The Substance

• Release Date: September 20, 2024
• Directed by: Coraline Fargeat
• Written by: Coraline Fargeat
• Runtime: 2 hours 21 minutes

One of my favorite subgenres of horror has always been body horror. To me, few things are scarier than your own body transforming or falling apart in front of your very eyes while you are powerless to stop it. So when I first heard about The Substance in 2024, it immediately caught my interest. There was so much buzz about this mainstream body horror film that was apparently so good that it was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, which is a rarity in the horror genre. Everything pointed to this movie being right up my alley, but I sadly missed it when it was still in theaters. I did everything I could to avoid any spoilers or reviews for it that I would see online, and it took months and months before I ever had the chance to experience the movie for myself. Eventually, my girlfriend bought me a copy of it as a birthday gift, and I was finally able to sit down and see if all the hype was worth it. Man, did the wait pay off for this one!

The Substance combines elements of body horror, dark comedy, and arthouse filmmaking into a blood-drenched satire of beauty standards in the film industry. That may seem like an odd mashup of genres, but all of those elements fit together pretty flawlessly, and the amazing performances of its lead actresses are what sells it so well. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley share lead roles, and while both actresses have their strengths and their own unique moments to shine, Demi Moore easily steals the show here. She plays Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging star who begins to take a black market serum to revive her beauty after her television series is cancelled. While the serum promises to create a "better version" of her, she quickly begins to suffer the horrific consequences of misusing it to stay as beautiful as everyone expects her to be. Her performance oozes the feelings of frustration, self-loathing and insecurity that any woman in this situation would likely feel. When she's not having to deal with casually sexist remarks from producers or people on the street, she's constantly comparing herself to images of impossibly-beautiful young women in advertising and other television shows. It's a very sincere and human performance, and small things like the sad look in her eyes or the pursing of her lips to keep her composure make you feel like this is a struggle she's faced for a long time. One of my favorite scenes has her putting on her makeup before a date, only to feel like she's inadequate compared to the youthful beauty that people desire. She then starts to wipe the makeup off and start over again, repeating this over and over until she is red-faced, pulling at it and hair as if to tear herself apart in her despair. Moments like that are where you can tell that Moore likely channeled a lot of her own feelings into this role. Ironically, while her role here did land her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, she ended up losing to one of the youngest nominees in that category. If that doesn't drive home the message that this movie is trying to make, then I don't know what will.

You can't have a good body horror movie without gooey special effects, and this movie definitely delivers the goods in that area. It feels really cliched to compare a body horror movie to David Cronenberg's The Fly, but when this movie uses a housefly as a bit of visual foreshadowing early on, I think it's a pretty apt comparison. I'd be doing a big disservice if I were to spoil what exactly happens to Elisabeth, but I'll just say that if you have seen The Fly, you can expect a similar style of gradual degradation with many feminine twists thrown in for good measure. I also have to give the filmmakers big props for their attention to detail and craft when it came to creating the effects. With today's technology, they could have easily taken the cheap route and made them entirely out of CGI. Instead, they chose to use old-school practical effects consisting of pounds of makeup, prosthetics, and gallons of fake blood. It's always much more effective to look at a horrific monstrosity on screen and realize that there's a person underneath all of that getup, and both Moore and Qualley look completely unrecognizable at times. The Cronenberg nods don't stop with the transformations, as one scene in particular involving our lead character's stomach calls to mind a certain sequence in Videodrome. While it does make me happy to see the legacy of these movies being honored, it also means that I'll have even more images of horrific things happening to teeth, fingernails and skin burned into my nightmares for years to come. Take that for what it's worth!

Aside from the fantastic special effects and performances, I think an understated element of The Substance is just how funny of a movie it is. It's not just a disturbing look at how women in Hollywood are perceived and treated; it's a satire of how shallow and fake nearly every aspect of the industry is. Every side character is completely over the top, whether it's their exaggerated facial expressions or vocal inflections that make them sound like they're acting in a mid-era Shyamalan film. Everything feels so hammy and unnatural, and there's even an extensive use of close-up shots with fish-eye lenses on people that exaggerate their cartoonish features. Moore and Qualley are the only two people who resemble a real human being in this world. While most of the characters in this movie act like caricatures of real people, the men in particular are the worst of them all. With the exception of one, every man in this movie is a sneering, sexist pig. Much of their dialogue is so obviously disgusting that it just becomes laughable. To give an example, a sleazy producer (who is literally named Harvey) just casually says lines like "Hey, did you know that a woman's fertility starts to decrease about the age of 25?" Another funny scene has Harvey surrounded by shareholders (who are all old white men) as he proclaims, "Pretty girls should always smile!" The writing is incredibly on-the-nose, practically beating the audience over the head with how obvious its message is. These funny, even groan-inducing moments perfectly counterbalance the horror scenes, and the two alternate faster and faster until you're cringing, laughing and even cheering by the end. What makes all of this work is just how sincerely everything is played. Between writer/director Coraline Fargeat channeling her own feelings of getting older and irrelevant into the script and Moore and Qualley bringing those feelings to life, the end result a blood-soaked "fuck you" to an industry that treats women as nothing more than disposable objects.

The Substance isn't just a great body horror film - it's one of the best feminist horror movies that I've seen. While it may be far from subtle, there's so much sincere emotion put into the acting and direction that you can't help but be sucked into this surreal nightmare of Hollywood's worst traits. If you like your flesh-melting horror stories served up with a healthy side of biting satire and feminine rage, this is one you can't miss.