‘Species’ Review: Body Horror Meets Burnout in Nasty Thriller [Brooklyn Horror Fest]

“Not everyone has what it takes for the ER.”

The best horror draws from very real places and plays into the palpable anxieties that eat away at our psyche and keep us up at night. Employment, stability, and an unsustainable lifestyle are common sources of stress for Gen Z and Millennials that are ripe for horror. There’s no shortage of material to subvert and satirize as Gen Z’s relationship with the workforce becomes increasingly toxic and burnout culture is normalized in high-stakes capitalist environments. Marion Le Coroller’s Species feels like a companion piece to the recent wave of visceral films from fearless female French directors, like Titane, Raw, and The Substance that engage with radical body horror that boldly holds a shattered mirror up to society to say something about culture’s twisted nature. 

Species will inevitably be compared to these movies, particularly The Substance. They explore comparable themes and similarly disturbing imagery, but they’re still completely distinct. In fact, Le Coroller’s perspective feels more attuned to Yorgos Lanthimos’s work in its broadness and style of satire. It’s a fierce, fascinating film about the impossible, exhausting pursuit of perfection that doesn’t hold back and marks an extremely promising debut from filmmaker Le Coroller. Species is a timely and relevant social satire with a brutal bite that feels like Raw or The Sadness meets The Pitt.

Species follows Margot (Mara Taquin), a hard-working, determined, and optimistic medical student who begins an internship at a prestigious and high-traffic hospital under a cutthroat, perfectionist doctor. After Margot is exposed to a patient with an abnormal rash, she begins to experience her own irregular and bloody symptoms that only grow more gruesome. Her hunt for answers triggers the curious conclusion that these symptoms are spreading among 20-somethings who are specifically in stressful and demanding fields of work. 

The illness’ disgusting side effects are directly connected to the high-pressure lifestyle that’s become the norm for so many young adults who are desperate to succeed. pulls from Le Coroller’s own real-life experience working in the finance sector and Margot’s workplace-centered stress takes on a suffocating degree of authenticity. The emergence of these conditions also happens to coincide with a rising wave of violence throughout the nation. cycles between ultra-violent acts of supernatural brutality and genuinely disgusting acts of ooey, gooey body horror.