Evan Peters and Ryan Murphy are teaming up again for the TV series The Beauty, and its premise sounds very similar to a recent Rotten Tomatoes hit with a 90% critics' score. Over the years, Ryan Murphy has built his team of frequent collaborators, who have been the stars of many of his TV shows. Among them is Evan Peters, best known for starring in most seasons of American Horror Story and most recently in the first season of the anthology series Monster, where he played Jeffrey Dahmer.
While Murphy is adding another TV project to his schedule with The Beauty, starring Evan Peters, but this project sounds too similar to a recent body horror hit.
Ryan Murphy's The Beauty Sounds Too Similar To The Substance
The Beauty Shares Its Core Themes With The Substance
According to Variety, Evan Peters will star in Ryan Murphy’s FX TV show The Beauty, alongside Anthony Ramos, Jeremy Pope, and Ashton Kutcher. The show is based on the comic book series of the same name by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley, and though there are no plot details yet, the description of the source material offers a very good idea of what The Beauty will be about. According to it, The Beauty is set in a world where modern society is obsessed with outward beauty and poses the question of what if physical beauty was a sexually transmitted disease.
This obsession and the way to obtain physical perfection will be the subject of an investigation by Detectives Foster and Vaugh.
Because of this, physical perfection is attainable in the world of The Beauty, with the majority of the population taking advantage of this. However, this obsession and the way to obtain physical perfection will be the subject of an investigation by Detectives Foster and Vaugh, who discover this perfection comes at a horrible price. Murphy later revealed in a separate talk to Variety that the source of beauty is a mutated virus, and The Beauty explores how far people are willing to go and sacrifice to achieve “perfection.”
Both The Substance and The Beauty take shots at society’s obsession with outward beauty and the concept of “perfection.”
As interesting and intriguing as The Beauty sounds, it’s very similar to Coralie Fargeat’s satirical body horror movie The Substance. In it, a fading celebrity decides to use a black market, cell-replicating serum that temporarily creates a younger and better version of herself. However, the use of the Substance comes with strict and clear instructions that, if not followed, unleash horrifying consequences. Both The Substance and The Beauty take shots at society’s obsession with outward beauty and the concept of “perfection”, testing how far its characters would go to achieve this, even if it means risking their lives.
How The Beauty Can Be Different From The Substance
The Beauty Seems To Blend With Other Genres
Despite their similar themes, The Beauty already has elements that differentiate it from The Substance. For instance, the source of beauty is a sexually transmitted disease, whereas in The Substance it’s a serum acquired from a mysterious source. The Beauty also has an element of crime with the addition of the detectives investigating the disease and its consequences, while The Substance leaves most things about the drug a secret, and even though its effects on Sue and Elisabeth become public, the source of it continues to be a secret.
The Substance Ending Explained
The ending of The Substance underscores the themes of the film and highlights the dangerous double standard that exists in Hollywood.
The Substance also addresses ageism, which, so far, doesn’t seem to be among the topics covered in The Beauty – or, at least, not as prominently as in The Substance. The Beauty is continuing a trend in entertainment made big by The Substance, and despite being similar at their core, The Beauty can address topics that The Substance didn’t or couldn’t.
Source: Variety.
Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading celebrity, turns to a mysterious drug that promises to restore her youth by creating a younger, more beautiful version of herself. But splitting time between her original and new body leads to horrifying consequences as her alternate self, Sue, begins to unravel her life in a disturbing body-horror descent.
- Cast
- Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Gore Abrams, Hugo Diego Garcia, Olivier Raynal, Tiffany Hofstetter, Tom Morton, Jiselle Burkhalter, Axel Baille, Oscar Lesage, Matthew Géczy, Philip Schurer
- Runtime
- 140 Minutes
- Director
- Coralie Fargeat
