The Substance Provides a Grotesque and Unique Take on the Female Experience

2024 has been a huge year for women in film. With more movies being made by female directors movie goers are receiving more stories of feminism and the female experience than ever before. Carolie Fargeat’s new movie The Substance shows a unique take on vanity and body standards through a body horror genre. The Substance premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival where it won Best Screenplay and was later released in theaters on Sep. 20.

The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, tells the story of a faded Hollywood star, Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore). On her 50th birthday Elisabeth is fired from her job as the host of her long running aerobics TV show due to her aging. This causes Elisabeth to question her value and existence if she can no longer be a bright young Hollywood star. After being involved in a car accident Elisabeth is examined by a young doctor in the hospital who determines her a perfect candidate for the substance. After slipping a flash drive into Elisabeth’s pocket, Elisabeth leaves the hospital and goes back to her Beverly Hills penthouse where she watches the video file attached to the drive. The video advertises the substance as a serum that can generate a “younger, more perfect, more beautiful” version of yourself. The video highlights the fact that the other self is made from your own cells and instead of being two separate entities, you are one, and that balance needs to be respected. 

After deliberation Elisabeth decides to move forward with the substance, she injects herself with the one time use serum that generates a younger version of her who is birthed after splitting out of her back. Elisabeth’s younger self, Sue (Qualley), can be conscious for seven days before transferring consciousness back to Elisabeth, who then in turn stays conscious for another seven days while the cycle continues between the two. The inactive body remains unconscious while it’s fed with a weeks worth of food supply through an IV tube that is just enough to make it to the end of the seven day cycle. Sue, since she is not the primary body, also requires a daily injection of “stabilizer fluid” which is taken via lumbar puncture from Elisabeth. Without the stabilizer she cannot survive a full 24 hours.

In her first conscious week Sue is quickly hired as Elisabeth’s replacement on her aerobics TV show and quickly skyrockets to fame. As Sue’s fame grows so does her desire to stay conscious for longer. One night Sue goes out to a party and brings a man home, to give her more time as the active body she takes an eighth injection of stabilizer allowing her a few extra hours past the strict seven day cycle. When Elisabeth wakes up after the late switch she discovers her index finger has aged rapidly. Distressed and desperate to reverse it she calls the doctor who supplied her with the substance and asks how to reverse it. The doctor tells her that “where one takes the other must give” and the longer her other self stays conscious the more she ages. Elisabeth, now disgusted with herself, struggles to leave the house while Sue takes more and more time from her. After growing infuriated with Sue’s selfishness and jealous of her success Elisabeth attempts to terminate Sue ending her experience with the substance. Realizing that terminating Sue will not bring Elisabeth back to her former beauty or fame she quickly tries to revive Sue after stopping the termination process. Sue comes back to consciousness miraculously making both the women conscious at the same time. Sue, furious that Elisabeth tried to terminate her, beats her to death in a gruesome fight scene. 

Without Elisabeth, Sue begins to deteriorate and in a desperate attempt to keep her fame and beauty, she injects herself with what was leftover from the substance’s serum. Since the substance is not designed to be used on one’s other self Sue generates into a mutated version of both her and Elisabeth called Monstro Elisasue. People are horrified at her grotesque and deformed figure causing everyone who once loved her to turn on her and ultimately be the ones to end both Sue and Elisabeth together. 

Like any body horror movie The Substance was packed full of gore and scenes that made me uncomfortable to watch. Despite the gruesomeness of it I loved the way it was filmed. The shots, coloring and other cinematography aspects did an impressive job of growing the story while maintaining the uneasy feeling a body horror film causes. There were a few transition shots that I felt threw off the flow of the movie, like when Elisabeth, Sue and Monstro Elisasue were first introduced there was a cut to a black screen with the name of each character shown. I felt like that was unnecessary and the character names were still introduced outside of that. But besides those few transitional elements I could not look away (even when I wanted to). 

Qualley and Moore both gave incredible performances. Sue and Elisabeth are different characters but also share the same consciousness and at their core are motivated by the same things which both actresses were able to communicate very well. Sue and Elisabeth both started as beautiful “america’s sweetheart” girls who grew angry and insecure from the pressures put onto them. I think The Substance did a wonderful job of showing how women in the industry feel pressured to constantly be reinventing themselves to stay young and relevant. 
If you are someone who has a strong stomach (or an empty stomach) I highly recommend The Substance which is now available on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime and Apple TV.