Film Analysis – Elisabeth Moss Gets Outshone by Her Co-Star in Oddball Film

There are scenes in the dumped low-budget shocker Shell that could paint it as like a giddy tipsy camp classic if viewed separately. Picture the scene where the actress's seductive wellness CEO forces her co-star to use a giant vibrator while making her stare into a mirror. Moreover, a cold open starring former performer Elizabeth Berkley tearfully cutting away crustaceans that have appeared on her flesh before being killed by a masked killer. Next, Hudson presents an sophisticated feast of her removed outer layer to enthused guests. Furthermore, Kaia Gerber turns into a massive sea creature...

I wish Shell was as hilariously enjoyable as the summaries imply, but there's something oddly flat about it, with performer turned filmmaker Max Minghella struggling to provide the excessive delights that something as absurd as this so plainly demands. It's never quite obvious what or why Shell is and the target viewers, a inexpensive endeavor with minimal appeal for those who had no role in the project, feeling even less necessary given its unfortunate resemblance to The Substance. Both center on an LA actor striving to get the attention and work she feels entitled to in a ruthless field, unfairly critiqued for her physical traits who is then seduced by a revolutionary process that provides instant rewards but has terrifying consequences.

Though Fargeat's version hadn't premiered last year at Cannes, ahead of Minghella's made its bow at the Toronto film festival, the parallel would still not be kind. Even though I was not a particular fan of The Substance (a garishly made, overlong and empty act of deliberate offense somewhat rescued by a brilliant star turn) it had an unmistakable memorability, readily securing its deserved place within the culture (expect it to be one of the most parodied films in next year's Scary Movie 6). Shell has about the same amount of substance to its and-then-what commentary (expectations for women's looks are extremely harsh!), but it doesn't equal its over-the-top body horror, the film finally evoking the kind of cheap imitation that would have come after The Substance to the video store back in the day (the lesser counterpart, the budget version etc).

It's strangely led by Moss, an actress not known for her humor, wrongly placed in a role that requires someone more willing to dive into the silliness of the genre. She worked with Minghella on The Handmaid's Tale (one can see why they both might crave a break from that show's relentless darkness), and he was so determined for her to star that he decided to adjust for her being noticeably six months pregnant, leading to the star being awkwardly covered in a lot of big hoodies and jackets. As an uncertain star seeking to push her entry into Hollywood with the help of a crustaceous skin routine, she might not really persuade, but as the sinister 68-year-old CEO of a life-threatening beauty brand, Hudson is in significantly better form.

The performer, who remains a always underestimated star, is again a delight to watch, excelling at a particular West Coast variety of faux-earnest fakeness backed up by something truly menacing and it's in her regrettably short scenes that we see what the film had the potential to become. Coupled with a more comfortable co-star and a more incisive script, the film could have come across like a wildly vicious cross between a 50s “woman's picture” and an 80s creature feature, something Death Becomes Her did so exceptionally.

But the script, from Jack Stanley, who also wrote the similarly limp action thriller Lou, is never as biting or as clever as it should have been, satire kept to its most blatant (the ending relying on the use of an NDA is more humorous in idea than execution). Minghella doesn't seem confident in what he's really trying to create, his film as simply, ploddingly shot as a daytime soap with an similarly poor score. If he's trying to do a self-aware carbon copy of a cheap cassette scare, then he hasn't taken it sufficiently into studied pastiche to sell it as such. Shell should take us all the way into madness, but it's too fearful to commit fully.

• Shell is up for hire digitally in the US, in Australia on 30 October and in the UK on 7 November