10 Sci-Fi Movies That Broke All The Rules
3. Improvised Scenes - Under The Skin
The very nature of most sci-fi movies, shot on expensive sets with tons of CGI, means that there's rarely much room for improvisation, with scenes instead being intensely rehearsed and choreographed within a strict set of technical parameters.
But Jonathan Glazer's masterful sci-fi horror film Under the Skin is a very different beast indeed, a low-budget genre effort starring Scarlett Johansson as an alien entity who, under the guise of a beautiful woman, devours men in Scotland.
Because the movie had a relatively small crew and employed minimal VFX, Glazer was allowed a greater sense of freedom than is possible in 99% of sci-fi films.
As such, for the scenes where Johansson's character is driving around Glasgow seeking out men to pick up, Johansson literally drove a van fitted with hidden cameras around the city and picked up local men.
After being asked for their permission to use the footage, several of the men then filmed additional scenes where they were lured into a black liquid and consumed by the alien, resulting in an eerie intermingling of the real and the fictional.
For the sci-fi genre, which relies so often on soundstages and exorbitant effects, that level of intimate authenticity is virtually unheard of.