Here's a fun little movie from a talented debut filmmaker with a clear vision, tremendous passion, and a sense of fun that helps it overcome the moments where it clumsily handles its multiple metaphors. Sanguine (Species) is a fantastic calling card for an exciting new voice in the horror space.
Directed by Marion Le Corroller, Sanguine begins at a fast-food restaurant, where an overworked and underappreciated young clerk is driven to bloody murder by the inhumane demands of modern society. It's a quick, brutish setup that is purposefully heavy-handed. Yet anyone who has worked a shift at these kinds of places can relate to the atmosphere and anxiety.
From there, we're whisked away to a nightmarish hospital complex, where Margot (Mara Taquin) begins her residency. It's a kind of Terry Gilliam-esque hellscape, full of endless corridors, odd angles, and nondescript metal rooms that purposefully restrict identity. Le Corroller isn't interested in subtlety in her allegory, and that's just fine. The rest of the film follows in such broad strokes that nuance would get in the way.
As Margot tirelessly works to keep up with the demands of the hospital, she begins to notice a repeating pattern in young patients. More and more people arrive with strange symptoms related to extreme stress. First, there are rashes, then profuse and spontaneous bleeding, and, finally, monstrous, violent urges. Margot tries to alert her superiors to no avail. Then, as work piles up, she begins to show symptoms herself.
While some beats are remarkably familiar, Sanguine's great pleasures kick in around the halfway point, where Le Corroller lets loose after an extended introduction to her world. Once the rules are in place, Sanguine takes the thought of experiment to logical extremes, and there's a tremendous joy in how Le Corroller treats her burnout metaphor with both impish glee and utmost sincerity. It's a difficult balancing act, and Sanguine nails it for the most part.
A big part of that success is thanks to Taquin, who is wonderful as the put-upon Margot. When we first meet her, it's clear her sunny disposition won't last, and an air of tragedy hangs over every move she makes. We want the best for her, even when it's clear that this is not that kind of movie. Le Corroller and Taquin milk the setup for all its worth, yet it rarely feels like overkill. Even in the most audacious moments, Taquin's believable performance grounds the film so that it feels even more terrifying.
The latter half of the film is a little looser than the strong buildup, and while I appreciate how literally Le Corroller takes some of her metaphors, I found Sanguine's ending less affecting than it could have been. There are a few gleefully horrific instances of body horror that Sanguine nails beautifully, which bring to mind the works of David Cronenberg. Le Corroller even finds a place to effectively criticize the way women's health is dismissed by medical professionals, even other women in positions of power, and derives one of the great gross-out moments in the film from it.
But even with the occasional stumble, Sanguine is a smart and chilling horror satire that is as funny as it is terrifying. Le Corroller has crafted a timely allegory of an unjust society where the young are exploited by those in power, and how, given enough time, such pressure can only lead to an eruption that shakes the very foundations. This is a fantastic debut feature and one of the more exciting films to come out of Cannes this year. Genre fans should make note of Le Corroller, she has a bright future ahead.
