Blood, gore, and old science fiction

Who needs subtlety when this theatrical release is filling theaters with daring and excess?

It is the biggest fantasy film release of the month, which is surprising given its good performance in somewhat lackluster movie theaters. In Spain, it had 100,000 viewers in its first week, outperforming other countries. ‘The Substance’ is a barbaric moral fable that criticizes the entertainment industry’s superficiality and harm to its participants, with a festive and excessive tone that makes it perfect for a movie night with popcorn.

Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley give great performances, and Dennis Quaid’s cartoonish antics show that the actress’s best years are behind her. She despairs after being fired in part because of her age until a mysterious company offers her a substance that makes her younger and better. Despite the temptation of a new youth, she must follow strict rules if she accepts the miracle cure.

Coralie Fargeat, who we remember from ‘Taken’, another classic genre story modernized thematically and visually, builds a body horror epic that clearly owes a lot to David Cronenberg (and even his son Brandon Cronenberg: here are traces of ‘Antiviral’ and ‘Possessor’). But also to festive entertainments like the 90s series ‘Tales from the Crypt’ or the unmatched black comedy ‘Death Becomes Her’, which has the same message as ‘The Substance’ (directed by Robert Zemeckis, one of the ideologists and producers of ‘Tales’, so everything stays in-house).

This mix of influences creates a film that should be seen on the big screen because its grotesque sensory spectacle is unmatched, with practical make-up like we haven’t seen in a while, especially at its end. Everything is structured by a string of fair, necessary, obvious, and very sly messages of a forceful feminism (as with ‘Vengeance’) but not at all obvious when it enters into certain nuances about how society perceives older women and how they are forced to self-perceive their bodies. Don’t wait to see this poisoned candy in pixelated streaming.

Alex Garland is a visionary of fantasy film. His notable films include ‘Ex Machina’, ‘Aniquilación‘, ‘Dredd’ (which he directed without credit), and ‘Devs’, which may have more in common with ‘Men’. However, this new proposal does not distinguish between artificial intelligence, future police, alternative dimensions, or endiosated programmers.

‘Men’s’ setting in an English countryside isolated from civilization evokes folk horror films like ‘The Wicker Man’ and ‘Midsommar’, which depict the clash between civilization and the atavistic. Garland is talking about behaviors so deeply ingrained in our DNA that they can be traced back to where social and ancestral rhyme.

‘Men’ follows a woman who becomes isolated in a rural rented house after her husband commits suicide. While walking, she notices a follower. Soon, her encounters with strangers reveal a deeper issue that no one—not her landlord, the local priest, or the police—can solve.

Despite its simple symbolism, ‘Men’ is hard to describe without spoiling its secrets. Harper, portrayed with unusual sensitivity and closeness by a magnificent Jessie Buckley, discovers that all the men’s abuse she receives daily—from the mundane to the extreme—has the same root. Garland uses the chameleonic and magnificent Rory Kinnear to show this.

It’s raining men
Se preguntará si pensa que una película como esta escrita y dirigida por un hombre, aunque hombres han poblado el cine con personajes femeninos interesantes y complejos, como la Ava de ‘Ex Machina’ y la Lily de ‘Devs’, que le da un carácter especialmente desaparido con la condición masculina. And men’s natural ability to turn many of their lives into authentic burdens.

Kinnear’s presence is the most important, but Garland uses other signs and symbols to create a claustrophobic atmosphere. Sheela na Gig sculptures with giant female genitals may represent fertility goddesses, pagan relics, or warnings against female lust. The tunnel sequence, the protagonist’s first and most symbolic encounter with the unknown, easily turns pleasant lyricism into banal panic, and the film’s soundtrack is infected by the scene’s musical notes.

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