If The Substance and “The Beauty” have you in the mood for more satirical body horror, mark your calendar for Slanted.
The teen body horror comedy will open in theaters nationwide on March 13 via Bleecker Street.
It follows Joan Huang, who idolizes the popular girls and dreams of being prom queen, but fears the only way to win is to look like all the past queens whose portraits line her high school halls.
Enter Ethnos: a mysterious cosmetic surgery clinic that turns people of color white. Joan undergoes the procedure and wakes up a beautiful blonde destined for the crown, but at what cost?
Shirley Chen (Dìdi), Mckenna Grace (Five Nights at Freddy’s 2), Vivian Wu (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III), Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (“Never Have I Ever”), Amelie Zilber (“Grown-ish”), and Fang Du star.
Writer-director Amy Wang (“The Brothers Sun”) makes her feature debut on the project, which premiered at last year’s SXSW and took home the Narrative Grand Jury Award.
“Slanted offers a searing and unapologetically satirical view of race and what it is to be white,” said Wang. “At the heart of this movie is a Chinese girl who just wants to feel accepted as an American.”
She continues, “This is a deeply personal film that digs into your insecurities and exposes the twisted realities of a fractured identity. I have made this movie in the hopes that by exposing my wounds as a Chinese Australian woman I can help others heal their own self-doubt.”
From Tideline Entertainment and Mountain Top Pictures, producers include Wang, Trevor Wall, Adel “Future” Nur, Cameron Boling, and Mark Ankner.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “As personal as Slanted feels, the superficial nature of its satire winds up softening a lot of its sharper edges. That likely suits its teen demographic well but won’t be as winsome for seasoned horror fans.”
