Body horror movie is slick and funny but ultimately falls into the shallowness it criticizes

in ShellElisabeth Moss stars as Samantha Lake, a 30-something actress whose career is already on the decline due to Hollywood’s penchant for prioritizing beauty and youth over talent. When Samantha seeks help from wellness guru Zoe Shannon (Kate Hudson) and her company, also called Shell, her life transforms overnight. Naturally, this is all too good to be true.

There are many elements that work in ShellFrom its modern production design to the cast, which also includes Kaia Gerber, Elizabeth Berkley, Arian Moayed and Amy Landecker. Max Minghella, in his second feature as director, gives Los Angeles a distinctly retro-future feel that adds another layer of silliness to the proceedings. yet, Shell It takes too long to unravel its central mystery and once it gets to the body horror it teases at the beginning of the film, the movie starts pulling its punches.

Shell is more of a comedy than a horror movie

But it is not able to merge the two completely

It’s hard not to think of 2024’s other body horror movie about aging women while watching ShellEspecially considering both screened at the Toronto International Film Festival where Shell is premiering. But whereas The substance is a no-holds-barred gore fast, Shell Seems hesitant to lean into his nastier sensibilities. It’s after an opening sequence that sees Berkeley appear in a brutal scene that sets up the terror to come.

From there, however, Shell is more comedy than horror, kooky and borderline camp in its depiction of the wellness industry and Hollywood. But in a beat the tone, Shell Fails to follow through on the promise of its inception for a majority of its runtime and when it comes to where it needs to be, the shift doesn’t quite work.

What work is ShellSatire for beauty and wellness, an element of the film that also feels real. Everywhere you look for the trick to avoid or even stop aging (tech mogul Brian Johnson, who injects his 17-year-old son’s blood into his body and reportedly spends $2 million dollars a year to look young immediately comes to mind).

The source of this anti-aging mystery in Shell is even funnier, revealed in a climactic monster moment that finally nails the tone the movie was going for. But just when it starts to get things right, Minghella’s assured direction turns chaotic, almost as if the camera is afraid to fully look into the eyes of the evil that Shell has created.

If there are not for ShellHowever, I’m afraid none of this would work. We get to see that Moss is funny in a way that many of her recent roles, most notably The maid’s storyThey didn’t let her be. Hudson is completely devilish as Zoe Shannon, eating every scene in her, vacillating between girl’s girl and corporate monster with a terrible breezyness.

It’s a great showcase for the pair, bolstered by fun supporting performances and appearances, including Ziwe as a media executive and Este Haim as Samantha’s hapless friend/assistant. Unfortunately, despite all the different elements working, it never coalesces into something cohesive. It’s fun – there are many laugh-out-loud moments satirizing the arrogance of Hollywood and the film industry.

There are also a couple of really gross body horror moments, but that’s when Shell Seems afraid to linger too long. It seems as if it’s saving a big reveal for us, but it never really comes, even when a monster is stalking a warehouse at the end of the movie, looking for something it can get its claws on. Shell It’s funny and nice to look at, but it lacks the depth or the darkness it needs.

Shell Had its premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is 100 minutes long and rated for violent content, gore, sexual content, graphic novelty and language.