What happens when your value as a woman is tied to something ephemeral that you can’t keep?
The Substance builds its entire story around that one question, using horror, satire, and spectacle to explore what it means to be a woman in Hollywood whose professional value is inseparable from her image and whose image is defined by her youth and beauty … and what happens when it’s gone. In that world, identity is commercial. Your looks and appeal are your bankable brand, but the catch is that, like it or not, your brand has an expiration date. So, what do you do next?
This is a film about identity and self-worth, and it uses the aging actress Elisabeth Sparkle as a case study for what happens when identity and self-worth are shaped by forces that do not last.
Starring Demi Moore, The Substance takes on ageism and sexism directly, but what makes it compelling is that it doesn’t stop at simply critiquing how aging women are viewed within Hollywood. Instead, it turns inward and asks what happens when you live inside a system that you not only benefited from but also participated in it building and reinforcing? What do you do when you are ejected from it?
The result is a film that operates as a lens that can focus on any person who lives in a system that determines their value for them. While it uses psychological horror and social commentary as narrative tools to generate an emotional response in viewers, it also tears away the scab that hides the impact of what happens to us emotionally when we choose to turn those pressures on ourselves and allow them to form the structure of our internal identity when measuring our personal value through our own eyes.
The story makes that idea concrete from its very first image.
Read the review below or watch it on YouTube:
The Substance opens with the construction of a shiny new star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame for Elisabeth Sparkle and ends with that same star being cracked, faded, and worn down with age. There are even little bits of the star that have been worn and chipped away by all of the shoes, boots, and high heels that have stepped upon it as people move toward their destination. That arc captures where we are in Elisabeth’s life and spits us out on her 50th birthday when her future is essentially cancelled by Harvey, her smarmy producer played by Dennis Quaid. After an accident brings her to the hospital, a young doctor slips her a note and a thumb drive with a message about this new thing that changed his life.
Desperate to regain her relevance and future, Elisabeth signs up for this special treatment called (you guessed it) “The Substance.” It’s basically an injectable fluid that forces her body to split into two bodies: the original body and a new, younger body. However, they are still only one person. The catch is that each body can only be active for 7 days at a time, with the original body being the “matrix” or primary unit from which the younger body draws its elixir of life. In other words, one cannot exist without the other and each one needs time to be alive in the world to remain healthy.
The story takes off from there with Elisabeth and the new sexy hot twenty-something body who calls herself Sue. At the point of Sue’s “birth” they clearly have a shared knowledge and understanding of how they need to live, but that meeting of minds stops at the point of their split and their experiences diverge, essentially creating two distinct people whose goals and needs become vastly different. As Sue’s star rises, she hungers for more of Elisabeth’s life force and Elisabeth realizes that her very existence is being consumed by Sue. This sets up a battle for survival between them as Sue’s hunger for life is drawing down Elisabeth’s vitality faster than it can be regenerated.
The Beauty and the Grotesque
This obvious narrative confronts the impacts of sexism, ageism, and the “old guard syndrome” of the young consuming the old as they rise to power, leaving the old to struggle to regain their youth and relevance at any cost. It’s this clash of the forces age, sex (or sexism), and power that create some of the most fascinating, devastating, and absurd questions that our society faces today. The Substance doesn’t shy away from ripping the façade off the gentle conversations that we have in public as we critique this vicious dance of power within the theater of every social and professional space, and the film doesn’t hesitate to skewer itself in its own critique of that critique either. It looks the ugliness in the face and basically says, “I see you.”
Visually, the film is striking. The Substance has a modern art feel to it that embraces clean and bold primary colors, vibrant liquids that shine with light, and textures that have an organic look to them. There is a distorted absurdity to the storyline, characters, and plot. That distortion is reflected in the artistic camera work that parallels the emotional and psychological turmoil of the characters, using underwater-like visuals and sounds to reflect the surreal experience of Elisabeth’s and Sue’s transition between old and young bodies.
