifftop castle.
Glasgow City Centre — Buchanan Galleries, Trongate, George Square, Celtic Park
The alien's Glasgow hunting ground encompasses the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre (220 Buchanan Street), the Trongate, George Square, and the streets surrounding Celtic Park in Parkhead, where fans leaving a match were unknowingly filmed. Various streets in Govan and Dalmarnock also feature heavily. Map Location
Auchmithie Beach, near Arbroath, Angus
One of the film's most disturbing and powerful sequences — in which the alien preys on an exhausted swimmer attempting to help a drowning family — was filmed on the beach at Auchmithie, a dramatic stretch of coast between Arbroath and Montrose at the foot of sheer red sandstone cliffs. Map Location
Tantallon Castle, North Berwick, East Lothian
The alien visits the ruined 14th-century clifftop fortress of Tantallon Castle on the Firth of Forth, a hauntingly dramatic location that enhances the film's sense of alien dislocation. Map Location
Loch Lomond and the Scottish Highlands (Argyll, Black Mount Estate)
Several sequences were filmed in the forests of Argyll and on the private Black Mount Estate in the Highlands, used for the film's most visually extreme and mysterious passages involving the alien's world. Map Location
Port Glasgow, Inverclyde
A quietly spoken local man takes the alien in at his house, situated in a short row of houses in Port Glasgow on the A8, fifteen miles west of Glasgow. Map Location
Director
Jonathan Glazer
Cast
Scarlett Johansson
Jeremy McWilliams
Adam Pearson
IMDB
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