Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is a film we deeply need in this day and age, as beauty, youth and stardom become increasingly desired amongst today’s society.
In this gruesomely chaotic film, we witness what happens when one woman is deprived of these three elements and the lengths she will go to to reclaim them.
This article contains spoilers for the movie The Substance.
The Substance is a body horror film starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, that made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in May, where it won the prize for Best Screenplay and received a 13-minute standing ovation.
On Sept. 5, the film had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for the festival’s Midnight Madness section and later went on to win the People’s Choice Award for best Midnight Madness film.
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Since its premiere, the film has received massive praise and overwhelming hype. I’m here to tell you that it meets and exceeds your wildest expectations. The film follows the story of fitness star and celebrity icon Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore) with her own aerobics show called “Sparkle your life with Elisabeth.” On her 50th birthday, she gets fired by her sleazeball boss, Harvey (Quaid), who feels the company needs a younger and hotter host.
In a desperate attempt for youth while simultaneously saving her career, she decides to try a black-market medical procedure called “The Substance.” The drug has three sets of rules to follow, the activator, the stabilizer and the switch. Upon activating it, Sparkle births a new and younger version of herself which she names Sue (Qualley).
Though the pair are technically one and the same in two co-dependent bodies, it remains clear in the film, their consciousness remains far apart. Despite a strict order that the two must swap every seven days, doppelganger Sue becomes enriched with her new life and in turn is reluctant to switch. Instead, she plays with the rules and reserves more time for herself, leaving Sparkle to slowly decompose.
First things first, this film is exquisitely well-shot in terms of camera positions, movements, composition, sound, editing and light and colour. French writer-director Fargeat, best known for her 2017 debut feature film Revenge, does not shy away from tight and uncomfortable close-ups, and grabs the audience with her exaggerated use of vibrant bright colours, intense cracking sounds, fast-paced flow and heavy emphasis on the five senses.
However, a warning to viewers, this film is not for the faint of heart. It is extremely graphic, violent, bloody and gory and will surely make stomachs turn. But to me, its grotesqueness had the opposite effect, it only made it difficult to look away and added to the spectacle. Now, body horror is not exactly a new genre in film. Those who are familiar with Canadian film director David Cronenberg’s work would know that he is the blueprint of this genre.
Given this, I still believe we’re on the cusp of seeing a resurgence in body horror films from thriving directors (ex. Brandon Cronenberg 2023 film Infinity Pool and Max Minghella’s latest 2024 film Shell) and I would even argue it’s being done at the perfect time.
Currently, in our modern society where Ozempic and plastic surgery are at a concerning demand, I personally think there’s an even grander obsession with beauty and youth due to the rise of social media and pop culture. The Substance has arrived at a time where women need to be reminded to love themselves for who they are.
Fargeat not only created a masterful body horror film, but she also had an explicitly bold message to convey about Hollywood. Throughout the entire film, Sparkle and Sue have to constantly deal with sexist comments by misogynistic men from boyfriends to slimy industry executives, all while maintaining the ideal male perspective of the idealized woman. “Pretty girls should always smile!” as Harvey’s lowlife character emphasizes in the film.
This brings me to my next point, Fargeat is a genius for casting Moore, an iconic actress who gained prominence during the mid-1980s and who also was a victim of misogyny at the peak of her fame.
It’s no wonder Moore, along with her unholy spawn Sue, gave a sensational performance of two unhinged women battling beauty standards and the harsh expectations of the entertainment industry. It’s even more impressive given that Moore has never acted in this genre before and completely dominated the new territory.
The eye-catching duo were the pulse of this film and made it profoundly compelling to watch. Some of the best scenes include the first seven days of Sue and Sparkle’s life, two completely contrasting perspectives. In Sue’s life, she is the centre of attention and the epitome of glitz and glamour, meanwhile Sparkle depressingly rots on the couch stuffing her face with food as she steadily turns into a monstrosity.
With every switch to Sue’s life, Sparkle increasingly grows hatred and jealousy for the other glorified version of herself and becomes inherently disgusted with her real self. Pent-up anger and animosity consumes her and suddenly seven days as Sparkle quickly develop into the loneliest days of her life.
One of the most striking scenes in the film was midway through when Sparkle chooses to go on a date with an old friend, the only person in her life who still viewed her as “the most beautiful girl in the world.”
The process in which she attempts to feel beautiful again is both hopeful yet painfully melancholic to observe. As she gets ready, the thoughts of Sue are haunting her. After attempting to put on makeup twice, she ends up aggressively taking it off in front of a mirror in an act of female rage, a symbolic feeling which some women can definitely relate to, when you simply can’t feel pretty no matter what you do.
The sequence of events that happen in this film is a unique experience with every shocking event superseding the other. The last 20 minutes, in particular, had my jaw on the floor and had me shaking to my core.
The Substance cleverly sprinkles comedic moments in between high intensity moments and also serves excellent satirical, social commentary on ageism, feminism and the consequences of an eternal youth facade.
This disturbing, traumatizing and highly entertaining film is the hyperbolic product of body horror and is nothing you’ve ever seen before. The film will simply have you putting five stars on Letterboxd, much like the viewer in front of me who couldn’t even wait to leave the theatre without submitting his rating.
The Substance releases in theatres everywhere on Sept. 20.
