In all its storytelling forms, horror has long been wielded as a tool for social and moral commentary, transforming the stuff of nightmares into something palpably real and tangibly prescient. Systems of oppression are portrayed as the monsters they truly are, and human nature is revealed as the greatest of all evils. Director Coralie Fargeat taps into that rich vein of horror without an ounce of subtlety in The Substance. For most films that would be a death knell, but in Fargeat’s hands, it’s the key to her film’s preposterous and pulse-pounding magic. Across each vibrant, bodily fluid-filled frame, Fargeat cements herself as the future of horror.

Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging movie star turned television exercise instructor. After she’s fired by her abhorrent boss (Dennis Quaid), she turns to the titular black-market drug, which promises to unlock her full potential and former youth—just not in the way she imagines. It spawns a younger, better clone, Sue (Margaret Qualley), from her flesh. Elizabeth is essentially reborn. The catch? Their time must be perfectly divided: Exactly one week in Sue’s body, the next in the other. The two are warned to respect the procedure or risk deadly, body-rending consequences.

With this simple premise, Fargeat conjures a grotesque marvel, a body horror extravaganza that violently picks apart Hollywood’s ceaseless obsession with patriarchal beauty standards. Unfolding at a breakneck pace across 140 mind-melting minutes, with some of the most guttural and ingeniously revolting practical effects, The Substance manifests as an unbelievably cathartic experience. Bursting with kaleidoscopic detail and overflowing with gnarly, cringe-inducing  “WTF” moments, The Substance is not a cult classic in the making but one already made. In what is the most aggressive and hypnotic piece of filmmaking of the year, Fargeat boldly finds the “taste” in “tasteless”.

The Substance streams on MUBI on October 31