The Substance

This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Substance is a body horror film about former movie/TV icon, Elisabeth Sparkles. When Elisabeth is informed that her show is due to be cancelled and her star has fallen, she turns to mysterious science to reclaim the limelight. Enter The Substance, an underground pharmaceutical regimen that creates a younger duplicate of the host, or Matrix. So when Sue springs forth from Elisabeth, the chance for fame comes to life once more...if the pair can keep the balance and act as one.

 

This film really does not hold back the punches, the moment we open with a major TV network executive called Harvey, you know this is a film that is going to go for the jugular thematically. What I admire so much about The Substance is that it actually has quite a lot to say around women in Hollywood, female body image, generational relationships and the dangers/pressures of beauty modification. This film follows an actress who is an award winner, once a film actress, who now does an exercise show for television. When a male producer slams her age and appearance, slating these points as dismissive reasons for her show's cancellation, it creates a spiral that leads to a hunger for the height of fame once more. The film is really pointed about how Hollywood discards women after a certain age and chases after younger actresses in a very predatory manner. There are also strong swipes at the way a woman is expected to look and the perceptions of success and desire that come with it. The dual nature of Elisabeth and Sue is interesting; it discusses woman to woman generational relationships quite well. Elisabeth yearns to be what Sue currently is, but despises that she gets all the glamour while Elisabeth continues to decay and fade. Sue on the other end is disgusted by Elisabeth and dismisses her, only truly missing her point of origin after Elisabeth is gone. The significant thing about a film called The Substance is a commentary on beauty being attained unnaturally, a little science versus nature if you will. The Substance is easy to abuse, and it consumes those who take it; in a modern age of surgeries and Ozempic the running commentary here feels very relevant.

The style for The Substance is a tough watch at times but incredibly striking. Wide shots stretch out the perspective of long corridors, cameras turn unsteady the moment a character breaks into rushed movement and we get these unsettling close-ups that show the gruesome truth behind many characters and their actions, for example Harvey's shrimp eating methods. The editing is really slick, often travelling through a scene at a smooth pace that makes the pacing never once drop tempo. There isn't much of a score, but the central theme is eerie, a bit retrograde and entirely fitting for this grounded sci-fi horror.

 

Margaret Qualley, who played Sue, is dazzling in this rising star role; Qualley has a mean or even selfish streak here that marks her as antagonistic towards her older protagonist. Demi Moore, who played Elisabeth Sparkle, is so charismatic and likeable in this that it is hard to see her role fall so far; Moore's wild moods at feeling passed over and then later used are gripping to watch.

However, the best performance came from Dennis Quaid, who played Harvey. This is a really truly repugnant role at any given moment, a clear Harvey Weinstein sit-in/parody. From the moment Quaid first walks into frame to piss at a urinal, it is clear this TV executive is wound up and cantankerous. He holds little regard for those who work for him and holds a tight grasp over his stars. Quaid's disgusting monologue about what happens to women in Hollywood as they get older is gross but rings sincere to the male-led industry. I also found his hunger for barely legal young talent to be terrifying at times and a spotlight on another, more predatory side of Hollywood that likes to rear its head. Quaid can be quite light and silly at times, playful in a manner that seems random and dangerous because you're waiting for that exploitative exec to emerge again. I hated Harvey, but I loved every scene with Dennis Quaid in it.

The Substance is a strange film for me, technically, at every point it holds something that makes it quite good. But for half the film I wanted to leave, I wanted to run and forget all about it. I've watched some horror that I've really loved despite it pushing my comfort levels before, but this just felt like it wanted to push the envelope more than it wanted to sell the story by the end. The conclusion of the feature is grotesque, it revels in being fleshy body horror pornography at times. It had said a lot of what it needed to say and so prioritised the angle it had steadily been leaning more and more into: the monstrous. Making this film such a display of gross prosthetics and repugnant creature make-up just felt like the film was milking the discomfort angle to drive a point home that had already made itself known. I couldn't sit in the theatre by the end feeling like I had watched something entirely good because it wanted me to look away, which is a real failure for a piece of visual art.

An absolute grotesquerie of a film that I wanted to flee from at times, in spite of some very impressive themes and design. I would give The Substance a 6.5/10.