Beauty standards for women were put on notice last year as Coralie Fargeat’s body-horror masterpiece The Substance roared into theaters. The innovative and hypnotic thriller has absolutely dominated the horror space since last summer, even earning Demi Moore her third Golden Globe nomination and first win. While horror fans are surely expecting an influx of films with biting similarities to The Substance’s commentary, I don’t know that anyone anticipated Sasha Rainbow’s New Zealand-born Grafted to show up so quickly. But for anyone reductively calling the film “The Substance 2,” it’s worth mentioning the film premiered last August, just ahead of The Substance’s regional premiere, at the New Zealand International Film Festival.

While many at first glance will consider Grafted a Substance clone, as it only now makes its way stateside courtesy of Shudder, it amazes me that audiences now have two very well-thought-out body-horror films that traverse similar issues. Half a world away from where Fargeat set her film, Rainbow and fellow writers Lee Murray, Mia Maramara, and Hweiling Ow uncannily tap into the same creative ether to create those parallels. Grafted’s story may not be as grandiose as The Substance, but Rainbow imbues the more down-to-earth concept with distinguishably daring choices and a uniquely different style to bridge those concepts of surface-level beauty.

Rainbow’s Grafted is very different. For starters, don’t anticipate Margaret Qualley boldly exiting anyone’s spinal column or a takedown of the same institution. Educational entities with professors preying on students are at the forefront of Rainbow’s vision, with a Substance-like serum still in the testing phase awaiting its breakthrough. The story sees Chinese immigrant Wei (Joyena Sun) return to New Zealand for the first time since her father died to attend college, staying at her Aunty Ling (Xiao Hu) and Cousin Angela’s (3 Body Problem’s Jess Hong) home. Wei’s desire to understand the research her father was working on, a formula to clear up the scars on Wei’s skin, leads her on a path through her father’s notes while using her university’s science lab and attracting the capitalist guile of her sleazy science instructor, Paul (Jared Turner), to continue the work.

Wei’s shy demeanor and visible scarring have put her at a social disadvantage, and the way Joyena Sun infuses certain qualities into Wei’s body language is essential. Wei is an individual whose external scars have fed her emotional ones through insults and bullying. Wei has grown accustomed to being introverted, though she’d love someone to see and recognize her for who she is beyond what she looks like. Angela is no help in this area, growing more repulsed by Wei’s cultural adherences, such as the shrine she’s erected to her father or her enjoyment of chicken feet at a local restaurant. Wei’s authenticity shines brightly while Angela remains guarded, but as Wei reveals Angela’s love for the dish to her friends Eve (Eden Hart) And Jasmine (Sepi To’a), it causes a schism in the popularity pecking order. Themes of identity and adaptation are seen from a teenage perspective, where standing out can be a risky endeavor.

Of course, all of this comes together in a transfixing Single White Female sort of way as Wei figures out how to slip inside the lives of others using her father’s formula. When she finds that Paul has stolen her father’s journal, she will use the people around her to get access. The movie becomes The Substance by way of Face/Off and Mean Girls, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to watch as it slides into slasher territory.

Grafted’s casting and direction are full of impeccable choices. I can’t imagine a better group of individuals to bring this together or how much time each spent studying Sun’s subtly imbued character traits. As the film descends into the madness of Wei living in other people’s skin, each doppelganger character approaches their roles from Wei’s perspective. Director Sasha Rainbow shows us early on that Wei has a penchant for mimicking the popular girls in an outward attempt to be accepted. Yet, the nuances each actress utilizes to portray Wei beneath the surface and her imitations of their respective characters stand out. Let us not forget our bad guy, either. Jared Turner makes Paul so stirringly vile you can’t help but cheer Wei on during her vengeful journey.

Effects-wise, Grafted is mostly practical. You get a lot of gory moments throughout the film, but it occasionally relies on CGI for its more extensive scenes that would be very difficult to do otherwise. Grafted’s CGI effects are quite polished, too. Nothing looks overly out of place, and it’s used in an effectively scary way that adds to the story’s stakes. Kudos to the effects artists here.

However you come across Grafted, I believe it’s in your best interest not to dismiss it as a rehash of The Substance. While the approach may look similar on the surface, there’s vibrant creativity boiling underneath to make your flesh crawl in Sasha Rainbow’s feature debut. Keep your eyes on this budding director. I think we can expect more great things from her in the future.