SHELL

USA | 2024 | 100m | English

Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Kate Hudson, Kaia Gerber, Arian Moayed, Este Haim, Lionel Boyce, Amy Landecker, Elizabeth Berkley

Director(s): Max Minghella

Samantha (Elisabeth Moss) is thinking it over. She’s a slightly unkempt, earnest, talented actress who can’t seem to nail the jobs she wants, and both her confidence and bank account are shrinking. She also looks slightly older than her competition, so at the prompting of her agent and the numerous neon billboards touting its miraculous outcomes, Samantha commits to a treatment from Shell. It’s a success and the result is a glowing, more invigorated Samantha with a new lease on life.

Enter Zoe Simpson (Kate Hudson) the glamorous CEO of Shell, the living embodiment of her products. Zoe offers to take Samantha on as a protégé and soon the actress’s star starts to rise. But Samantha also starts to get suspicious about missing friend Chloe (Kaia Gerber), some unusual symptoms she started exhibiting, and what might truly be going on in the laboratories of Shell. Samantha’s suspicions and Zoe’s paranoia escalate into a frantic cat-and-mouse game that climaxes in a high-stakes confrontation with surprising results.

Courtesy of TIFF

TIFF 24 REVIEW BY: DARREN ZAKUS

DATE: SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

Shell is a gooey, bloody and ridiculously fun body horror that is an incredibly campy outing that thanks to a scene stealing Kate Hudson and its talented cast, is one irresistible theatrical experience that will have you both laughing and squirming in your seat.

Body horror is having its moment in the spotlight currently thanks to The Substance, which made Shell the perfect companion film to premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. While it does not have the searing commentary of The Substance, Shell is a homage to the long lost mid-budget studio film that was all the rage back in the 1980, 1990s and early 2000s. Marking his second directorial effort, Max Minghella ventures into the realm of body horror playing with ideas of beauty and self-image in a film loaded with vicious moments of dark comedy, gooey madness and blood that makes for one wildly and sometimes shocking ride to experience with a crowd on the big screen. And when armed with a cast led by the always great Elisabeth Moss and the dazzling Kate Hudson, Minghella knows exactly what he is doing and delivers one wicked fun time.

Society places a great emphasis on appearance and physical beauty, with it both opening and closing doors for individuals. It’s even more significant in the film industry, where we find our main character Samantha struggling to land acting roles not because she isn’t a talented actress, but because she does not look like a model like the younger actresses she is competing against. At the advice of her agent, Samantha enrolls in an experimental medical experiment meant to rejuvenate the body and enhance one’s beauty. It’s there that Samantha meets the glamorous CEO of the company Zoe Shannon, who she becomes fast friends with, before she discovers there are more nefarious happenings at the Shell company than just making people beautiful.

Jack Stanley’s story is built upon ideas and messages that are important in today’s society, where we are so focused on appearance, but his screenplay doesn’t spend much time exploring them. Instead, he packs a dark comedic tone to his film that will have audiences laughing uncontrollably before unleashing the darker body horror elements in the film’s second half. There’s no secret where the story is heading, but Stanley makes it a fun ride from start to finish, and really takes the story one step further than you ever expect the film to go. What transpires by the final act is one of the most shocking transformations audiences have encountered in recent memory on the big screen, that when aided by the practical effects and puppetry to bring it to life, delivers an unforgettable climactic moment that you won’t believe until you see it on the big screen. Full of blood splattering, gooey messy situations, and one truly shocking WTF moment, Shell becomes one entertaining body horror romp that will have audiences simultaneously laughing and squirming in their seats.

When your film has a cast led by Moss and Hudson, it doesn’t matter what it’s about, as audiences are not going to miss that pairing. Moss is a force to be reckoned with as the film’s lead Samantha, bringing a heart and tenacity to the role that allows the audience to feel for Samantha on every step of her journey. Much like in The Invisible Man, Moss is powerful in every scene, even as her character finds herself overwhelmed and terrified for her life, making her a terrific lead for a horror film. Hudson absolutely runs away with the entire film as Zoe Shannon, the CEO of Shell, turning in one deliciously sinister turn. Believing that Hudson could be the CEO of a pioneering health and beauty company is no stretch of the imagination, because Hudson herself is a radiant image of beauty and glamour. She brings a natural charm that draws in Moss’s Samantha into the cult-like nature of the company, making Samantha follow every beauty tip and piece of life advice that Zoe dolls out from atop her ivory tower. But as the warning signs become more glaring to Samantha and she discovers that Zoe is willing to do anything to keep the secret of her company’s success and their many skeletons from being exposed, Hudson becomes truly villainous and unleashes Zoe’s inner raging psychopath and revels in every second of the film’s craziness, which audiences are going to eat up every second of.

Este Haim is lovely in the supporting role of Samantha’s best friend Lydia, nailing the acting best friend and the sound of reason that every horror movie needs. Kaia Gerber brings a sweet sentimentality to Chloe, a young girl who also like Samantha is part of the experimental beauty treatment. Arian Moayed is great as Dr. Hubert, the Shell doctor administering the treatment, brings a great sense of humour to the film, and for a horror film all about beauty, it’s definitely a bonus when you have the stunning Elizabeth Berkeley as the opening scene scream queen. It’s clear that Minghella knew exactly what he was doing and the film he was going to create with every outstanding casting choice he made.

While it’s not as gross as some of the classics of the body horror genre, Max Minghella’s latest film packs a wicked sense of humour that makes Shell a fun night out at the movies. Themes of physical beauty and its worth in today’s society are explored while a darkly comedic and thrilling body horror tale is unleashed on the audience that culminates in one wild climax. With Kate Hudson serving up delicious and sinister camp that runs away with the entire film, Max Minghella’s Shell is a wickedly funny and shocking body horror romp that never for a second fails to entertain.