I don’t mind when horror is unsubtle. Many beloved films in the genre are. Not every great horror movie needs to have an intricate, Babadook-style metaphor lurking beneath its scares – hell, the Scream franchise was built on its lack of subtlety, and. Coralie Fargeat’s sophomore feature The Substance is as overt in its messaging as you can get: A body-horror nightmare jabbing a finger in the eye of celebrity culture’s obsession with the newest, youngest, hottest thing. Is The Substance the first film to tackle this problem? Absolutely not. Is it the most bold and audacious to do it? Quite possibly.
In The Substance, Demi Moore plays middle-aged fitness guru Elisabeth Sparkle, who is ousted from her workout empire by Dennis Quaid’s misogynistic exec Harvey. (If those character names aren’t unsubtle, I don’t know what is.) In her despair, she’s introduced to a remedy called “The Substance” which, when injected, splits the cells of her body and creates a younger, better version of herself (played by Margaret Qualley). The catch? They must share custody of Elisabeth’s life, alternating weeks between them without exception. Naturally, the clone has other plans – and a bizarre fight for self-preservation ensues.
Moore matches the madness of The Substance with gusto. She goes to hell and back in an utterly fearless performance, playing a woman mentally bound by a broken industry. Qualley strikes a confident figure alongside her, assured in her beauty – something Elisabeth feels she’s lost even before creature designer and makeup artist Pierre Olivier Persin starts pouring on the goop and gore. There’s something truly sinister about Qualley’s performance, and the juxtaposition between her youth – both how she presents it in her actions and how she naturally embodies it – and her counterpart’s age hammers home Fargeat’s message. Moore is as stunning as she’s ever been here, but the idea that her beauty simply must fade with age is the heart of The Substance.
That aspect of the film hinges on placing Elisabeth’s professional fate in the hands of a truly smarmy, narcissistic, and altogether off-putting villain. Luckily for The Substance, Quaid’s performance completely fits the bill. He’s absolutely grotesque in the role, meeting the camera head on as he spits commands into his phone or messily stuffs his face with shrimp. A foil this insufferable, with his cruel and sexualized opinions of women young and old, allows us to get into Elisabeth’s head and empathize with her decision to take “The Substance.”
Fargeat demonstrated a penchant for blood-soaked final acts in her first film, Revenge, which The Substance takes to the max. This is most definitely a film made for the sickos and the freaks: Organs fall out of backs, artery-spray spews on a studio audience in an endless loop, and bodies are beaten senseless. In the harrowingly bleak yet wacky final moments, Persin’s impeccable work straddles the line between outlandish and crushing. These squirm-inducing visuals are all reminders that people are more than the sum of their looks or what they can offer others. We all bleed the same, and we all have to die.
The Substance confirms Fargeat as a unique figure among genre filmmakers. Her latest film feels stylized and sexy with an identity all its own; the set and costume designs are bright, garish, and rooted in a flair that calls back to Revenge. Fargeat opts for wide angle lens shots and favors long corridors, filling us with a sense of unease as we wait for her next move. She also makes excellent use of color: The TV network’s offices have blood red walls; Elisabeth’s bathroom tile is all white – a neutral backdrop that emphasizes the unsettling consequences of taking “The Substance.” Editing alongside Jérôme Eltabet and Valentin Feron, Fargeat’s technique further immerses us in Elisabeth’s terrifying breakdown. There are quick, choppy frames of eyes splitting, bodies crumpling to the floor, and Elisabeth hitting herself in the head as if to wake up from a bad dream. Fargeat, Eltabet, and Feron build the terror and confusion Elisabeth feels in these rapid-fire smash cuts, and when combined with the strength of the performances, these choices pull us into The Substance by the throat.
