Under the Skin is Jonathan Glazer’s 2013 film, adapted from Michel Faber’s novel, in which Scarlett Johansson plays an alien predator who lures men to their disappearance. Its score by Mica Levi became one of the most discussed film soundtracks of the decade.
Levi wrote and recorded the music over about ten months, working mainly on viola and looking for sounds that felt recognisably human before bending their pitch and tempo until they became uncomfortable. Glazer gave prompts such as asking what it might sound like to be on fire, and came to treat the bent, stretched notes as the film’s own language. Swarms of microtonal violas, false harmonics on high strings and percussion slowed until it seems distorted through time form a sparse, insect-like drone around the alien’s routine. Levi cited Giacinto Scelsi and Iannis Xenakis among the influences, and the score won the European Film Award for best composer and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association prize for best music.