THE STORY – Margot, a young intern at the most competitive ER in the country, has trouble keeping up in this stressful environment. As she’s confronted with multiple patients her age presenting unusual symptoms, her own body starts to show disturbing changes…
THE CAST – Mara Taquin, Karin Viard, Kim Higelin, Sami Outalbali, Stefan Crepon, Sonia Faïdi & Edouard Ducamp
THE TEAM – Marion Le Corroller (Director/Writer) & Thomas Pujol (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 103 Minutes
“Species” (Or “Sanguine”) is a new French body horror feature film that marks the directorial debut of Marion Le Corroller, who co-wrote the script with Thomas Pujol. Premiering in the Midnight Screenings section of the 79th Cannes Film Festival, the film combines strong performances, impressively gruesome effects work, and a smart premise to deliver an effective horror with a resonant contemporary twist.
“Species” opens with a darkly comic prologue, in which a fast food employee deals with an annoying customer by calmly beating him to death. His attitude throughout the violent encounter could be described as mysteriously laid back. Thereafter, we meet Mara Taquin (star of “Zero Fucks Given”) who plays Margot, a young intern at a high-intensity hospital in Paris, where she struggles to impress her ruthlessly efficient supervisor, Helene (Karin Viard). When a young patient appears at the hospital with strange bodily lesions, Margot examines her and suspects she has discovered a new virus, but then begins experiencing the same symptoms.
The exact nature of the virus, and indeed the reason behind the English language title, is withheld until quite late in the script and presented as a mystery that Margot tries to solve. To that end, if you wish to preserve the surprise for yourself, please skip the next paragraph, as it’s impossible to discuss this film without diving a bit into SPOILER territory.
Le Corroller has come up with an original approach to the familiar viral outbreak concept, effectively tying it to the pressures of work for young people – it could easily be called the “Gen Z virus.” The idea is that in order to combat the various stresses and demands of the workplace, young people are literally mutating into a better version of themselves, an entirely new species. The idea has a great payoff within the context of film, because the more Margot becomes infected, which presents itself as horrifying bodily lesions, like a skin that has to be shed, the better she gets at her job, shooting up the performance evaluation chart at work, to the evident chagrin of her super competent fellow intern, Pauline (Kim Higelin). This leads to “Species’s” most enjoyable sequence, with a laser-focused Margot wandering around the emergency room and doling out instant diagnoses, before calmly performing ultra-complicated heart surgery. On a related note, the effects work is exceptional throughout – the lesions themselves are nasty enough, but Le Corroller heightens the gore factor further by having Margot burn them off herself with acid every night. Let’s just say that if you’re seeing this with an audience, there will be a lot of collective wincing.
Taquin is superb as Margot, delivering a compelling performance that keeps her character sympathetic even as her behavior becomes increasingly extreme. In particular, she manages to visually embody the stress and frustration of a highly demanding work environment – she’s constantly frazzled to the point where it’s exhausting even to look at her. Kim Hegelin is equally good as Pauline, and she generates strong chemistry with Taquin, as a workplace rival (think of her as the head “Mean Girl”). However, a potentially romantic subplot is underdeveloped and seems to exist just for the purposes of a gratuitous lesbian sex scene, rather than using the relationship as an opportunity to comment on the fact that a hectic work life leaves no room for relationships, or Gen Z’s reported disinterest in traditional relationships in general. In addition, there’s strong support from Viard, who perfectly encapsulates the sort of boss that Margot would be keen to impress – she’s like a demanding mother figure who is sparing with her moments of approval or affection. Margot’s own mother is pointedly conspicuous by her absence – we do meet her supportive father, but that is another relationship that is frustratingly underdeveloped. Elsewhere in the cast, Sami Outalbau is a warmly sympathetic presence as Margot’s other fellow intern, Louis, who develops an instant crush on her, while Sonia Faidi is excellent as Lila, the pregnant patient who first exhibits the symptoms of the virus.
Throughout the film, Le Corroller maintains a constant atmosphere of tension, so that the audience experiences both the pressures of the hospital and the creeping horror of the virus as it exerts increasing control. On top of that, her sense of pacing is terrific, reflecting the exhausting nature of Margot’s situation as she orchestrates a number of memorable set-pieces, the highlight of which is a gory transformation sequence that recalls some of the best moments of “The Substance.” The film is further heightened by some inventive camerawork from cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman, who uses fisheye lenses and subjective point-of-view shots for the sequences in which Margot is gripped by the virus and super-efficient at her job. There’s also an engagingly atmospheric score from ROB, which ratchets up the suspense at the appropriate moments.
“Species” is a compelling, suitably gruesome body-horror film that has something to say about today’s high-pressure working environment for young people. It also marks Marion Le Corroller as an exciting talent in the genre to watch. It will be exciting to see what she does next if this thrilling and gross film is any indication.
