'The Substance' is a Furious Injection of Grotesque Body Horror and White-Hot Rage Towards Women's Beauty Standards [Review]

​Rage. That’s what so many women feel when a man tells them to “smile more”. When they’re told they’re “not pretty enough”. When society claims aging makes them monsters. Screw all of that, says Coralie Fargeat, the writer/director behind 2018’s pulse-pounding Revenge, as she boils that white-hot anger down into two-plus hours of feminine fury with The Substance, a body-horror film that tears ridiculous beauty standards to pieces. Bold. Intense. At once horrific and brimming with absurd humor. It is unlike anything else you will see this year, and firmly cements Fargeat as one of the most exciting filmmakers of our time.
 
Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) has just been fired from her decades-running fitness show, and on her birthday of all days. Told by her boss and network exec, Harvey (Dennis Quaid) that she’s too old and therefore not “hot” enough anymore, Elisabeth hits rock bottom. So low, in fact, that after a chance encounter leads her to a black-market drug dubbed The Substance, one that promises to turn her into a more perfect version of herself, she throws caution to the wind and injects the Re-animator-green fluid. Presto Chango, a younger self is born in Sue (Margaret Qualley). But there’s a catch. Elisabeth and Sue must switch places every seven days without exception. Obsessed with being young again, Elisabeth disregards the rules, discovering that the longer she remains as Sue, the more dire consequences she faces.
 
Everywhere you turn in society, you see anti-aging creams, ads for plastic surgery, drugs that promise youth and vitality…a world that treats getting older like a disease. Especially if you’re a woman. In The Substance, we meet Elisabeth Sparkle, a beloved star in her heyday, with a spot on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to prove it. Having just turned fifty, she’s still beautiful. Still fit. And most importantly, still herself. But that isn’t good enough for her boss Harvey or the cabal of lecherous old men that are the network’s shareholders. During Elisabeth’s firing and throughout, Fargeat aims to make the point that Harvey and the other men are not just old but revolting. Disgusting slobs who ignore Elisabeth and fawn over Sue with undressing eyes. We’re put in the shoes of a talented woman pushed out of the spotlight simply for aging, while talentless men like Harvey are allowed to remain in power regardless of age because they are not held to the same absurd beauty standards. Distant framing in The Shining-inspired hallways lets us feel Elisabeth’s loneliness in a world that no longer loves her (and never really did). Vibrant colors contrast against the sterile white of her bathroom where she spends half the film, emphasizing the fading joy of her life. Her apartment filled with memories of the stardom she’s so desperate to reclaim.

​Enter Sue. Younger. Livelier. “Hotter” by a patriarchal society’s standards. Ripped straight from the body of Elisabeth—in what is one of many moments of nauseating body-horror—they are one, as the creators of The Substance frequently remind them. With her youthful body, Sue manages to get a job as the network’s host of a new fitness show, replacing Elisabeth and gifted a billboard directly facing the apartment to remind them both of that fact. Though they are one, they are each other’s nemesis. The Substance is a searing commentary on how women are made to feel about their bodies, but it’s also a vicious rumination on the internal battle so many encounter with age. We wish to be young again with our lives ahead of us, mocked by the mere image of our younger self…an obsession that threatens to destroy who we’ve become in an effort to be who we once were. Her character full of rage towards a world that has all but forgotten her, Moore embodies an intense ferocity that is alternatively frightening and tragic, while Qualley imbues her scenes with a hypnotic electricity that could shock Frankenstein’s Monster back to life. Both actresses deliver one of the most daring performances of their careers, raw and unafraid and stunning in their portrayals.
 
Shot and edited with the fast-paced adrenaline of a fitness show, The Substance is over two hours of screaming fury that would sooner tear your throat out than slow down on its way to an utterly mad conclusion (Fargeat can once again claim one of the bloodiest finales of the year). The body horror reflects that madness, an amalgamation of all the greats blended with Fargeat’s visual ferocity. It has the slimy nastiness of Yuzna. The visceral intensity of Cronenberg. The bizarre camp of Henenlotter. Through a series of grotesque special makeup effects, Fargeat gives an infuriated middle finger to a society that decides a woman’s worth on her beauty.  Aging does not make us monsters, but others can make it feel like it does, represented by Elisabeth’s horrific changes, a woman who can no longer see herself as beautiful because the world says so. Flesh is warped. Heaps of gore are spewed. And there are more rubbery prosthetic breasts than even Frankenhooker provides. The beauty standards women are held to are absurd, therefore The Substance becomes absurd, mocking what a shallow society we are…and garnering quite a few laughs on top of the terror in the process.
 
Painful. Sickening. Violent and stunning and even silly at times, The Substance is a film that doesn’t test boundaries, but smashes through them. Revolting gore and bizarre camp will have many running for the doors screaming or stumbling out, disgusted. In no way is this a film for everyone. That doesn’t make it any less of a body-horror masterpiece that dares you to look it in the eye and see the horror of women’s beauty standards that it reflects. The filmmaker came out swinging with her debut film, but The Substance cements Coralie Fargeat as one of the most exciting and bold filmmakers of our time. Inject it into your veins and enjoy the experience.

The Substance screams into theaters September 20th from Mubi. 

By Matt Konopka