Last Updated on September 21, 2024 by
The Substance is a 2024 Horror Movie Directed and written by Coralie Fargeat. The film stars Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, and Demi Moore, with a runtime of 2h 20M, and was released on September 20, 2024.
Have you ever wanted to wake up one day and be a different, brand-new person? That is the premise of Coralie Fargeat’s body horror film The Substance, a shiny, pink-tinted thriller that looks at what people – particularly women – must do to retain their youth and beauty. The film reveals the kinds of pressures applied on women to be young and beautiful and how society uses force to have women take actions that can lead to their early demise. These pressures are further compounded by emerging trends in cosmetic surgery and other procedures that claim to produce everlasting youthful beauty at a very dear price.
The plot revolves around Elisabeth Sparkle, portrayed by Demi Moore, who was once a legendary queen of exercise videos of the early talkative program. This is evident in Sparkle’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fiction and the commendation of producer Dennis Quaid. Even though Elisabeth appears almost too beautiful, she is growing older. She is beautiful and talented, but her 50th birthday is around the corner, and her glamorous job is replaced by oblivion—a common story of how women disappear from the entertainment scene after a certain age.
In desperation to stay relevant and keep her youthful appearance, Elisabeth turns to a mysterious drug called “the substance. ” This drug promises her a better, younger self, but it comes with strict rules: she needs to turn on the activator once, service it daily, and switch her and her younger double using the odd seven days. It cannot afford to make mistakes. Subsequently, putting some green liquid into her injectable needle and injecting herself, Elisabeth cracks her entire body, and from her comes out Sue, the younger and beautiful girl who Margaret Qualley portrays.
At first, all is well. Sue takes the place of Elisabeth as the face for the workout videos, and Elisabeth finally gets a taste of liberation. But their harmony does not last long. While Sue is enjoying her freedom, Elisabeth becomes more and more adamant about staying young and beautiful forever. It was the beginning of the struggle for power between the two – two women who were imprisoned in this life they had created together. The film could not clearly state its view on the culture boasted about and established around beauty and youth. In real life, women go through a lot to maintain youthful skin, for example, salmon sperm facial or injection fillers.
Demi Moore, who plays Elisabeth, faced similar scrutiny during her career for the lengths she went to maintain her looks, most famously before her role in Charlie’s Angels: A Satire of the Road movie, the film Full Throttle was released in 2003. In The Substance, there’s an extreme version of this pressure, as Elisabeth is ready to die, get ill, and even forget about herself if she can stay young and famous. They are interconnected, and while the film may have a more profound message, the overall work is seamlessly coherent. The physical emergence of Sue out of Elisabeth’s body could be associated with motherhood. Greedy, Sue begins to take various things from Elisabeth, which delays her and requires her to give up some of herself for her younger ‘offspring,’ as a parent would feel exhausted by a child. In this respect, The Substance raises the question of motherhood in a very complicated and disturbing manner.
One of the film’s most noticeable strengths is its making. The movie significantly differs from other horror films, as its general color scheme is a metallic pink. It is a body horror but never excessive with the blood—replaced by beautiful things like shiny costumes, glittery makeup, and shiny lips. Despite the horror aspects of the story, most of the action takes place in the daylight, making it rather grotesque. This brightness only turns to dark shades when Elisabeth begins to surrender to her ill fate, much like Requiem for a Dream.
Fargeat provides a unique directing style and a vital representation of the female body. Elisabeth and Sue are shown in all their shapes, being proud of themselves and posing for the camera, and when they are lifeless on the floor after the failed attempt to stay young. This was not a feeling of voyeurism unless it was presented from a particular character’s point of view, which only complicated Elisabeth and Sue’s perception of themselves. An added element to the movie’s eerie setting is the packaging and appearance of the substance itself – a glowing green liquid contained in rather peculiar, vacated packages.
Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley deliver raw and captivating performances in this film. In this depiction, Moore embodies a desperate and sad Elisabeth who cannot accept the aging process, whereas Qualley portrays a careless adolescent Sue. Two such characters often communicate indirectly, increasing the film’s uncanny mood. Propriety of the film has its element of horror in using close-up, fisheye, and American Psycho framing of shots.
However, The Substance also has its tendency to lose itself in the very metaphors it employs. Specific themes in the stories are overemphasized to the point of becoming rather cliched: the importance of women’s youth and beauty and the pressure exerted on the feminine sex. It is relatively slow in developing, but it becomes this dark and twisted Cinderella fantasy when it reaches its third act. It becomes almost campy, and the film embraces its body horror angle.
Overall, The Substance is a peculiar and grotesque chiller with much to say about the human condition and concepts of beauty, youth, and self.
That is why luminous pink visuals, body horror and peculiar performing add up to make for one of the most extraordinary watch experiences of the current year for the admirers of films as beauty subversion practice. It may well revolutionise the way you approach the concept of ageing and what some individuals are prepared to do to achieve it.
The Substance 2024 Parents Guide Age Rating
The Substance is rated TV-MA by the Motion Picture Rating (MPA) for strong bloody violent content, gore, graphic nudity and language.
