I love a good horror film, and I’ll be honest, when I saw the trailer for The Substance I didn’t really think that much of it. I didn’t expect I’d go see it, and other than that it was a new movie starring Demi Moore, and Dennis Quaid, whom you don’t see in cinema releases all the time anymore, it didn’t really jump out at me.
There’s probably something to say about the marketing of the film not really doing the movie justice, or that the stylised presentation of the movie not really lending itself to a trailer that would highlight it’s best features, but…
The Substance is probably the best horror movie I’ve seen in the last few years, and up there as a contender for the best movie I’ve seen in 2024. Directed by Coralie Fargeat, it’s bold and shocking and engaging throughout.
So, if the trailer didn’t appeal to me, how come I saw it? Well, as a current subscriber to Odeon Cinema’s unlimited pass that lets you see as many films as you’d like in a month for a set cost, I will regularly check out what is coming on each week. And I gather that this programme has been going a while, but I’d never heard of their Scream Unseen programme until I saw it advertised. The programme is that you get to see what they described as a five star horror movie before it’s official release date, and the only catch is that they don’t tell you what the movie is before you arrive and are sat in your seat watching the opening credits roll.
This is actually a genius marketing tactic as the theatre was near sold out and it meant that I was now watching this film when the trailer had failed to capture my attention. It also meant the was a much richer and more enthused atmosphere as everyone felt part of seeing something unexpected and exciting. And you can be sure that everyone will have left the cinema and spread news of the movie through word of mouth of this shocking film they didn’t know they were about to watch.
But, enough about the Scream Unseen programme, and let’s get onto the movie itself.
The Substance is about a celebrity named Elizabeth Sparkle, who is played by Demi Moore, and it’s about the lengths she goes to, to overcome her fading star as a result of her getting older.
The film is filled with commentary on celebrity and fame, and how shallow people are, but this is done through some very in your face and over the top characters and is so blatant that it actually never felt preachy to me. Chiefly, this is done by a TV Executive played by Dennis Quaid who must have had a whale of a time playing such an over the top slime ball who acts disgusted at Elizabeth because of her age (even though he’s at least as old as Demi Moore) and who continually lusts towards Elizabeth’s younger replacement. Speaking of which…
The film is almost a combination of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, combined with The Nutty Professor and Death Becomes Her with a significant dash of The Thing thrown in…so, yeah, quite a concoction there.
The premise is that Elizabeth is offered the opportunity to regain her youth form a mysterious and obviously shady company that offer ‘the substance’ which is an injection that causes a new and younger version of yourself to grow inside you rapidly and then burst out of your back like a xenomorph from Alien. The younger version is of course played by Margeret Qualley. The original version of you is then inactive whilst your mind is in the body of the younger version. There are strict instructions that you have to follow to stitch up the back of the older version and then connect it to a week’s supply of food fed through a cannula, and each day the younger version has to inject themselves with a stabiliser which is basically spinal fluid taken from the dormant older body.
This process is shown in graphic detail in the film and is a really explicit body horror movie as a result. The film isn’t actually that scary in terms of jumps or even sense of danger or threat, but uses uncomfortable to watch scenes and constant squelchy sounds to make you turn away from the screen.
Now in the younger body Elizabeth names herself Sue and gets her old job back, but it isn’t plain sailing as the way the substance works is that the younger and older bodies have to swap back every seven days, and there’s no exceptions about this without there being consequences.
I’ll not go deep into spoilers for what transpires from here but in the same sense as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde or The Nutty Professor, it soon becomes the case that the two different versions of Elizabeth/Sue start to resent each other even though its made clear again and again in the film that they are a single person and not two separate entities.
The film is really well written and acted, and is really bold in it’s style and how far it pushes the on screen graphicness of just about everything it shows from squelchy body horror, nudity, violence and over the top characters.
The most shocking thing about the movie for me is how much the trailer doesn’t do it justice. I think the mystery film aspect of the screening I went too will do a lot for this film as I’m certain from the reactions I saw as I left the cinema that this was a film that people will be talking about and left a mighty impression on those who see it.
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