Skin Tight
The Museum of Science’s latest film is a journey to Planet You
The camera pans over a barren, alien landscape — suddenly out pops a giant bug-like creature. Scary? Yes, but even more so when it turns out that this is not a scene out of Them! but a new film focusing on more intimate terrain: your skin.
Planet You, which opens today, July 24, at the Museum of Science, takes an up-close and personal look at the thousands of microscopic creepy crawlies that live on the surface of human skin, using live action and digital computer animation. It even goes a step farther in acknowledging the ’50s and ’60s bug movie genre: it’s in 3-D.
The audience gets to visit Dermatophagoides, or house dust mites, whose sole focus in life is to feed on dead skin flakes. Usually that’s a good thing, except that excrement from this half-millimeter creature can cause asthma or allergic reactions.
Other critters starring in the film include deer ticks, lice, and bacteria. There’s the horror scene of a paper cut, but also a happy ending — witnessing how skin heals at an incredible rate.
Planet You opens at the Museum of Science today, July 24, and continues every day through August 12, with hourly showings from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Admission to the 25-minute film is $4.50 for adults, $4 for seniors, and $3.50 for children. The film was made in collaboration with the Health Museum of Houston.
Kimberly Cornuelle can be reached at kcornuel@bu.edu.
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