‘The Substance’ Director Coralie Fargeat on How Her Feminist Body Horror Film With Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley Mirrors #MeToo: ‘We Need a Bigger Revolution’

variety.com:

Ellise Shafer With only her second film, Coralie Fargeat has gone from admiring body horror king David Cronenberg to being in competition with him at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Fargeat’s “The Substance,” described as a feminist take on the body horror genre and starring Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore, bows at Cannes on Sunday night, the day before Cronenberg’s latest frightful offering, “The Shrouds,” will do the same.

Growing up, Fargeat remembers watching the films of Cronenberg — and other pioneers of the horror genre, like John Carpenter – in secret. “They were a very provocative part of cinema that I was not allowed to watch at home.

I was watching on the side,” Fargeat tells Variety on her way to the airport to depart for Cannes. “For me, it was access to a world that was so fascinating and that makes your imagination work so much.” Fargeat made a splashy debut in 2017 with her action thriller “Revenge,” which premiered at Toronto and went on to play at festivals around the world to critical acclaim. “Revenge” follows a young woman’s journey for vengeance after she is raped and left to die by three men.