If Fargeat ​hopes to condemn any institution or social framework, we, too, are denied the pleasure of seeing women as anything more than what they represent for those forces.

Fargeat pushes body horror to the limit, daring the viewer to keep looking rather than hide, wretch or even vomit -- all reactions are entirely feasible.

For my money, one of the best things you can do this season is to run to see the French director Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance while it is still playing on the big screen.

With her reimagining of a niche subgenre, Coralie Fargeat builds on a rich film tradition that reckons violently with the process of ageing.