The Substance
By Stephanie Zhang
Entertainment Editor
Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? You. Only better in every way […] A new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect, you.
A body horror film written and directed by Coralie Fargeat, The Substance is the latest recipient of the Best Screenplay award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Some have called it “[the film] that’s been causing walkouts in cinemas across the world.” Others are gossiping about the film’s potential to become an Oscar nominee. There’s both praise and mixed reviews for The Substance.
The film revolves around Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), a faded Hollywood star fired by her producer due to old age. Desperate to reclaim stardom, Elizabeth tries this mysterious black market drug called The Substance, which promises to make one a better version of themself: younger, more beautiful, more perfect. That’s where Sue (Margaret Qualley) comes in. She’s a clone that emerges from Elizabeth’s body, quickly gaining the spotlight and causing ‘issues’ for both bodies, as their conscience needs to switch every 7 days. That’s where the true brilliant catastrophe of the film begins…
To say the least, The Substance is a gory film that really explores body image, or more specifically women’s bodies. It criticizes the beauty standards of the industry and how society is exposed to fantasized versions of how one should look. The film exposes the consequences of unhealthy obsessions that can plague oneself. For the protagonist Elizabeth, it was her constant fixation with fame and youth. The Substance calls out fears like aging and the preoccupations everyone can have with appearance,
reputation, recognition and self-esteem. These aspects might’ve been represented violently and monstrously, but they speak volumes about humanity. The director Coralie Fargeat has sprinkled so many themes in this second feature film of hers. Not only did she address the male gaze and feminism, but she also managed to make a film that terribly hammers your eyes with gore, gore, gore and more gore through deformed bodies…
The inspiration behind the script was described this way by Coralie Fargeat: “I was absolutely convinced that past a certain age, I was going to be worth nothing. The exact same way that, when I was younger, I was absolutely convinced that if I was not thin and with a perfect body, I was worth nothing. Insane, no? So I decided to write this film. To confront this. And to make a political statement to the world: we should be done with this shit.”
Special effects artist Pierre Olivier Persin has mentioned that about 70-80% of the film is all practical effects and no CGI. For the final act of the movie, there was even a fire hose used to spray 30,000 gallons of fake blood. Persin’s prosthetics design skills were put to good work, tons of silicone, latex, molds and glue were used to create Moore and Qualley’s distinct looks.
With that in mind, The Substance is a 140 min long film that somewhat felt a little dragged on. There were scenes that were repetitive…Like the aerobic scenes that really were not that necessary to be shown multiple times due to how suggestive they were and how they did not advance the plot at all…The film progressed at a pace that only revealed the big climax near the last 20 minutes. Before then, moments that grabbed attention were sandwiched between scenes that were visually alright but lacking substance…(Which may or may not have caused me to doze off a little…)
Ultimately though, The Substance is a body horror that’s aggressive, gross and psychological that let makeup and prosthetics loose to let corporeal deformations brew.