The Substance

This grotesque body horror satire follows washed-out actress Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) grappling with aging and dwindling popularity. But after Elisabeth starts consuming a black market drug simply known as the "substance," she creates a beautiful, younger clone of herself (Margaret Qualley), albeit with horrifying results on her own body.

The Substance sets new extremes for the body horror genre. Before delving into the merits of The Substance, let's set up a ground rule: don't watch this if you can't stomach grotesque, gory, gut-wrenching body horror. If you put David Lynch's surrealism, David Cronenberg's body-changing scares, and the genre-defying boldness of Julia Ducournau's 2021 shocker Titane, and voila, you'll stumble upon Coralie Fargeat's The Substance. The French writer and filmmaker isn't simply content with crafting formulaic body horror. Instead, she pushes the envelope with creatively discomforting zoom-ins, jaw-dropping physical transformations, and a third act that makes you run out of breath — either laughing or gasping.

Underneath the prosthetic shock value of it all, The Substance has a nightmarish fable perfect for the times of Ozempic. Struggling as a yesteryear actress with a failing aerobics show, Demi Moore's Elisabeth Sparkle is dealing with physical insecurities and aging concerns that almost feel universally relatable. As she gets a taste of a mystery drug (and its side effects), her younger clone, Sue, lives out old Elisabeth's dreams. But both Elisabeth and Sue must cross paths with a Hollywood dominated by perpetually salivating sleazebags like the very predictably-named producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid in a scenery-chewing performance). What could have been a sisterhood between the old and new stars turns into a rivalry rooted in jealousy, violence, and a downward spiral of reverse evolution. Fargeat doesn't waste time in establishing that The Substance is a film about the ugly beauty standards of showbiz that women have been facing since the times of Adam. Dark humor constantly oozes like the green fluid from Elisabeth's syringes, but The Substance still succeeds as a grim and gritty look into a world where it's bad if a woman's "tits aren't in the middle of her face."

Some on-the-nose satire and a (literally) messy third act slightly bog down The Substance. Despite its creative gore and well-intentioned allegories, The Substance suffers from its excesses and style over substance. Clocking at 2 hours and 20 minutes, the physical gags and deafening sound design can't always capture the tension of a woman losing her body and sanity to a drug. The final minutes build up to a predictable third act but still shocking enough to turn your eyes away from the screen. But then the shock value continues until you understand the point that this is a film about failing stardom and the fetishization of female bodies. If only its final stunt hadn't been as stretched out and the satire hadn't been so obvious, The Substance could have left an even better lasting impression.

The second coming of Demi Moore. The Substance might have occasional imperfections, but Demi Moore's chuckle-inducing and heart-shattering performance holds it all together. Carrying way more star value in the 80s and the 90s, Moore is in fine form as she seems to be almost parodying her own dwindling popularity. Whether putting on a fake smile for the cameras or binge-eating on the sofa, Moore leaves a haunting presence in every scene. Even in The Substance's campier moments, Moore seems to be having fun capturing the situation's humor and horror. While it's saddening to see her reduced to another visual gag by the messy third act, nobody else seems ideal enough to play Elisabeth Sparkle.