THE SUBSTANCE – * Demi Moore & Margaret Qualley

Writer-Director – Coralie Fargeat

Review By Muskaan Monique Dhillon

In the latest horror sci-fi film The Substance, veteran Demi Moore plays Hollywood starlet Elisabeth Sparkle. This body horror satire on aging is skillfully crafted by writer/director Coralie Fargeat and was a standout at the Cannes Film Festival. 

Director Fargeat takes a page out of David Cronenberg’s playbook and brings on all the icky, bloody and gooey gore in this visually stunning film. Every editing and sound choice is deliberate and will leave you in awe at both the visuals and performances. 

The movie follows Elisabeth, an aging TV fitness celebrity who starts taking a black-market drug that promises to give you a younger and better new self. Elisabeth gets wind that the TV studio is going to replace her with a younger and hotter woman on her 50th birthday which pushes her to this level of desperation and insanity to then take the substance. 

After taking the substance, her younger new counterpart is Sue played by Margaret Qualley and they have to share their existence as “one” – seven days for the new body, seven days for the old body and repeat. 

Sue is this idealized version of Elisabeth – who craves the stardom and limelight and is quick to exploit her good looks to get to the top and takes over as Elisabeth’s replacement. However, the problem is that at the end of the seven week period, the duo must switch to keep the balance. 

In an insecure character’s mind the only thing that matters is how much attention that she’s getting and maintaining this youth and beauty because that’s all she’s ever known. Aging in a society that does not value what comes with age and how age brings wisdom and experience is difficult. These things are not valued in this world. Elisabeth could enjoy being rich and living in her gorgeous apartment and having a great time and appreciate her age. She did not have to go down this path and what makes her descent into madness, extreme and horrifying is because this is what happens when you allow the outside world to not only define who you are as an individual but define what gives you value as a human being. If you let others define you, then you’re going to end up being this monstrous being as this end result. In the climactic end she is no longer herself, she’s mentally gone and has lost all her consciousness along the way.        

Moore and Qualley do an extraordinary job of portraying the two halves of someone who is fame-hungry and will do anything to stay relevant and adored. Sue’s first week is a success and quickly takes over Elisabeth’s old TV fitness job and is looking forward to this newfound fame. 

And by the end of the week it’s time to switch and Elisabeth spends her week self-loathing by just sitting on the couch and eating. Sue is then disgusted by how Elisabeth chose to spend her week being lazy and doing nothing while she works and wishes she had more time than a week. This then creates resentment in Sue where she starts to feel possessive of her time and does not want to let it go which has severe consequences for Elisabeth. As Sue takes more and more from Elisabeth, it is eating away at her and transforms her body into this older monstrous figure.

The film uses visual and emotional contrast effectively. Its most intense scenes are done in a black and white tile bathroom. Then you have the contrast of the two women’s appearances – ones this really bright, fun and sexy versus the body horror that becomes of the almost dead woman. 

Another instance of contrast comes in the very beginning shot of Elisabeth Sparkles Hollywood star – we see how over time she becomes disregarded in the people’s eyes because at first people are not stepping on her star out of respect but as time passes we see tons of people walking over it and there’s even this grotesque food spill over the star. This is very telling of her fate because of the great beauty and prestige of having a Hollywood star and then having someone make such a mess over it and evokes an emotional and visual contrast from the outset.  

The visuals are insanely thrilling because it’s about more than just making her look beautiful, it’s making the viewer become scared of this movie’s visuals in a way that you’re scared of what the movie is going to show you next. Director Fargeat sets up these scenes of close up shots early on of things that are seemingly normal but progressively get more disgusting preparing you for what this movie will become. Such as there’s this really disgusting eating scene with Elisabeth’s boss and he’s eating these shrimps and the shots are very zoomed in and it’s very grotesque and off putting. This is a way that tells the audience that this movie is going to show you horrors without restraint.  

This film does a social commentary on societal beauty standards and aging in an elevated way and uses the body horror genre to do so. Many times when watching shocking things happen that leaves you gasping and it has this crazy blood filled final act that some may say takes away from the movie’s message. However the story being told is something that many women can relate to – the fear of getting older and feeling less desirable is scary. 

Some may also call this film superficial in its portrayal of a woman going to great lengths to achieve youth and beauty but I think that’s an honest discussion to be had. We live in a beauty and youth obsessed world that leaves older people and especially women thinking where do they fit in this world if they do not have youth to offer anymore. 

