The Substance Review

The Substance is the second film from French director Coralie Fargeat. What she provided is the most stomach-churning film of 2024.

Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is a former movie star who has fallen on hard times. She’s 50 and seen as too old to front a breakfast TV aerobics show. When Elisabeth is at a low point she gets told by a rogue nurse (Robin Greer) that she is a perfect candidate to take ‘The Substance,’ a drug that can create a younger, perfect version of the former star. This duplicate becomes Sue (Margaret Qualley) and she quickly becomes a star, but she soon breaks the rules about using The Substance and feeds off Elisabeth’s life force.

The Substance premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, was nominated for the Palme d’Or, and won the Best Screenplay prize. The Substance is being distributed by Mubi in the UK and USA which gives the film a stamp of quality. The Substance has earned a lot of praise from critics and I saw it at Scream Unseen screening at my local Odeon with an audience who were engaged with the film, even when it became really disturbing.

Fargeat channelled the maculate framing of Stanley Kubrick, the shock of Darren Aronofsky, and the body horror disgust of David Cronenberg. That’s an incredible mixture and a big compliment for Fargeat to be compared to those directors. Like Kubrick, Fargeat’s work had a pristine look that emulated Kubrick’s work, especially scenes in the bathroom. The carpet in the TV studio did like look it was a homage to The Shining. Aronofsky has made provocative films and The Substance echoed some of them. Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan were particularly strong influences since The Substance was an addiction story where an older lady spirals and a woman’s internal conflict has a physical manifestation.

David Cronenberg has been seen as the master of body horror and Fargeat was able to compete with the Canadian director. I went into The Substance after having my dinner and that was a big mistake since I felt queasy throughout. The Substance had a couple of my triggers: eyeballs and needles. There was a lot of blood and guts and the film showed a drastic metamorphosis with Elisabeth turning into Gollum.

A more obscure comparison that can be made would be with the 1966 sci-fi film Seconds. In that film a middle-aged man gets an offer from a shadowy organisation that they could make him young again, but has to suffer the consequences.

On a surface level The Substance could be seen as a Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde or Nutty Professor story due to the different personalities forming, a serious one and one that could indulge in vices. The Nutty Professor was particularly apt since Elisabeth’s perfect doppelganger had all the fun but the original suffered all the consequences.

The “Jekyll and Hyde” style story was used as a springboard for The Substance’s wider themes. Elisabeth and Sue were technically the same person so their internal conflict ended up being an external one. One of the most obvious themes in the film was aging, how people try and fight against the aging process, and older people end up living in the shadow of young people. Outside Elisbeth/Sue’s apartment was a billboard for Sue’s show and it acted as a way for Sue to mock Elisabeth. Sue got to have all the fun and live the high life whilst Elisabeth became more of a recluse and the pair developed a hatred for each other and took spiteful actions against the other.

The focus on aging ties into The Substance’s satire of Hollywood in general. Hollywood is notorious for its treatment of older women who get pushed aside for the next young thing. Denis Quaid’s grotesque caricature of a TV executive showed someone who wanted to ditch Elisabeth for a younger woman. The opening shoot was effective at showing Elisabeth’s rise and fall as a star as it suffered from wear and tear over the years. Sue was constantly framed with a glossy sheen like she was in a Diet Coke ad and was seen as America’s Sweetheart which goes against her more devious nature. Hopefully, The Substance will be Qualley’s star-making role.

One of the most surprising things about The Substance was the humour. The trailers hide the fact that it was a dark comedy and it added a bit of levity to the gore and distress. It was a genuinely funny film.

The Substance was a great and daring film that was disgusting in a good way as well as offering social commentary and comedy.