This movie can easily be seen as a poor cousin to The Substance, but it at least has the good grace to lean into how ridiculously over-the-top the premise is when the heroine, in the midst of the climax, says with a completely straight face; 'Chloe turned into a giant lobster and she's killing everyone.'

It starts in classic horror movie fashion, by showing us the most current iteration of the awful thing that will befall the hero soon enough, as a woman (Elizabeth Berkeley, if you don't recognise her) sits in the bathroom of an idyllic Hollywood Hills house, screaming as she cuts enormous black growths off her body. She's also talking in a very panicked manner on the phone, losing her grip and dashing off into the house where a dark figure it in wait...

We then meet Sam (Elizabeth Moss), an actress still trying to stake her claim after the TV series she's known and loved for has faded from most peoples' memories.

Already feeling dowdy and unattractive among the bevy of younger, more beautiful women auditioning for roles alongside her, two faux-friendly agents tell her to try an experimental anti-ageing treatment called Shell, run by the photogenic company CEO, Zoe (Kate Hudson).

Initially wanting to be recognised for her talent and experience, Sam's resistance gradually fades and she finds herself strapped in at the company's tech giant-like headquarters being injected with a biological concoction. Informational videos in the lobby by the company's head scientists have already talked about how the serum is taken from the DNA of lobsters (which don't age) and has perfected its use in humans.

From there, Sam's life starts to take off again. She gains a newfound confidence and allure. She not only starts landing bigger and better roles, she's inexplicably caught the attention of the Shell CEO herself, scoring an invite to Zoe's annual Christmas party and the two becoming fast friends.

The only dark spot – literally – is a black mole that appears on her hand. More come up on her back and arms, and as well the a newfound sense of entitlement and irritation her newfound fame gives her, Sam realises something's wrong when she vomits a throatful of black bile all over her co-star.

In a panic, she rushes to Zoe's house, who assures her everything's normal and the side effects can be taken care of. Unconvinced, Sam steals away to the bathroom to call the doctor at Shell who first treated her, convinced he's not part of the conspiracy that seems to be brewing, and when Zoe demands her phone to see who she called, Sam needs no further bidding.

She throws hot tea in Zoe's face to distract her while she runs out of the house, only just dodging Zoe's fearsome bodyguard/fixer. She seeks out two detectives who came to see her before she had any suspicions about what Shell was doing, and soon realises they're not even cops – they work for Zoe as well.

Somehow giving them the slip as well, she races to the friendly doctor's house, who doesn't work for Shell anymore and reveals the dark secrets the company has, as well as the strange creature locked in a room in his house.

But Shell is hot on her trail and it's not long before she's tied up in a dank basement facing the scientists behind the procedure and a slick company lawyer, pressuring her into her silence in return for a hefty payday.

But when a truck backs up that contains whatever was locked up in the doctor's house, and it gets loose, all hell breaks loose, and director Max Minghella seems to want to overshadow The Substance for the amount of blood and guts thrown around, the whole thing ending into skewered and exploding bodies aplenty.

Everything works on paper, and your heart will go out to Moss's slightly frumpy, kind of sad sack heroine who's just trying to exist in a world (and industry) only too ready to throw women on the scrapheap.

But among the elements that don't quite work, Hudson as the powerful company CEO is the one that rings the least true. There's nothing wrong with her performance or the character's confident, snarky demeanour, it just might be that the film doesn't quite set her up very well, so we never really buy her as the world's richest, most accomplished woman.

But like The Substance, it seems to get to the end and abandon any pretence of prestige art, descending into a blood soaked orgy of body horror. It contains much the same thematic backbone of that film, but also doesn't meld the two as securely.