Everything in this film is done with a purpose. Some may feel like it’s over the top in the way the women become animalistic in their pursuit of fame and beauty and how the men are these caricatures of misogynistic men. I think it’s done with the intention of making the audience feel unsettled and by becoming these caricatures of themselves is further making it more unhinged and removed from our reality. This makes the viewer feely deeply insecure and scared similar to how the main character Elisabeth feels and you then relate to those similar feelings of disgust, horror and insecurity 

As a viewer we see Demi Moore’s character and are quick to judge her actions and do not understand why she’s going down this path because we see her as beautiful even at 50 but that’s not the point. When she hears that the network wants someone younger and hotter to replace its a direct hit to her self-esteem especially on a milestone birthday where emotions are already higher which makes her feel that she’s old and not worthy. 

In an insecure character’s mind the only thing that matters is how much attention that she’s getting and maintaining this youth and beauty because that’s all she’s ever known. Aging in a society that does not value what comes with age and how age brings wisdom and experience is difficult. These things are not valued in this world. Elisabeth could enjoy being rich and living in her gorgeous apartment and having a great time and appreciate her age. She did not have to go down this path and what makes her descent into madness, extreme and horrifying is because this is what happens when you allow the outside world to not only define who you are as an individual but define what gives you value as a human being. If you let others define you, then you’re going to end up being this monstrous being as this end result. In the climactic end she is no longer herself, she’s mentally gone and has lost all her consciousness along the way.        

It’s easy to say that beauty standards do not affect you but deep down it can hurt you and those emotions of feeling less than can manifest inside you. People want to slow down the aging process and do procedures of botox or filler to maintain youth but some may go too far with it and distort their perception of themselves. Moore’s character does not know when to stop and pushes herself to a point of no return. Earlier in the movie she’s asked about wanting to stop the process but she just can’t despite calling Sue selfish as she continues to eat away at Elisabeth leaving her with this monstrous image. 

There are these emotional moments that balance the film’s more phantasmagoric scenes. For instance earlier in the movie we see that Sue enjoys the parties and the handsome men that come with fame and how she wants more time and starts to break the rules. And the first time she goes over the top, the next day Elisabeth’s finger is drastically old and withered. Elisabeth sees a note left by one of the men Sue was with. Then we see Elisabeth arrange for a date with someone from her past who earlier in the movie told her she’s still the prettiest girl he’s known – We get the sense that she is jealous of her younger counterpart and is wishing for someone to make her feel wanted again. She gets ready for the date but is constantly reminded of Sue and compares herself to her and we see her try different makeup styles and see her slowly lose her confidence. And as she was about to leave she sees this distorted reflection in the doorknob and gives up. 

This scene stood out for me as it’s very touching and real seeing Elisabeth try to get herself out there in the world again even if it’s just on a date but having those lingering thoughts of not being good enough just as you are. In another scene where Sue has gone 3 months over of just taking from Elisabeth, revealing a much older deformed and hairless hunchback version of herself.

When she sees this hideous new self she is mad and upset at how things have progressed since taking the substance. Later we see this moment of her bringing out this big blown up image poster of herself from before what has transpired that she once had hung up with pride in her apartment and now is looking at it with this distinct sadness as this now hunchback version of herself. 

It acts as a reminder to not take things for granted because before going on this journey of youth and beauty she was letting the outside world affect her and her self-image. She was not appreciated in her job and felt herself fading away and at her lowest point decided to take this substance. This is similar when people go overboard with filler and botox and do not know when to stop and then look back at old photos of themselves and wish they did things differently. The scene is quick yet effective in its portrayal of regret and to appreciate things as they are. 

This film’s commentary on society’s beauty standards and aging works with the help of Moore’s portrayal of Elisabeth’s toxic insecurities of needing to be seen as forever young made true by the culture that made her successful but is now blinded by that obsession. 

Since the release of the film, Director Fargeat has done interviews talking about what inspired her to write this movie. She talked about how when she turned 40 she felt like her life was collapsing and struggled with these chaotic thoughts. Fargeat said “I had this huge wave of: ‘My life is going to be over. I’m not going to be interesting anymore. No one is going to look at me anymore. My life is finished.’ I had those huge, violent thoughts that were so powerful that I said, ‘The time is now to do something with it.’” (IndieWire). 

And the now 48 year old director feels lighter and even somewhat liberated after making this movie. It’s definitely a freeing moment when you start to value who you are and know that you are worthy. It takes a great deal of effort to be able to sort out all these societal beauty pressures from yourself and to not listen to those voices in your brain that tell you otherwise.  

Famous American actress Bette Davis once said “Old age is no place for sissies”. This expression reminds you that aging is not a straightforward journey, it requires a willingness to confront the challenges of the progressing years. Trying to run from aging is a losing game and it’s best to confront it and learn to accept it. Choosing to age and be yourself is the most radical thing one can do.     

Overall, this movie is stylish and ruthless. Fargeat has made something unforgettable, she displays great talent and vision. Combined with Moore and Qualley’s show stopping performances, this movie is worth a watch. 

Muskaan Monique Dhillon is the Entertainment Reporter for DESIBUZZCanada. She is currently studying Communications at Simon Fraser University.