"The Substance" - Movie Review / DEMI MOORE MOVIE

 

"The Substance"

Movie Review

DEMI MOORE MOVIE

 

The Substance is a 2024 body horror film written, directed, co-edited, and co-produced by Coralie Fargeat. Starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, it tells the story of a fading celebrity who uses an illicit drug to create a younger version of herself, with horrific and unexpected consequences. Dennis Quaid also features in a supporting role.

 

An international co-production between France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the film premiered on May 19, 2024, in the main competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where Fargeat won Best Screenplay. It was released in theaters on September 20, 2024, by Mubi in the UK and the US, and on November 6, 2024, in France by Metropolitan Filmexport. Both a critical and commercial success, the film received acclaim for its bold storytelling and visceral imagery.

 

The plot follows Elisabeth Sparkle, a once-celebrated Hollywood star who, on her 50th birthday, is unceremoniously fired from her long-running aerobics TV show by her producer, Harvey, due to her age. Distraught, Elisabeth crashes her car while distracted by the sight of a billboard of herself being taken down. While recovering in the hospital, a nurse discreetly hands her a flash drive promoting "The Substance," a black-market serum that promises a "younger, more perfect" version of oneself.

 

Desperate, Elisabeth purchases The Substance and injects the activator serum. In agonizing pain, her body generates a younger version of herself, Sue, who emerges from a slit in her back. The two bodies are linked: they must alternate consciousness every seven days, with the inactive body kept in a coma and sustained via intravenous feeding. Daily stabilizer injections, derived from the original body, are required to keep Sue from breaking down.

 

Sue quickly becomes a star, replacing Elisabeth on her show and earning the spotlight with a confident, hedonistic lifestyle. Meanwhile, Elisabeth spirals into self-loathing and isolation. Their tenuous arrangement begins to fracture as Sue disregards the switching schedule, forcing Elisabeth’s body to age unnaturally. When Elisabeth confronts the supplier, she learns that deviating from the regimen causes irreversible damage to the original body. Tensions between the two escalate, with Elisabeth resenting Sue's recklessness and Sue repelled by Elisabeth's self-pity and binge eating. Their animosity culminates when Sue, in defiance, hoards stabilizer fluid and refuses to switch back.

 

Months later, just before a high-profile New Year’s Eve broadcast, Sue’s stabilizer supply runs dry, forcing her to switch. Elisabeth, now grotesquely aged and hunched, plots revenge. She acquires a termination serum but hesitates, ultimately reviving Sue instead. A violent struggle ensues, ending with Sue killing Elisabeth and heading to the broadcast.

 

Sue’s victory is short-lived. Without stabilizer fluid, her body deteriorates rapidly. In desperation, she injects herself with leftover activator serum, despite warnings of its one-time use. The attempt backfires, resulting in the grotesque creation of "Monstro Elisasue," a horrifying amalgamation of Elisabeth and Sue. Wearing a mask cut from Elisabeth’s poster, Monstro Elisasue stumbles onto the live broadcast, where her horrific appearance incites chaos. When the mask falls off, revealing her monstrous form, the panicked audience turns on her. Amid the carnage, her body mutates further, birthing grotesque appendages and drenching the studio in blood before she collapses and explodes.

 

From the wreckage, Elisabeth's original face detaches and crawls to her abandoned star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Smiling in a delusional vision of admiration, she melts into a pulp. The next morning, her remains are unceremoniously cleaned up by a street scrubber.