Review | The vomit-inducingly gorgeous The Substance hits its viewers over the head with a stick

The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, is clever, but anything but subtle violence-fueled horror.

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Premiere: 27.09.2024
Original title: The Substance
Directed by: Coralie Fargeat
Script: Coralie Fargeat
Starring: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Gore Abrams
Length: 140 minutes
Age limit: K16

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The Body Horror horror film, awarded for the best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival for good reason The Substancea has been compared, among other things, to the hero of the genre by David Cronenberg to the classics. The almost masterful novelty shows its numerous influences, but the closest points of comparison can be found in the French director-screenwriter Coralie Fargeatin from previous jobs.

For its gore and extreme violence, The Substance goes even further than Fargeat’s 2018 debut thriller The Revenge. In terms of subject matter, it owes more to his short film from 2014, which was apparently forgotten by many Reality+which also dealt with beauty ideals and the morbid obsession with looking forever young and beautiful.

The turbocharged The Substance slaps the viewer in the face throughout its 140-minute length. The film is intentionally overlong and fully consciously presents the same soft porn imagery and objectification of young female bodies that it criticizes.

Using Hollywood’s own trademark sexist clichés run by misogynistic middle-aged or older slimy men, director-writer Fargeat turns the mirror not only on jerks, but also on women who literally backstab each other and on the viewer.

Latex monsters and soft porn

The Substance begins as a science fiction and drama borrowing the aesthetics and color scheme of the 1980s, but mutates as it progresses into a satirically sick body horror. Towards the end, the gore of the film easily outshines, for example, Cronenberg The Fly over the movie. The closest point of comparison could be, for example by Peter Jackson Bad Tastebut without the funny humor.

The old-school gruesome monster creations of the work realized with the help of special effects made in front of the camera also come to mind John Carpenterin The Thing.

The Substance is pure audiovisual firework, whose ever more beautiful images and the cold, pumping machine rhythm of the soundtrack demand to be experienced on the biggest screen possible. You can find a lot of sadness, joy of life and especially rage in the pig. The Substance is also a really fun movie – if you can stomach it.

The plot of the sci-fi horror satire is basically just as simple as the trailer suggests:

Demi Moore plays actress Elisabeth Sparkle in one of the best roles of her career. The role offers of the woman who was once awarded an Oscar have dried up with age. Now in her fifties, Elisaberth hosts a TV fitness program. The biggest sin in Hollywood, even for a woman of Moore’s looks, is to grow old. Channel boss and the world’s slimiest condensation of sexism Harvey (Dennis Quaid) gives Elizabeth a shoe and wants to replace her with as young and sexy a woman as possible.

Versatile vomit

The name of the man who uses power, Harvey, sums up how directly the director-writer gets his point across. Its role model Harvey Weinsteinin like Quaid’s character is not directly shown committing sexual violence, and there is no need for it. The level of Aija’s weirdness becomes clear from the scene where Harvey tells Elizabeth at lunch that her usage time has expired.

In the middle of all the gore, the eating scene with close-ups of Harvey furiously devouring shrimp is one of the most disturbing in the film. For those suffering from misophonia, the overemphasized eating sounds in several scenes must be pure torture.

With the emotional crash caused by the kicks, Elizabeth is offered the chance of eternal youth. The Doriangray-like story is combined with the experimental miracle drug The Substance, reminiscent of the new fad diet pills, with which Elizabeth creates a new, younger version of herself.

A woman’s insides come out Margaret Qualleyn performed by Sue.

The Substance lafka’s customer service and user manuals emphasize time and time again that Elizabeth and Sue are one and the same person, even though they differ in appearance in other ways than in age. They have to change bodies once a week or there are known problems.

And of course there are.

Qualley and Moore in daring lead roles

Of course, young Sue immediately ends up being drooled over by Harvey the TV buffoon and Elizabeth’s new host of the show. Both women appear in numerous nude scenes, either as oversexualized objects and/or turning into increasingly gruesome-looking monsters.

Director Fargeat rubs his angry opinion about impossible beauty ideals and young female bodies as mere arousing pieces of meat directly in the viewer’s face.

29-year-old Qualley is, of course, perfect according to modern beauty ideals. The story of Sue, who ends up hosting the Pump It Up show, brings its own twist to the fact that she is an actress said that she appears in the film in latex breasts created by makeup artists. Apparently, some of the countless close-ups of her bum swaying to the dance beat are also of someone else’s glutes.

Pump It Up is a fun fitness program, but in reality it’s pure soft porn that exploits Sue’s youth and beauty. Throwing herself into the joys of youth, Sue does not follow the instructions, but abuses The Substance and stays in her perfect body for longer and longer periods.

Completely naked

As a counterweight, Moore, who was in the spotlight and under the microscope for her appearance in real life throughout her adulthood, begins to age and become more and more monstrous as Elizabeth. In the Body Horror department, the film reaches such spheres that without the satire the movie would have been guaranteed to have a K18 age limit.

Director Fargeat tricks the viewer time and time again and pushes more and more gas towards the end. Every time you think the movie is over, there are even more creepy monster creations, extreme violence and sicker gore.

He is responsible for latex creep effects, among other things Julia Ducournaun Titanium and Raw-familiar from horror movies Olivier Afonsa. Some of his creations are even comparable in their ingenuity Rob Bottinin For the monsters of The Thing.

The comically gruesome old-school effect creation presented by The Substance in the last half hour is something almost never seen before in its originality.

Despite all the revelry, the hardest parts of the film can be found in the quieter moments. Throwing himself into his role, Moore is completely naked in front of the camera, for example in a scene that does not require physical nudity. The whole spectrum of emotions can be seen on Elizabeth’s face as she prepares for a date – momentary satisfaction with her appearance turns into pure self-loathing in the blink of an eye.

Best movies of the year

Also Frank Henenlotterille and Brian Yuznalle bowing The Substance is really tricky, but hypnotic to watch. There are also references in the movie, for example by David Lynch and Stanley Kubrickin to work.

Despite the English language and setting, The Substance is a French new french extreme horror. The director slams the ballast mercilessly into the viewer’s neck.

Fargeat delightfully masters the almost lost art of extreme close-ups. One of them provides the most important image of the whole work. When Elisabeth tries to dare to go on a date, the distorted mirror image reflected by the round shiny doorknob is what the woman sees herself as.

The Substance is not only one of the best horror films of the year, as it jumps dreamily from one mood to another. The wonderfully filmed, acted, edited, scripted, masked and staged movie is one of the best works of the year, regardless of genre.

The Substance will also be performed at the Love & Anarchy festival on September 26.

THE SUBSTANCE

“The Substance, which at the end is ridiculously sloppy with its gore and gore, is a sickeningly excellent audiovisual ensemble that hammers its feminist message straight to the head.”