Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley give their all and then some in The Substance, a blisteringly funny and extremely gross body-horror film that blasts current beauty standards for women—and the ungodly cost of achieving and maintaining fame.
Newly 50 and fired from her long-running aerobics TV show, Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore) gets clued into something called “The Substance” by a mysterious health-care worker. It’s a bright green drug that, once injected, unleashes DNA in the body and causes the eventual birth—violently out of your back, mind you—of an alternate, younger self. In a moment of crisis, Elisabeth injects the drug, and “Sue” (Qualley) bursts out of her spine. Let’s just say things don’t go well for everybody involved.
Coralie Fargeat, who made the very good Revenge, has directed a movie that often relies upon visuals and a lot of practical makeup effects to tell its story. Much of Moore’s screen time has no dialogue, with her deep-staring into a mirror. Much of the power of her performance comes from the control of her facial muscles: She has a range of expression in this film that she has never shown before. As things devolve, she gets to use her vocal cords more. It’s career-best work.
Qualley gets to have brighter moments, but the downside of her character’s arc is just as brutal as that of Elisabeth’s. She, too, must rely upon her powers of expression over dialogue, although she does carry most of the comedic load and the film’s few lighter moments. Dennis Quaid is repulsive as a misogynistic TV producer who eats shrimp in a way that will have you avoiding that particular food for a while.
The body-horror aspect of The Substance feels like a throwback to the extreme horror films of the ’80s and early ’90s. This is the craziest movie to get a major theatrical release in years. It’s sort of film that used to go straight to video—not due to quality of the picture, but because distributors figured mainstream audiences couldn’t handle it.
How The Substance managed to get an R rating is a mystery. It’s unrelenting in a way similar to the great 2018 Nicolas Cage film Mandy, which was unrated. (That said, The Substance is sunshine, rainbows and your favorite jellybeans compared to Mandy.)
During the film’s opening weekend, audiences stayed away from The Substance, of course: It tanked at the box office. This one will have to find its audience on home screens. When it does, you might hear neighbors shrieking in delighted disgust.
