I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. Despite a chaos enthused. led production, this film doesn’t offer anything new to the trope of an ugly duckling, using violence to become swan, chaos ensues.

*Mean Girls* meets *The Substance*, made in China by Cronenberg. The poster and character names in the cast listing reveals a few key twists which is very unfortunate so try to go in without seeing those and without reading the rest of this review. This is so similar to *The Substance* and i've been trying to puzzle out when it was made, can't find the info but it has to be too close to be plagiarism? Epic opening that instantly sold me with the concept and the original kill. The concept isn't anything new but I found it interesting for a horror movie it's just like a Shapeshifter. A few plot holes with the transformation such as body shape, height, skin color that I don't think were explained. The opening scene gave emotional depth to the science project and the main character which I grew fond of pretty quick. A fascinating but fatal mix of social awkwardness, cultural alienation and beauty obsession. Very good acting, I fully bought it when a character was playing another character. The mean girls were so hateable so good job. Nice prosthetics and effects, they seem to have used CG at times but it looks convincing enough so that it didn't bother me. The kills are gnarly and bloody. Loved the score throughout. Decent visuals and camerawork but something like this needed an extra kick, it's not nearly as flashy as it should be. Wanted to see more at the end so i'm slightly underwhelmed. Very pleasant surprise for a january horror movie!

I really don't see the similarities to Substance except they are both body horrors. Grafted mixes a few subplots from other B-grade movies and is a solid, if not outstanding movie. There is always bonus points for seeing people and places I know, but I suspect for the rest of the world, this will be pretty forgettable. So maybe it is like Substance in that way - in a couple of years time, neither will be of much interest to anyone

I feel like I just did shrooms for 90 minutes and it was great. 10/10 would recommend

Some cool ideas and scenes in this but I feel like the movie betrayed itself. The initial characterization of Wei and her struggles get pretty much wiped away once "that thing" happens and replaced with magical medicine shenanigans and a contrived body count.