Species Review: Hospital-Set French Body Horror Delivers Visceral, Anti-Capitalist Midnight Movie Fun
Cannes Film Festival: The thriller follows an overworked resident doctor (Mara Taquin) who discovers a strange illness affecting young adults
by Alex Kaan 15 May 2026
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To immediately address the mutating elephant in the room, Marion Le Coroller’s Species (Sanguine) is not The Substance. After Coralie Fargeat’s graphic spectacle about a miracle anti-ageing drug debuted two years ago at Cannes, its cultural impact has ensured that a film like Le Coroller’s will inevitably be compared to it. Despite the glossy visuals and pulsating electronic score, Species is not a full-throated satire, but rather a grisly psychological character study more in line with Julia Ducournau’s Raw. At any rate, while it follows in an exciting modern tradition of French female directors making gory genre flicks, this is a diverting, unique midnight movie that deserves to be enjoyed on its own merit.
Like The Pitt injected with a shot of French body horror à la Ducournau and Fargeat, Species is a sleek workplace horror film that interrogates Gen Z’s relationship with labour through pulpy genre fare. The film follows the 20-something Margot (Mara Taquin, The Baby) as she begins an internship at a high-intensity hospital under the tutelage of Dr Virgile (Karin Viard, Delicatessen), a stern, perfection-seeking teacher whom Margot’s fellow residents dub “the devil”. She’s joined by the sweet, sensitive Louis (Sami Outalbali, Sex Education), who prickles when asked about the time he had to drop out of med school due to “burn-out”, and the confident, layered mean girl Pauline (Kim Higelin, Consent), who comes from a long line of celebrated doctors.
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Shortly after Mara examines an insomniac pregnant woman (Sonia Faidi, The Orphans) with a gnarly back rash, she wakes up in her bed in a pool of blood—and with no wound to cause it. As her symptoms worsen, her research leads her to identifying a strange illness affecting young adults—specifically those working demanding jobs.
Shaped by Anne-Sophie Delseries’ production design and Guillaume Schiffman’s cinematography, the sterile, uncanny realm of the hospital offers a readily eerie atmosphere to host Species’ stylised bloody set pieces. Realised in all their gory glory by The Substance’s Oscar-winning special makeup effects designer Pierre-Olivier Persin, the practical SFX are a resounding highlight and ground the film in a horrific tactility.
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Navigating the high-stress environment of an ER and a queer love triangle, Mara Taquin makes for a gripping lead as the unravelling Margot, shining especially in a gonzo finale that takes the psychological body horror to its inevitably gruesome conclusion. The film rests almost entirely on her shoulders, and the performance is a reliable focal point. Meanwhile, Kim Higelin is a standout as her rival, and the palpable tension between the two young women—both as interns competing for the coveted chief resident spot and as potential lovers—is an intriguing, if under-explored element that deserved more screen time.
Like with that underdeveloped relationship, Species is occasionally clumsy in its handling of several plot threads. There are intriguing backstories that get hinted at and never raised again, and an uncertainty regarding whether the film wants to be a satire or a character-driven psychological thriller. What helps the film overcome these flaws is an infectious sense of B-movie fun and a buzzing energy that invites you to stay on its wavelength.
Suitably grisly and carried by a compelling lead in Mara Taquin, Species is a riveting body horror thrill-ride drenched in plenty of pulpy charm.