The Substance (2024) – Substantially Brilliant

Released: 19th September
Seen: 19th October

In April 2015, the show Inside Amy Schumer aired an episode titled “Last Fuckable Day” which contained a sketch featuring Amy alongside iconic actresses Tina Fey, Julia-Louis Dreyfus and Patricia Arquette. In the sketch Amy comes upon Tina, Julia and Patricia celebrating Julia’s Last Fuckable Day, the day that an actress goes from being considered fuckable to just being considered an elderly woman reserved for mother roles. It’s a hilarious and scathing indictment of the very real agist sexism that pervades the entertainment industry and how it treats women. Over the years there’s been several ways to talk about the culture’s obsession with looks, youth and fuckability in the media. Still, for the longest time the strongest indictment I saw came from this silly mid-2010’s sketch comedy series… and now we have The Substance, proving that horror is still the best genre for exploring complex concepts like this.

The Substance follows Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), an Oscar-winning actress who currently makes a living with an Aerobic TV series… at least, she did make a living doing it right up until her 50th Birthday when she’s unceremoniously fired by the producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid) because he thinks that Elizabeth has gotten too old and the show needs someone younger. Distraught, Elizabeth heads home and through a series of random events soon learns about something known as The Substance. The Substance promises to create a new version of the user that is “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” but, like all magical elixirs in a body horror film, it comes with a catch and some precise instructions. 

See, to use The Substance properly you must only allow your younger version to walk around for a week before you get to do the same, one week for each version and alternating between the two. If you somehow find a way to keep walking around longer than that single week, bad things will happen… so that’s pretty much inevitable here. Elizabeth takes the serum, creating the young, beautiful, perfect version of herself who goes by the name of Sue (Margaret Qualley) and Sue tries to pick up where Elizabeth left off, taking over her show and turning it into a ratings juggernaut. Meanwhile, every other week Elizabeth sees how things are going for Sue and just sinks lower and lower into a pit of depression, starting the inevitable progression to the nightmare ending that this film will revel in.

The Substance does not have time for subtlety and for that, we are truly thankful. Its message about how women are treated differently based on their age and any perceived imperfections is about as subtle as a geyser of blood spraying from a diseased arm and thank god because we need more horror that just goes for broke. There’s no holding back to be found here for even a minute, everything from the performances to the effects to the shot choice is as intense as humanly possible and sometimes even further. The contrast between extreme horror and extreme delight makes for one intense roller coaster ride that really makes sure that the audience experiences the highs and lows of this insane ride that The Substance is trying to take you on.

Now just because The Substance lacks any subtlety doesn’t mean it isn’t telling a nuanced story because it really is, a dark tale about how people value themselves through outer beauty and the adoration of others along with a story of how women are either seen as subjects of intense lust or are shunned by society who would rather not see them if they have so much as a wrinkle. It even throws in a story of good old-fashioned Hollywood sexist bullshit just for good measure (the main producer character in the film is literally named HARVEY, the only way it could be less subtle who they were referencing was if he was played by an ugly fat guy and had a scene where he jizzes into a pot plant). It all blends to create what feels like a body horror version of Sunset Boulevard where a washed-up actress tries to get her old relevancy back through extreme measures.

Those extreme measures are portrayed beautifully by the main pair of women who both deliver all-time great performances. So much credit should go to Margaret Qualley as Sue, basically playing the exact extreme pornographic version of a woman that people like Harvey are more than happy to exploit in order to make money. Every single thing about her is perfect and the camera knows it, using extreme close-ups of every curve and inch of flesh that it can in order to show Sue’s outer perfection. This isn’t just using the male gaze for no reason, no it’s using the male gaze while critiquing it by going to the extreme. Every time you see Sue walk onto the screen it feels like it needs to be followed by a 70s porno bass riff, the camera will cut to 12 angles to make sure you catch how perfect the tits and ass are and after a while, it’s going to make sure you feel uncomfortable about how much this woman is being ogled like it’s the only thing she has going for her. It’s a grand joke, pushed to its limit by Qualley who makes Sue as big as you could want, which makes her inevitable attempt to take over Elizabeth’s life so much juicier.

Speaking of juicy, the role of Elizabeth must have felt like the juiciest role any actress could hope for and Demi squeezes every drop out of it. Demi Moore is going to end up on the list of great horror performances that get snubbed by the academy and I hate that I can call that out because what she delivers here is not only hilariously twisted but shows how game Demi is to go all out. Sure it’s a cliche that actresses get taken more seriously when they turn “Ugly” but Demi adds layers to that which work so well. She starts The Substance pretty much completely perfect, merely ignored due to her age but still with a wealth of charm and talent and still an undeniable beauty and then the film does a close-up to show a single freckle, a wrinkle, an inch of body that isn’t the perfect ideal. It’s stuff that most people would not notice, but for a person like Elizabeth who has to keep looking a certain way, it’s stuff that she can’t stop thinking about. Watching Demi Moore just tear herself apart even before the real body horror begins is powerful, Then as things get worse and she starts going through what characters in a body horror film go through, Demi manages to blend the dark comedy and horror with enough emotional resonance that even when hidden under a ton of latex she still captures you on an emotional level. There’s one moment when Elizabeth’s desire to live and her desire for fame crash violently into each other and every single thought is expressed with a single look from Demi. It’s stuff that should be in awards contention but it won’t because the Academy are fucking cowards.

All this glorious chaos, carnage and pathos is assembled expertly by Coralie Fargeat, the writer-director who has only one other feature film to her name and that in itself feels like a crime. A film like this requires a pair of lead actresses willing to go there but it also requires those actresses to fully trust their director and it’s clear that these performers trust Coralie Fargeat with their entire being because she has used them to create an almost instant classic. This is the kind of film you might expect from a seasoned veteran who has 20 films under their belt, this is wild for a second feature but if Coralie isn’t currently being offered literal truckloads of money to make anything she wants then the industry has no taste. Her directing is god-tier stuff, she managed to blend the hyper-sexual and hyper-gorey in a way that feels like vintage Cronenberg blended with Clive Barker but with an explicitly feminist angle to it and it’s the kind of thing we need more of. 

The Substance is a film that’s not only fun but feels important, it feels like this is the kind of film that’ll be shown in film class to explore the deeper meaning behind every shot and it deserves that kind of intense dissection because it’s chock full of meaning while also being a glorious thrill ride. It plays everything as extreme as possible but that’s the fun of it, it’s going to hammer you over the head with its point about how women are treated by society until you get it. Even if you ignore the message though (not sure why you would, that’s about half of what art in general is meant for) this is still a top-tier body horror film with some all-time great performances and an ending that you won’t soon forget.