Release Date – 20th September 2024, Cert – 18, Run-time – 2 hours 21 minutes, Director – Coralie Fargeat
After being fired from her daytime fitness show, fading celebrity Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) takes a mysterious drug which creates a younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley), however not keeping the balance of lives leads to strong physical consequences for both.
Whenever a new body horror comes out the term Cronenbergian is frequently thrown around a bit too much. It’s a go to term – as Get Out has become in relation to not just anymore any Black horror, but almost any praised horror in general – for the sub-genre, but when it comes to Coralie Fargeat’s sophomore feature the phrase feels deserved. The satirical edges brought to mind the jabs held within the likes of Videodrome and Crash, with the blood and gore being used to exemplify the themes at hand.
Taking down age and beauty standards we follow Demi Moore’s Elisabeth Sparkle. As he star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame has cracked over the years her fame has too – ‘wasn’t she in that one movie from years ago?’ Travelling home from being fired from her daytime fitness show, Elisabeth is involved in a car crash – from which she emerges unscathed – and at the hospital is indirectly informed by a doctor about a drug known as The Substance. After injecting with the promise of a better, younger her from Elisabeth emerges Sue (Margaret Qualley); a figure who (promised that they are one) Elisabeth must balance her life with or risk the consequences.
As Sue’s fame grows, and she gets her own much more sexualised fitness show replacing Elisabeth’s, her want and need to be in the spotlight – and indulge in the all the pleasures of it does too. The 7 days-7 days balance is quickly broken and the effects are quickly shown on Moore’s character with some wonderful practical make-up effects. A lingering sense of fascination grows as to how she will deal with her changing life/ lives backed by a subtle feeling of dread as she continues to use The Substance for the sake of ‘her’ own career.
Moore wonderfully captures the conflicting thoughts with both drama and occasional humour. One scene showing her trying to get revenge on Sue contrasted with the praise lauded upon Qualley’s character is a brilliant slice of comedic spite as Elisabeth isolates herself in her kitchen seemingly conjuring recipes in a witchlike manner. Contrasting with the sign of her losing hope and faith in her own looks after having been invited to meet an old school friend for dinner. As Elisabeth looks in the mirror trying all sorts of makeup styles and combinations there’s a pain and frustration in her eyes, full of self-doubt, consciousness, anxiety and uncertainty. Self-love and care fly out the window, foreign concepts that this fast-moving world simply won’t allow room for.
Moore and Qualley barely share the screen together (at least while the other’s character is conscious) but the sparks fly from one to the other with increasing heat and rage as the narrative develops. Both fall into the opinionated hands of a world led by the likes of Dennis Quaid’s scene-stealing TV producer Harvey. A role initially meant to be played by Ray Liotta before his death, in his hands you can imagine a much more directly creepy and intense figure (you can’t help but think that the character’s called Harvey for a reason). Quaid brings to the role a camped up performance that brings in the laughs at the expense of the character who still manages to bring about a sinister and overbearing nature when looming over the central characters and determining the fates of their careers.
As things barrel towards the third act the body horror and prosthetics increase (this feels like it should be a lock-in for a Hair And Makeup Oscar nod, alongside Production Design thanks to the somewhat alienating nature of certain environments, and how Elisabeth’s apartment varies in its depiction depending on tone and character) without feeling there for the sake of mindless gore. It’s contained within the satire and jabs of the film, which allows it to have more of an effect in the moments when major reveals appear on screen for the first time, and then are gone into more detail. Not an all out film, although certainly when it goes for it it does so with a good deal of drive, not avoiding getting more than just its hands dirty.
Fargeat makes sure that the themes of her film are wound into each scene and detail. It makes for a focused piece of work that still manages to embrace the chaos that it focuses on. The fighting thoughts of doubt going through Elisabeth’s mind as mental conflict becomes multiple physical ones, all in the face of appearing and being just as the world that she’s a part of demands for money and relevancy. Throughout, there’s a good deal of impact from the 18-rated horror that’s on display, but never at expense or as a cheap getaway from the narrative and satire at hand. Pushed by a set of great performances at the centre, there’s both a strong, striking feeling as soon as the film finishes – at both what it had to say, and how it did it – and a good deal of moments and ideas that have continued to stir in my mind a good few days after first seeing it. The Substance is a film with bite, sinking its teeth in so that the marks remain a few days after.
Consistently moving its narrative along whilst turning up the heat of the growing personal mental and physical conflicts, The Substance is an effective body horror satire led by an excellent central performance from Demi Moore, where the gore has plenty of thematic and shocking effect.
Just A Little Bit Random 