The surreal nature of the cinematography grows more absurd as the film descends into the finale, which feels like watching a celebration of the grotesque that only reveals itself once you have passed the point of no return. It’s at this point that the visual and psychological story does a hard shift into absurdist gore that rivals the iconic bloodbath scene from Carrie as The Substance gleefully embraces what I can only coin as monster splatter punk horror that delights in mirroring Elisabeth’s and Sue’s unraveling sanity.
The Cast
Demi Moore has had some terrific roles in her career, but here we get a masterclass in which her expertise is on full display. I don’t think she has ever played a character who is so perfectly matched with her age in life, her career status, and her future. Her performance is brutally honest and transcendent as Elisabeth Sparkle, capturing the pain of an aging starlet who is still beautiful, but who can’t see her own value in a youth-obsessed world.
Margaret Qualley, who plays Sue, embodies youthful innocence mixed with feral ambition. She brings raw energy and hunger to the role, embracing the power and freedom that comes with being young, beautiful, and desired.
Together, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley represent the duality of womanhood, with each vying for control while simultaneously being trapped in a desperate and destructive cycle of dependency.
Is Subtlety Lost?
The Substance is indelicate and heavy handed from start to finish, but that’s the whole point of the movie. A subtle film wouldn’t have produced such a powerful reaction, nor would it have created such a weirdly dynamic and philosophical conversation with itself. It’s in the post-movie reaction that you find the subtlety of the message, which is essentially, “If you allow others to define your personal value and you buy into their definition, when their opinion of you changes, your entire world, your identity, and your self-value crumble.” There is no better version of yourself hiding within you, there is only you. So, what do you do then? That is the point of this film.
The Flaws are Fascinating!
While the movie’s themes are compelling, it’s the flaws in the narrative’s logic that might be the most interesting thing about the film because they expose the very questions and answers that the film explores. The more I think about this film, the more I admire Coralie Fargeat’s skill as a writer and director.
Some of the unaddressed issues include: who is behind the distribution of the substance? Why is there no charge for it? Why isn’t there better guidance for how the older and younger selves should coexist? Why aren’t they told about the effect of abusing the 7-day balance, and what are the dangers? I think it could be argued that the “substance” is a metaphor for life and that life itself doesn’t come with a rule book, but the film refuses to acknowledge this interpretation.
Instead, there’s a lingering sense that the story is building toward a significant lesson, but it never quite materializes in the film. Instead, the answers seep into your mind afterwards as the story lingers, forcing you to think about the two hours and twenty minutes of madness that you just experienced.
For me, the greatest takeaway here is the warning that letting others define your personal value can lead to the destruction of your identity. If you don’t figure out how to find peace with who you are … that’s when the true horror story begins.
Recommendation
The Substance is not for everyone. If you dislike blood, lots of nudity, gore, or heavy psychological drama and horror, this film isn’t for you. It’s graphic, disturbing, and deeply entrenched in a distorted female perspective that is laser focused on how women are valued (or devalued) based on their age and beauty.
Fans of psychological thrillers, horror, and splatter punk may enjoy this film, but it’s not a family-friendly movie and it’s not appropriate for children. It’s an intense, surreal experience that I think will struggle to find a clear audience due to its contrasting themes and pacing. However, I think it will age well over time, which is ironic given the focus of the story.
In the end, The Substance feels like it could have told the same story in a more impactful way in 90–100 minutes. While there are elements of the film that I genuinely appreciated (such as the performances, the artistry, and the underlying themes), it’s a difficult film to watch. In addition, its ambitious exploration of aging, beauty, and identity gets lost in its own excesses … and yet, I am glad that I watched it because it is a film that continues to stay with me, which is rare with movies nowadays.
What Did You Think?
So, The Substance, is this a film you’re excited about seeing? Or have you seen it and was it what you expected? If you are not sure about the film and want to know more, let me know and we can chat in the comments because this film is so different from anything else out there. Feel free to share your thoughts — and yes, spoilers are welcome because this is one weird film.
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This review was originally posted on YouTube on September 19, 2024.
