Thought Coralie Fargeat’s ferocious vengeance thriller Revenge was a full-bore assault on the senses? The Substance, the daredevil French filmmaker’s latest, is here to push her extreme cinema a yard or two further in genuinely disgusting, but wildly entertaining and even thoughtful new directions. The Substance sets out in the garb of a sci-fi full of Spandex-and-electro ’80s overtones, before mutating into something deliriously over-the-top as it explores the crushing aesthetic pressures placed on women in icky and necrotic ways. The final reel, in particular, is here for anyone who felt that The Fly’s skin-crawlingly gory climax was a little restrained. Some will run screaming, but if it’s your jam, this could just be your new favourite horror movie.
On MUBI Oct 31.
