This was such a contrast to AnyMart (2026) which hid its horror shocks behind a whole lot of scene development. Species – or Blood as its original title translates – hits you with it in the first act and is delightfully gory and darkly comedic.

Although we start in a fast food restaurant where an influencer perhaps gets more than he deserves, most of the story is set in a hospital emergency department. Margot Loiseaux – which translates to ‘birds’ and I don’t know if that is significant – is the first in her family to be a doctor and start her residency in a hospital ER department. The boss Hélène (Karin Viard) is renowned for being tough, although apparently turns out the best doctors.

With Margot is handsome Louis (Sami Outalbali), who I immediately read as a gay character, mistakenly unfortunately, and Pauline (Kim Higelin), the child of privilege who is top of the totem pole when it comes to the residents and the boss’s approval.

The first wrinkle for Margot appears with a patient who has strange symptoms of profuse bleeding and strange growths on her skin. Before long, Margot experiences her own symptoms of literally sweating blood and she discovers that there is a string of similar cases amongst young people but can’t take get anyone to take her seriously.

Queue a whole lot of body horror, wide angle lenses, primary colours, theatrical sets, close-ups of flesh peeling, and even a couple of sex scenes. Margot is front and centre for much of it, often with the camera literally attached to her body, and so we are part of her frantic and frenetic search for a truth that might just save her life and her career.

The ending is delightfully flamboyant, no pun intended, and there is a quite cute epilogue that has a nod to the pandemic and old age liberation. I saw this at a midnight screening and it was the perfect fare to keep you awake and laughing and cringing and hiding your eyes.