The Substance: An Engrossing Body Horror Film with a Bigger Message
This time, it’s the impressive and bloody entry from Coralie Fargeat in the body horror genre that is ostensibly The Substance. But beyond the gore, this is a clever self-aware, feminist commentary on society’s obsession with youth and beauty.
Indeed, a simple Plot to convey Ground Breaking messages
The Substance centers around Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), a renowned actress and health expert. She is at the top of her career with a star on the Walk of Fame and a hit exercise show by age 50. But her world falls apart when her boorish entertainment exec boss, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), cans her.
In a last-ditch effort to recapture her youth, Elisabeth secures black-market drug called the Substance. The drug is accompanied by strings in the form of a promise, to make her youthful and vibrant again. It also created a younger Elisabeth (Margaret Qualley). But when Elisabeth tries to figure out how to exist both as a woman scorned and this new thing her traffickers want all their product to be, everything starts getting real bad.
A Strong Performance From Demi Moore
The intensity of Demi Moore’s performance as Elisabeth is compelling. The resulting feeling, especially in Moores nude scenes, is one of downright vulnerability and frankness. It is an experience that, as she remarked in discussing and how this vulnerability was necessary to get the story through the way it should have. There was not a beat wasted and every scene being approached with such care stress more carefully planned purpose.
Youth & beauty obsession — a commentary
A quick-fix drug like the Substance is a perfect lens for a story that critiques cultural obsession with eternal youth — in this case, both Guy and Soda’s vow to avoid growing up sounds an awful lot like Tinker Bell, but it holds hyper-relevant implications when you consider the celebrity-obsessed culture of Hollywood against all those evocations of “lost boys. The glossy mail-order envelope for the drug has creepy similarities to real-life trends, such as Ozempic; showing how willing people are to go in order to remain youthful. The Substance is also reminiscent of the 1992 camp classic Death Becomes Her, a flick about the highs and lows of pursuing immortality through beauty.
Classic Movie-Inspired
Despite feeling like its own thing, The Substance is definitely inspired by some of the great science fiction tales. It has little more than a dabbling of inspiration from All About Eve and The Picture of Dorian Gray but is otherwise dominated by the uncomfortably icky horrors of John Carpenter’s The Thing. These influences improve the film instead of outshining its distinctive genre conventions.
Salute to The Substance
The Substance has garnered good reviews from critics. The film was part of the official selection in competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival competing for Palme d’Or but if failed to win and ultimately it received Best Screenplay by President of Jury Alejandro González Iñárritu. The film also won the Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, earmarking it as a standout film.
Essential viewing for horror fans.
It’s a rather bold entry in the body horror sub-genre. It is a dark and satirical, feminist take-down of the cycle that society has trained us to follow in order to stay young and pretty. Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid in unforgettable roles, this movie should be watched by every fan of Momma Don’t Let You Baby Grow Up To Be Cowboys as well as anyone who wants a multilayered movie experience!