Shell Review – Elisabeth Moss Gets Overshadowed by Her Co-Star in Bizarre Horror

There are sequences in the unveiled schlock horror Shell that could paint it as like a frivolous inebriated camp classic if viewed separately. Envision the segment where Kate Hudson's vampy beauty mogul compels her co-star to operate a giant vibrator while forcing her to look into a mirror. Moreover, a cold open featuring former performer Elizabeth Berkley emotionally removing shells that have developed on her flesh before being killed by a hooded assailant. Next, Hudson offers an sophisticated feast of her removed outer layer to eager attendees. Furthermore, Kaia Gerber becomes a giant lobster...

If only Shell was as hilariously enjoyable as that all makes it sound, but there's something strangely dull about it, with star turned helmer Max Minghella finding it hard to provide the over-the-top thrills that something as ridiculous as this so plainly demands. Audiences may wonder what or why Shell is and its intended audience, a inexpensive endeavor with few attractions for those who weren't involved in the filmmaking, appearing more superfluous given its unfortunate resemblance to The Substance. Both highlight an LA actor striving to get the attention and work she believes is her due in a harsh business, wrongly evaluated for her looks who is then tempted by a revolutionary process that grants immediate benefits but has frightening drawbacks.

Though Fargeat's version hadn't debuted last year at Cannes, preceding Minghella's was unveiled at the Toronto film festival, the parallel would still not be kind. While I was not a particular fan of The Substance (a flashily produced, too drawn-out and empty act of provocation partially redeemed by a killer lead performance) it had an clear lasting power, 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 degree of insight to its predictable message (expectations for women's looks are extremely harsh!), but it fails to rival its over-the-top body horror, the film finally evoking the kind of low-cost copycat that would have trailed The Substance to the video store back in the day (the inferior sequel, the knock-off etc).

Surprisingly starring by Moss, an actress not known for her humor, wrongly placed in a role that demands someone more eager to embrace the ridiculousness of the genre. She teamed up with Minghella on The Handmaid's Tale (one can comprehend why they both might desire a break from that show's punishing grimness), and he was so determined for her to headline that he decided to adjust for her being noticeably six months pregnant, cue the star being obviously concealed in a lot of bulky jackets and outerwear. As an insecure actor seeking to elbow her way into Hollywood with the help of a crustaceous skin routine, she might not really convince, but as the sinister 68-year-old CEO of a hazardous beauty brand, Hudson is in much more command.

The actress, who remains a always underestimated star, is again a joy to watch, excelling at a distinctly Hollywood style of pretend sincerity underscored by something authentically dark and it's in her all-too-brief scenes that we see what the film could have been. Matched with a more comfortable opponent and a wittier script, the film could have unfolded like a deliriously nasty cross between a 50s “woman's picture” and an decade-old beast flick, something Death Becomes Her did so exceptionally.

But the script, from Jack Stanley, who also wrote the just as flaccid action thriller Lou, is never as biting or as intelligent as it should have been, mockery kept to its most transparent (the finale hinging on the use of an NDA is funnier in idea than execution). Minghella doesn't seem sure in what he's really trying to make, his film as simply, lethargically directed as a daytime soap with an similarly poor soundtrack. If he's trying to do a knowing carbon copy of a bottom shelf VHS horror, then he hasn't gone far enough into studied pastiche to make it believable. Shell should take us all the way into madness, but it's too scared to take the plunge.

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