With clenched teeth and eyes peeking out from behind trembling hands, my housemate and I enjoyed The Substance, the sophomore feature from French director Coralie Fargeat. Described by The Guardian as a “divisive body horror” upon its debut at Cannes, The Substance reaches the horrifying heights of staples of the genre like Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986) and Ducournau’s Titane (2021) with its riveting plot: a freakish parable of the unrealistic beauty standards placed on older women in the entertainment industry.
Elisabeth Sparkle, played by 90’s film icon Demi Moore, turns fifty, and her illustrious career as a celebrity fitness instructor is threatened to be ripped away from her by a slimy TV producer (Dennis Quaid). However, an illicit substance procured through unconventional means offers Elisabeth the opportunity to create a newer, more beautiful version of herself to carry on her legacy. But at what cost? Even on first viewing, The Substance is an ambitious entry into modern body horror cinema. Its pertinence today is astounding, with its farce of ever-changing beauty standards and the lengths people go to reclaim some semblance of what it means to be young and attractive.
Even on first viewing, The Substance presents itself as an ambitious entry into modern body horror cinema.
The sheen coated on every shot of this film, with its kitsch set design, glossy makeup and vibrant costuming, emphasises the fact that beauty is an integral facet of the daily preoccupations of The Substance’s characters. For instance, Sue (Margaret Qualley), the “alter” created by Elisabeth in an equally bizarre and gory Frankenstein-esque birth scene, personifies these camp aspects. Her salacious dancing as she replaces her counterpart, Elisabeth, as a fitness instructor, imbues her scenes with a lustrous carefree air, which could not contrast more with the extreme X-rated carnage at other moments in the narrative.
The several transformation scenes, each topping the next in shock value, are paired with a deliciously visceral sound design, making one’s skin crawl and grounding the horror endured by Elisabeth firmly in painful realism and truth. Thus, despite the bloody scenes that force The Substance, whether the film wants to or not, to join the ranks of some of the most grotesque pictures in cinematic history, pictures in cinematic history, the truth behind it all, is that we live in a world in which how we look is of the utmost importance, still rings eerily true.
So, despite adoring the film and what it has to say, my housemate and I were still left scratching our heads, asking ourselves, “Who is this film for?”. We concluded that, given how Elisabeth’s predicament depends on her age, the target demographic should be middle-aged women who, like Elisabeth, may also feel overlooked because of how they have aged.
We concluded that, given how Elisabeth’s predicament depends on her age, the target demographic should be middle-aged women who, like Elisabeth, may also feel overlooked because of how they have aged.
However, paradoxically, it is a travesty that The Substance, due to its explicit nature, is unlikely to entice these viewers. So, I implore you: old or young, watch The Substance, but be wary if you are faint of heart or weak of stomach.
