The 2025 Academy Awards celebrated a notable success for the psychological body horror film The Substance, winning the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, the film was also nominated for four other prestigious categories, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Demi Moore, and two nods for Fargeat in the categories of Best Original Screenplay and Best Director.
Fargeat's unique storytelling style shines in her work, with The Substance marking a significant step in her career. However, her feature debut, the action horror-thriller Revenge, deserves more recognition for its bold themes and innovative direction. In Revenge, the story focuses on Jen, portrayed by Matilda Lutz, who is vacationing with her wealthy boyfriend, Richard (played by Kevin Janssens), at a secluded desert house. The peaceful getaway takes a cruel turn as Richard's friends, Stan (Vincent Colombe) and Dimitri (Guillaume Bouchéde), unexpectedly arrive for a hunting trip.
The film takes a grim turn when Stan assaults and rapes Jen while Richard is away. Fargeat's approach to this harrowing scene is notable; it doesn’t sensationalize the violence but rather illustrates the psychological and verbal abuse faced by women. “I wanted to deal with the psychological and verbal violence towards her—the rape is symbolic of the way she’s considered and treated,” she told Financial Times in 2018.
As reality unravels around her, Richard reacts with anger upon discovering Stan’s actions, but rather than support Jen, he blames her for being attractive. His abusive behavior escalates when Jen tries to escape, leading to her being pushed off a cliff, where she survives against all odds—but not without serious injury. Jen’s transformation into a vengeful protagonist becomes a visceral narrative as she hunts down her aggressors one by one.
As the film progresses, Jen evolves from a victim to a fierce warrior, reflecting the undercurrents of neo-feminism and the connection between womanhood and the environment. The desert setting serves as more than just a backdrop; it symbolizes Jen’s internal struggles and eventual empowerment. By the end of the film, she embodies nature's fury, turning the tables on her oppressors in a bloody showdown that is both thrilling and satisfactory.
The psychological aspects of Revenge are complemented by its visual style and the use of gore, which makes it compelling. Fargeat draws from her cinematic influences, noting in a previous interview her admiration for bloody scenes in films like Old Boy and I Saw the Devil. “I’m interested in when blood and flesh create something that becomes baroque and operatic,” she described her passion for storytelling through vivid imagery.
Meanwhile, Dennis Quaid can be seen in a different light with his latest series, Happy Face, streaming on Paramount+. Following his memorable role in the Oscar-winning The Substance, where he portrayed Harvey, Elisabeth Sparkle's (Demi Moore) merciless producer, Quaid continues to embrace darker characters. Harvey is deeply flawed, firing Elisabeth due to her age and representing the ruthless side of the entertainment industry.
In The Substance, Quaid's character epitomizes the age-related discrimination present in Hollywood, firing a woman on her birthday solely due to her age, later replacing her with a younger version of herself played by Margaret Qualley. In this way, Fargeat's film uncovers the unsettling norms within the industry while addressing themes of identity, beauty, and the perils of superficiality.
Now, Quaid transitions from a fictional character to portraying the real-life serial killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, in Happy Face. This character is based on a man known as the Happy Face Killer, infamous for sending letters to the media featuring smiley faces. Though much of Quaid's recent work has presented him as a villain, in this case, he's navigating complex and real-life horrors, which he approached with trepidation. At the series premiere, he revealed, “I didn’t want the real Jesperson to feel any kind of glory about himself being out there.”
Quaid's portrayal carries an emotional weight, as the narrative is largely told from the perspective of Jesperson's daughter, Melissa Moore, providing a deeper lens into the victim's side of the story. Adapted from her podcast and autobiography,
