Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Kate Hudson, Kaya Gerber, Ziwe, Elizabeth Berklee, Mary Lynn Raskjub, Este Haim, Dustin Milligan, Peter MacNicol
Written By: Jack Stanley
Directed By: Max Minghella
Release Year: 2025
Studio/Streamer: Republic/Paramount
Runtime: 100 minutes
Audio description produced By: Media Access Group
Written by:
Narrated by: Peter Jaycock
What Is it?: It’s very much like a Demi Moore film from 2024. You know, that one. In this film, an aging actress (Moss) seeks to give herself a competitive edge in the casting room,and finds herself drawn to a new experimental drug company that promises she’ll look like she hasn’t aged a day. the company is run by its founder (Hudson), who claims to be a user herself, and even a fellow actor (Gerber) uses the treatment, so it can’t all be bad, right? Dark Castle (House On Haunted Hill, Ghost Ship, Gothika) is the production company here.
Why It Doesn’t Work: But, it almost did. Every movie has the unfortunate task of opening when it does, for better or worse. Sometimes, it means you are the follow up to a film just like you. This happened a lot in the 90’s with Volcano following Dante’s Peak, Armageddon following Deep Impact, and A bug’s Life following Antz. It still happens, with White House Down following Olympus Has Fallen, and now with Shel following The Substance. Of course, one of these films was nominated for Best Picture, which arguably creates a mountain to climb.
Max MInghella isn’t on a directorial debut here anymore, so it’s about time to see some of those chops his father had. Anthony Minghella directed the English Patient to a Best Picture win, and also a trophy for Best Director. We’re a long way from that. He also squeezed Oscar nominations and wins for the Talented Mr Ripley and Cold Mountain before his untimely passing.
Max doesn’t show directorial acumen here. he uses a lot of beating over the head foreshadowing, where mundane things seem to point in the final direction, rather needlessly. things that appear on television do so for our amusement, certainly not organically. Everything felt so heavy handed, yet somehow the actors try their best with the material. I know he didn’t also write the script, but he picked it, and had the ability to make choices as a director to minimalize the failures in the over saturation of showing the magic trick in advance.
The final act is nuts. Even with the foreshadowing, and me having a ful understanding of where we were headed, i still didn’t expect that. I’ll give the movie props for taking a left turn where The Substance made a right one. both films ultimately become creature features, but the Substance does it through its lead, and Shell manages a slight detour that is just as bonkers as its predecessor.
No one here beats Demi Moore in acting, but Moss does some fine work. there’s less urgency here, because it is less about turning 50 and being ejected from Hollywood, and the commentary on that, but more about slowly becoming the older actress in the casting room, and losing the star power to skip the read and have a direct conversation with the director. Moss’s actress isn’t quite as rejected on the same level as she is drifting away, and the film never sets her up as a legendary talent like Elizabeth Sparkle.
It is also nearly impossible to top either the body horror or gore of The Substance, so straight horror fans will be disappointed. While there is gore, and body horror, the simple zig zag at the end creates an entirely different experience, one that is decidedly less brutal than the last thirty minutes of The Substance. the bar is just too damn high.
Minghella has proven himself a solid actor on The Handmaid’s Tale, but he lacks the vision for film the way his father carefully constructed his film. This isn’t even really a case for Minghella trying to become specifically a horror auteur, as he chose a script that is trying to say something about lasting beauty, actresses in Hollywood, and unachievable standards, but it gets struck down by heavy handed messaging. I got it. I got it way before the end of the film.
I’m sure Kate Hudson appreciated playing the villain here, but she is just walking through this film. She’s fine, but there’s no depth to her character. she just simply is. She exists. that’s the other thing is that the villain of this film is not quite at the level of evil genius, and while The Substance is more about an inability to follow the rules, Shell would cause problems even if directions were explicitly followed. It isn’t a terrible premise, cast, concept, or execution, but it is a flawed one, and ultimately one I wouldn’t recommend.
The Audio Description: Most of this is fine. there’s some particularly good description in the third act when things go off the rails. But, I have one little quibble. There’s this opening sequence, like with most horror movies, and we see a man with red gloves. Later, when Elisabeth Mosss’s character is navigating this process, we keep cutting to this guy, and the audio description points out the gloves multiple times, like he’s the owner of Curious George and is solely defined by a wardrobe choice. Since our introduction to him was nefarious, this repetition felt heavy handed… like the rest of the film. Find other things and give him more dimensions beyond the gloves.
Why You Might Like it: It isn’t awful, but it leaves you lacking. And, if you are familiar with film on a fairly consistent basis, I’ll say this third act, while I knew where it was headed, still found a way to kick it up a notch.
Why You Might Not Like it: It thinks you’re stupid. it is feeding you along the way, and not in a good way.
Final thoughts: Elisabeth Moss is trapped in a schlocky version of The Substance, which suffers from far too much foreshadowing, and not quite the same biting commentary as the extremely similar The Substance.
Rotten: 5.7/10