Horror lovers need no introduction to Ryan Murphy, whose latest effort, Minden Fair, which follows the revenge-driven battle of star lawyers on Disney+, was, according to some critics, a misfire – although I had fun with it because I didn’t want to take it too seriously. By the way, the producer is best known for the American Horror Story, Scream Queens, Ratched and Monster series – the first season of which, about Jeffrey Dahmer, was a great success, which the second one, related to Ed Gein, could not surpass – but he also created the Glee series and the movie Tastes, Prayers, Loves. By the way, he already had several prospects for different genres, but somehow he always found his way back to horror, which is no accident, since some viewers believe that quality is already guaranteed when they find out that a production is marked with his name.
With a similar mentality, I tackled The Beauty, which debuted on January 22nd on Disney+, and seeing its cast already piqued my interest to see how much it is intertwined with Murphy’s previous works. The key character of the series, Evan Peters, who played the FBI agent Cooper Madsen, for example, appeared in nine of the twelve seasons of American Horror Story, and in Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer story, he played Jeffrey Dahmer himself, for which he won a Gloden Globe award, among other things. But we could also mention here Ari Graynor, who played the brothers’ lawyer in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez story, or John Carroll Lynch, who appeared in four seasons of American Horror Story – first in the fourth as a clown who is forced to wear a mask because he loses his lower jaw due to a botched suicide attempt.
But the series also features Ashton Kutcher – who plays the god-complex Byron Forst sufficiently, almost too much -, Jack Nicholson’s son, Ray Nicholson, Rebecca Hall, Meghan Trainor, Nicola Peltz Beckham and, incidentally, Bella Hadid, so it cannot be said that Ryan Murphy left it to chance. The title of Beauty suggests that the series will focus on how much the world revolves around appearances, which is not far from reality, except that the implementation is much more raw. At the center of the story are two FBI agents, the aforementioned Cooper Madson (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall), who become aware of mysterious cases in different parts of the world, for which they initially find little explanation.
One of them is precisely related to Bella Hadid, who has a minor role in the production. Hadid, who also plays a model in the series, is walking the catwalk at a fashion show when an insatiable thirst hits her. It is even able to stage a massacre in order to get water, and then explode with noble simplicity. Moreover, all this happens in the first five minutes of the very first episode, so you don’t have much time to tune in to the series. After some investigation, it turns out to be a sexually transmitted virus that causes the host to be reborn. In addition, he is a young man, free of all diseases and physical changes, healthy and in perfect shape.
It takes a strong stomach to watch the infected suffer from an almost demonic possession, all their bones crunch at the same time due to the transformation, and then suddenly they crawl out of the shell that looks like a reproduction of the mother’s womb.
Of course, the virus was not created with the aim of releasing it into the world, as there are those who have a business interest in getting rich from different social groups, including those struggling with illness, addiction or even lack of self-confidence, offering beauty as a product on a silver platter, and not considering the health risks. For those who, upon first reading, think of last year’s hit The Drug, as if The Beauty is riding the same wave, we have good news: the latter is based on a 2016 comic book, The Beauty, which was created by Jason A. Hurley – years before the idea of The Drug was even conceived. Although body horror in itself is not a 21st-century invention, since similar works appeared in the last century, I am thinking of Parasites from 1975 or David Lynch’s first horror film, Eraserhead from 1977, but the list could be continued for a long time.
Beauty, but at what price?
By the way, Murphy previously described The Beauty as focusing on the social obsession with physical transformation that can be quickly achieved by various drugs. In addition, the story revolved around the question of what people would be willing to do for beauty. The short answer: everything. The series presents a world – from which we are not far away – in which our stimulus threshold is already so high that plastic and beauty interventions carry as much weight as waxing. A world in which beauty empowers everyone to do anything – maybe this isn’t too far from reality either.
They offer such a simple solution to the social stratum that is dissatisfied with their appearance and struggling with illness, that they are unable to say no to, considering that they make their fate dependent on becoming beautiful, for better or for worse. The resulting dilemma is perfectly presented in the series, even if I judged the presentation to be too crude at times, this was the most effective way to get the message across.
It is interesting, by the way, that although we see the transforming actors naked in the production, the producers did not go so far as to show their genitals, which even more suggests that the goal was not to make people angry, but to draw attention to a problem that currently only affects a very small percentage of the world’s population. After all, not everyone has enough financial resources to use cosmetic procedures or buy consumer goods, but this does not mean that the lower strata of society do not have the need to, if they had the opportunity to suddenly hide in another body, not say yes, without assessing the expected risks.
We don’t learn to appreciate the way we get there
The episodes of the series could easily fit into a season of Black Mirror, because together with the fact that it raises thoughts in the viewer, why it is not worth sacrificing everything in order for our appearance to meet social standards, we can also see a vision of the future that seems extreme, but is actually very conceivable. Of course, staying on the ground of reality and taking into account the fact that if we are currently resorting to such means in order to lose weight, then what can await us in the coming decades. Moreover, Murphy presents the serum called Beauty not only from the consumer side, but also from the business side – showing how much the elixir of eternal youth widens the gap between the poor and the rich by marketing beauty as a product.
Because beauty offers an immediate solution to becoming what you want to be, instead of struggling to bring out the best in yourself. What we saw in the series also confirms that we cannot develop as humans if such an opportunity simply falls into our laps, we do not learn to appreciate and value the path leading to it. As well as the repeated message of the series, that although some people mistakenly believe that imperfection equals weakness, it is precisely because of our imperfection that we are unique and human, and the whole spectrum of human feelings is what makes us special. Although this message was presented by the creators in a very surprising and, for many, surely stomach-turning way, we would recommend the series to anyone who feels that they are slowly crumbling under the weight of social pressure caused by an immaculate appearance.
8/10
The first episodes of Beauty can be watched on Disney+ from January 22.
Róbert Puzsér and his friends’ witty, passionate, yet deep and ruthless conversations about the world of serials.
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