The Substance Review

The Picture of Dorian Gray for Sickos (nice)

Coralie Fargeat's The Substance is unlike anything released in 2024. It's a body horror glam masterpiece that demands to be seen in a crowded theater. Demi Moore is electrifying yet vulnerable, giving a career-best performance, while Marget Qualley jumps off the screen in every scene. It's B Movie camp galore with kinetic energy and vibrant Barbie colors that will stimulate all your senses while destroying them with gore. It is an authentic introspective look at an industry that will toss away women at a certain age without care, but even more profound, I think it looks at how uncomfortable we all are in our weird meat sack bodies and how aging makes us want to grab and rip our skin off. The last 30 minutes is some of the wildest shit put to screen and will have your jaw on the floor. David Cronenberg and John Carpenter would be proud if you knew anything about their "body" of work.

The Substance follows Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), an aging aerobic dance-pop icon who is being booted off her network on her 50th birthday by her slimy Hollywood Boss Harvey (Dennis Quad). After getting in a car accident and leaving the studio, she is given a weird flash drive by a nurse labeled THE SUBSTANCE and learns from it that she is part of a program that creates a younger, beautiful version of themselves. The monkey's paw catch is that they must switch every seven days. If not, there could be consequences as they are still both connected. Elisabeth finally agrees after being reluctant but seeking to be youthful once more, injects herself with The Substance and gives birth out of her back to Sue (Margaret Qualley). Elisabeth and Sue then proceed to switch back and forth, living two completely different lives: One filled with fun and stardom and another of isolation, depression, and body anxiety. These two lives clash, leading to grotesque and sickening results.

The performances are out of this world. Demi Moore smartly parodies the persona she's built to significant effect, and it's one part devastating and hilarious. Specifically, in one scene, which I found to be just as horrifying as the gore, she's trying to get ready for a date. She frantically applies and removes makeup and lipstick, rubbing her face as though she can't take her age anymore. It was genuinely so upsetting, and Moore brings it all. Margaret Qualley pops off, bringing such confidence and attitude to every scene. She plays it so physically, especially in all her dance scenes, and sees the allure and lust of youth consume her completely just phenomenal acting. What a year for her in 2024 with Drive Away Dolls and Kinds of Kindness. Dennis Quaid is so fucking funny and disturbing in this movie. I grinned from ear to ear every scene he popped into. He is bringing this insane, sleazeball Hollywood executive energy that paired nicely with his outrageous suit choices. He matched the movie's energy perfectly, and this might be his best performance in the last 20 years. It's incredible.

Fargeat ups the tempo here with her direction, putting you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The whole film made me feel so alive. Insane close-ups to wide hallways inspired by The Shining to angles underneath or above characters feel entirely alien, making your skin crawl and claustrophobic sometimes. There's so much fine detail and time given to each of Moore's and Qualley's bodies that it's so intimate but feels so wrong that you know it can only result in terror. All this anxiety built by the camera movement and shot selection is pushed to a new level with the squishes and squashes of the gross sound design. A scene of Dennis Quaid just eating shrimp, the way it's cut and edited with the sound design, left me wholly disgusted and not okay. These weird fluid sloshes are complimented by the booming and fantastic synthetic score that helps keep the film's punch moving.

The body and almost Love Craftian horror is outstanding. The practical and CGI effects are top-notch and feel directly inspired by some of the 80s best, such as The Thing and The Fly. Thematically, the movie does spend a good time looking at the horrific Hollywood cycle of dumping women out of the industry after a certain age, the undeniably horrible beauty standards that women have to deal with daily, and the newfound "miracle" drug like Ozempic which people are now chained too. What I love the most, and I think a movie like The Fly is the best comparison, is that the true horrors are our bodies themselves and the disgusting ways in which they evolve. If The Fly was possibly a look at cancer and the way it can destroy the body, I think The Substance looks at age and the ways we can't handle its effects, especially on the those who have been burdened at holding up these impossible beauty standards. It makes you want to crawl out of your own body (literally).

The Substance is hilarious, repulsive, and wonderfully vibrant in all the best ways. It's a terrible fable about getting precisely what you want and the consequences of that choice. Imagine The Picture of Dorian Gray with lovely pink glittery lip gloss and an extra arm coming out his side. See it on the biggest screen.

Final Score: 9/10

Written by Kevin J. Pettit