Substance has Moore of the Right Stuff

(101724) This year has been chock full of high-profile horror flicks, cult fright films, and cheap splatter fests. We have already been treated to Late Night with the Devil, The Last Voyage of Demeter, Maxxxine, Don’t Speak 2, Alien Romulus, Strange Darling, Longlegs, and Immaculate and the lesser films included the straight to streaming Tarot, The Vampire Next Door and Wynonna Earp.: Vengeance Now with Halloween approaching we can expect many more including Terrified 3, Don’t Move, and Smile 2 plus the long-anticipated remake of Nosferatu will come out around Christmas.

The Substance is one of the most prestigious and critically acclaimed horror films of the year. It was picked to compete for the Palm D’Or, the highest award this year at the Cannes Film Festival although it lost that award it won best screenplay. It is more intelligent than most recent horror films and it aims higher and tries to do more. It effectively combines scares with sex, gore, satire and social commentary, while the recent film Titane uses horror to satirize excessive love of technology The Substance uses horror to poke fun at our modern youth and/or body image obsessed society.

The film is heavily influenced by David Cronenberg who has an upcoming film named The Shrouds that is due out this year. The Substance uses comedy and horror to comment on the compromises and the hard choices women have to make to stay in the still heavily male dominated entertainment industry. Most of the males in the film, especially Dennis Quaid ‘s vulgar character, are despicable and commentators have argued that the film is misogynistic but that many of the females in the film aren’t much better than the males, so it is probably more correct to argue the film is misanthropic.

It was made by the French film maker Coralie Fargeat who showed much promise with her first feature, the exciting low budget female vigilante thriller, Revenge (2017). Like that film The Substance is an over-the-top violent film from a woman’s point of view, and it shows that she can successfully pull off a higher profile and bigger budget film.

The film is in the same sub-genre as Titane (2021), and the recent The Dead Ringers show. Both horror projects satirize and critique society and how women are treated. in this case it takes on Hollywood ageism, and its obsession with physical beauty, Also, like The Dead Ringers and the Alien films, it gets chills by showing mutated or distorted variations of female body parts and anatomy and bodily processes.

The Substance contains two of the most impressive female performances of the year, although because of the nature of the film it is unlikely to earn any Oscar acting nominations. The film is dominated by an astonishing comeback turn by Demi Moore who has not been very active since her glory period since the late 80s and 90s. She is known for starring in consistent hits such as Ghost (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), and Indecent Proposal (1993). The last notable work she was in was the under the radar Nicholas Cage vehicle, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) which was critically acclaimed but not a giant hit. Margaret Qualley is also quite effective and nearly matches Moore playing the same character’s younger more shallow self. You may remember the rising star from The Maid (2021), Stars at Noon (2020), Sanctuary (2022), Poor Things (2023), Kinds of Kindness (2024), and Drive Away Dolls (2024).

Demi Moore plays Elizabeth Sparkle, an aging sixty-something actress who takes desperate measures after she has been fired from a show she has hosted for decades. She fears she has reached the end of her career after the totally sexist (Dennis Quaid) replaces her in an exercise series in favor of a younger model. The film is probably partially autobiographical since as an older actress Moore probably has lost some roles to younger actresses. Her story has some parallels with both: Dr. Faustus-because she essentially makes deal with the devil, and Picture of Dorian Grey-because she suffers for her desire to keep her youth. As the older host of an exercise show Elizabeth Sparkle is reminiscent of Jane Fonda. Since it was revealed that Fonda had bulimia and went to extremes to stay youthful, the Moore character can be seen as a parody of her. When she is shown doing her show, Sparkle even has similar clothes to the ones Fonda wore in her 80s exercise videos.

Sparkle pays a company that provides her a means to indefinitely stay young. She injects a liquid that knocks her out and she wakes up with a younger body that she can wield Ike a new wardrobe for a limited amount of time a day. However, there are some catches. She can only stay in the younger body a few hours or the old one will deteriorate and age. This takes the film into Jekyll and Hyde territory as her "younger" version seems to be more callous and ruthless. As the story progresses both versions of have different suitors; a creepy older man keeps pestering the older version for dates he seems like a nice but somewhat pathetic guy. Sparke even agrees to meet him for a date but something goes terribly wrong. The younger version is motivated almost completely by desire and she makes as much use off her younger body as she can having numerous physical liaisons with men she doesn’t care about. But when the younger Elizabeth gets a big offer, she selfishly spends more time in her younger version, and this causes the older one to experience bouts of semi-paralysis. All of which leads to a horrifying and disgusting scene in which the younger one hosts a live TV New Year’s Eve party.

This is an intriguing, intelligent and very gory feminist body horror film. Sensitive or squeamish viewers should be warmed that the film is one that relishes in going too far, and it is full of grisly violence and bloody mayhem. That said it is difficult to understand why this got an R, and why it was not released as an NC17 film or unrated. If any film deserves an NC17 this year it’s this one.

The whole thing works fabulously well except for the excessively gory and self-indulgent last twenty minutes. The film could have made its point without giving you truckloads of gore and distorted flesh and the conclusion is one of the most disgusting and repulsive endings I have seen in a whole year. But the film is still highly recommended for thinking horror fans with strong stomachs, and the casting of Moore was sheer genius.