Movie Review: The Substance

Christ, that's an intense one.

Doubt I'll be reviewing much in the way of horror stuff this month. So hey, I figured I'd do this one at least. I went to see it in theaters, and... well, I'll get to the review soon enough, right? I guess I can at least say how I came across this film directed by Coralie Fargeat, known for only one other film, Revenge, released in 2017.

Never caught a trailer, never saw an ad on the Internet, never even heard the name - until I saw a review of it by a YouTuber, The Horror Guru. The poster in the thumbnail was as laconic as can be, showing a bottle marked "ACTIVATOR" containing some green liquid. That, and the most nondescript name for a movie I ended up seeing. What's The Substance? I'll give it to the movie, a name like that will intrigue. You want to know just what it's referring to. So, you could say the movie got to me through online word-of-mouth and sheer curiosity.

And now I bestow that same knowledge onto you, with hopefully not too many spoilers in case you, too, get intrigued and want to check it out, but I warn you: This is a body horror film with notes of horror comedy and satire, so it's all kinds of fucked up.

The story

Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) was an actress with enough fame to get her own star on the Walk of Fame, but now that she's hit the age of 50, she has been relegated to leading the morning aerobics show. Still skilled? For sure, but the eyes of Hollywood have changed when looking at her. Even her boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid), the anthropomorphic personification of sleaze, is looking for excuses to push her out the door and find a younger instructor.

An excuse he does find, and Elizabeth is left without what little fame she still held on to. As she drives, she sees her face being torn off a billboard and gets into a collision. She turns out fine at the hospital, but a nurse tending to her slips a mysterious USB drive in her coat's pocket. Again, that nondescript name: "The Substance". She doesn't buy into the video it plays at first, dismissing the drive's promises of "a younger, perfect version of you" as bullcrap.

However, she finds the casting call for the fitness show; Harvey is intent on replacing her fast with someone younger (the ad says, aged 18-30). This is the breaking straw. She contacts the mysterious company and gets sent to a decrepit place hiding a cleaner office, where she gets a package and heads back home. Many things in that package; first, the vial of green liquid, Activator; a cord to "Switch"; needles of all kinds, including stuff to extract a "Stabilizer"; packets of liquids dubbed "food matrix" and "food other self"; and so on.

When she injects herself with the Activator, Elizabeth feels nothing at first, but then collapses. Her pupil doubles, then splits into another eye. Something as large as her comes out of her back, tearing its way out brutally. When she comes to, she sees her body on the floor, seemingly dead; and when she looks in the mirror, she sees a young woman (Margaret Qualley) staring back, a new, idealized "her" born from the previous one.

Now, the mysterious company that manufactures this product is very curt in its explanations, going over the basics and little else. The mind shares these two bodies, in a form of symbiosis. The "other body" needs to inject stabilizer fluid, extracted directly from the base of the spine of the original body (the Matrix), into themselves every day or they will begin to deteriorate. However, the original body cannot recreate stabilizer while in "stasis". And it takes a full day to recover a day's worth of stabilizer the other self can use, forcing both bodies into a cycle, the mind spending a week in a body, then one in the other. The mind switches using the "Switch" cables, also in the package. Most importantly, the two bodies are still one, and need each other to keep living this literal double life.

The new girl, dubbed Sue and looking like she's in her early to mid-20s, goes to the casting call and gets the job. Her odd request of working only every other week is met with an okay from Harvey, who sees in her his new star. One he can film on the aerobics show in the same way one would film a porn. However, Sue seems to have retained little of the wisdom Elizabeth could have had, on top of feeling more and more like a different person altogether.

Surely, as long as the instructions are followed to the letter, there's no way this can all go horribly wrong.

The review

There's a ton to unpack here.

For the past decade or so, we've been seeing a resurgence in horror films that tackle social issues; Jordan Peele's recent filmography is an example. The issue some of these films run into is that they become obvious metaphors for the topics they discuss. This can be done with subtlety. The Substance does away with subtlety, and makes sure you get the point.

There's the topics of sexism, ageism, body dismorphia, objectification, self-hatred, the not-so-hidden horrors of Hollywood and the craving for stardom in there, sure. But one topic above them all: The nasty side of the beauty industry that not only preys on women's insecurities, but at its worst will even gladly destroy them little by little. There are so many scenes involving needles being inserted into the skin in this film. So many. Everything around the Substance is not so different from plastic surgery and regular re-injections of beauty products, procedures that can also have horrendous side-effects in the long run. Hell, use of the titular product borderline resembles a drug addiction once Sue starts taking more stabilizer than she should.

And it's a female-led horror film, directed by a woman, about issues faced mainly by women. This doesn't disqualify me from talking about it, but while I definitely got what Coralie Fargeat was getting to, I feel like a woman watching this film would get even more out of it. But hey, maybe that's why there's so litle subtlety here; so the point gets across no matter who's watching.

Cinematography is on-point with stellar sound design (the droning EDM of the soundtrack will get under your skin), incredible sets and shots, and great acting from everyone involved. It's surprising to see Demi Moore in the leading role of such a raw, rough, gruesome movie. Let's not forget Qualley, who also plays Elizabeth/Sue, and kills it. As for Dennis Quaid? He's the grossest of the three, despite not suffering from any body horror whatsoever; Harvey sloppily eating shrimp in close-up is one of the most disgusting scenes, and an early indicator of the tone the film goes for. So much disgusting imagery.

Fargeat cites both David Cronenberg and David Lynch, and you can tell. The body horror on display is not unlike some of the freakier entries in the genre, such as The Fly or Society.. In fact, it goes the extra mile; I can't say I've seen a ton of body horror films in my life, but this one ranks as the most intense one I've watched, and it might find itself at the top of the list for even bigger horror fans than I am. I'm sensing more homages in there, but listing them would accidentally spoil stuff.

I've underplayed the horror comedy aspect so far, but it's definitely there. Black comedy at its finest, perhaps even at its darkest. You know it's especially brutal black comedy when every laugh is accompanied by a thought of "I can't believe they went there!" I wouldn't say it's laugh-out-loud per se, it's more that as the story progresses, as the events displayed get more horrifying, they also get more and more ridiculous, all leading towards a climax where the body horror and the comedy crash into each other in the absolute grossest of manners, all the way to the very final shot before credits roll. I was too busy being squicked out to actually laugh, but the spirit is there.

In fact, once the film hits its third act, it feels as though it goes on, and on, like this movie had a finale but, every time, someone said "No, sit your ass back down, I'm not finished making my point, and you're gonna keep watching". It gets bloody ridiculous, like you wouldn't believe. Let's just say, by the end, you feel that 140-minute runtime. It's long for a horror movie.

I walked out after the projection suitably in shock and impressed, like many others. It's exactly the kind of feature that leaves you silent and thinking about what you've just seen. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I would purposely seek it out to rewatch it again. Maybe if I stumble on it. But if you can stomach the body horror and black comedy, it might become a new favorite of yours.