It’s been a long, slow slog but after years of market research and audience studies, as well as the success of films like The Substance, those who bankroll horror movies have finally accepted an incontrovertible fact: that women consume the genre not just because they’re along for the ride, but as a primary audience who want to see their own fears and anxieties at the dead centre. And we’re here for it, as the kids say, although this inevitably means there will be a fair amount of shonky, slapdash gynocentric horror on offer, often with generous side portions of eat-the-rich resentment.
This teen-focused feature film, like recent hot-mess TV series The Beauty, is a case in point. Directed by Nancy Leopardi and written by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer (who wrote Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane), The Cure is a fable of poor little rich girl loneliness that has lots of smart ideas, but cuts its narrative corners a little too tightly to take it up to the next level.
The heroine at the centre is teen Ally Braun (Samantha Cochran), whose diagnosis of autoimmune disease lupus keeps her swaddled in plush isolation in a Malibu mansion, hovered over by her mega-wealthy parents Jeff (David Dastmalchian) and Georgia (Ashley Greene), and a platoon of servants. One day, while Jeff and Georgia host an event for clients interested in the sovereign island they are fixing up for the rich to live on in case of apocalypse, Ally sneaks down to the beach and makes friends with trespasser Brooke (Sydney Taylor), a young woman Ally’s age with an abundant collection of crocheted crop tops who isn’t quite who she seems. Ally’s parents reluctantly let them hang out together in order to give their daughter some semblance of normal teen life, but soon transgressions lead to dark discoveries for all involved.
It’s hard to outline what makes this work interesting without spoiling it, but let’s just say that as a satire it has helicopter parenting, sinister medical innovation to extend lifespan, and our obsession with youth and beauty in its sights. It’s a shame the final chapters don’t quite coalesce these fertile themes in more satisfactory fashion, and the film just ties everything up with some cursory violence. Maybe budget was a problem, because for all the fuss made here about the central family’s fabulous wealth, the film’s limited locations and low lighting seem to be hiding a fundamental lack of coin. At least the younger cast members have charisma and spark which buoys things along nicely.
• The Cure is on digital platforms from 13 April.
