Written by Ronnie Gorham
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder—at least it used to be. Every generation of teens chases the same thing: belonging. In the new body horror film Slanted by writer-director Amy Wang, we are introduced to Joan Huang (Shirley Chen), a Chinese American high schooler who’s spent years trying to fit in with her white classmates. She’s bleached her hair, changed her diet and even used social media filters to make herself look Caucasian online. But nothing works, until she’s approached by a company called Ethnos with the motto, “If you can’t beat them, be them.” Suddenly, Joan is faced with a life-altering choice and the question becomes how far is Joan willing to go just to fit in?
What makes Slanted so chilling and an edge-of-your seat popcorn flick is how grounded the horror feels. Wang isn’t chasing shock value unlike body horror predecessors like The Substance. Instead, Wang shows how easy it is for a kid to believe that changing yourself to please others is the only way to survive. As we watch Joan’s journey, the movie stops being about fitting in and starts being about what we lose when we try.
Each one of Joan’s choices feels like a piece of her identity being torn away. One example is what happens between Joan and her mom, Sofia (Vivian Wu) and her dad Roger (Fang Du) when they discover that Joan has transformed herself into a white person. You can feel the eternal divide of her parents’ disappointment but also Joan’s pain too. You realize that horror isn’t just in what Joan becomes but how easy it is to understand why she thinks she must.
A huge part of why Slanted hits so hard is Shirley Chen’s performance. She plays Joan with a raw mix of longing and self-loathing that makes every decision feel inevitable—even when you’re begging at the screen for her not to do it. Mckenna Grace, who plays Joan’s Caucasian transformation, matches Chen beat for beat, embracing her new body as a white person while feeling guilty for betraying the people she loves. Amelie Zilber, who plays Olivia, the mean girl of the film, delivers a solid, eloquent performance of a scumbag character that would make Regina George from Mean Girls proud. But what makes Olivia even more compelling is that she’s hiding a secret of her own.
Slanted is a film that champions the importance of representation, but Wang also makes it clear that just because diversity matters doesn’t mean that everyone recognizes its value. The movie offers an unflinching look at how white privilege operates in America, not just in the obvious ways like skin complexion, but in the subtle, everyday dynamics that make some people oblivious to the harm they cause. This perspective makes Joan’s experience even more painful to watch and even more important for audiences to pay attention to.
Wang doesn’t just explore these ideas through dialogue or plot, she weaponizes the film’s body horror elements to make the audience feel the pressure Joan is under. The transformation doesn’t just make you say, “why did she do that,” or “I feel sorry for her parents,” they’re physical metaphors to show how a person’s reality can change into something almost unrecognizable. Ed Wu’s cinematography leans into discomfort, framing Joan in ways that show her peeling away at her skin in the mirror or ashamed of how she feels. The sound design also plays an awesome role at reinforcing the tension, capturing every fractured moment.
Ultimately, Wang does a solid job of keeping the film both unsettling and making you feel for the character Joan. The body horror sequences are not over-the-top, they’re crafted perfectly to show how Joan’s life is transformed. The pacing never feels boring or unnecessary. It keeps the tension at an even boiling point and increases gradually towards the film’s conclusion. Even the quiet, intimate moments between Joan and her family carry a weird sense of dread, making the film’s commentary hit even harder.
Overall, Slanted isn’t a perfect movie, but it is a film worth checking out in theaters. It’s a constant reminder to young people of the pressures that shape identity in America. Wang uses genre to expose truths that are very often ignored and it’s a story that resonates and stays with you long after the credits. It’s uncomfortable, empathetic and brutally honest in a way that is necessary for the times we live in. For anyone who has ever felt unseen or struggled to fit in, Slanted hits home. And for everyone else, it’s a reminder of the damage that silence and privilege can cause to anyone.
