Rarely do you see such a graphic body horror movie take the world by storm. I mean, if someone told me that this type of a thing would be in the mainstream I flat out wouldn’t believe them. Then again, stranger things have happened. So, let’s see what we really have here. Loaded with black humor, nudity, and extremely graphic scenes, The Substance is a provocative body horror exploring the familiar theme of aging. It’s about a fading TV host who stumbles upon a black market drug that can help her be younger. However, as it inevitably happens, this drug comes with some dire and dangerous consequences.
Nudity, lots and lots of nudity! There, that got your attention. And mine too, don’t get me wrong. Nudity is a huge reason why The Substance became such a popular movie among mainstream viewers. Not only was Demi Moore willing to do full-frontal nudity at the age of 59 but so was Margaret Qualley, who was 29 years old. This is where the story from the movie breaks the fourth wall and invades reality. There are many layers to this, starting with the obvious one as women in their late fifties are not expected to get nude. And this is something that’s considered controversial all the while we love seeing young girls completely naked.
The second obvious layer is the fact that Demi is not your “average-looking” 59-year-old woman. Then again, she’s not only an actress who dedicated her life to looking as good as possible but that’s also her character in this movie. Plans within plans to clumsily quote Bene Gesserit sisters from Dune Part Two. Hand in hand with these thought-provoking concepts we have alluring and sleek visuals. Every scene is carefully set up like it’s straight out of a graphic novel. Somebody storyboarded the shit out of this movie, that’s for sure. For example, Dennis Quaid’s character, who’s a big asshole, at one point, purses his lips to blow cigarette smoke and they look like an actual asshole.
Despite the longish running time of two hours and fourteen minutes, the quality never drops off. The cinematography was simply gorgeous and the sets even better. The music videos have a distinctly glossy 2000s vibe bolstered by the eighties apparel, a match made in heaven. I expected nothing less from director Coralie Fargeat after her first hit, the tense and bloody 2017 thriller Revenge. Who else than the French should bring this type of imagery to Hollywood? I oftentimes talk about the New French Extremity, a wave of intelligent and visually jarring movies like Martyrs and Inside. This brings me to my favorite part of The Substance and those are the good old gruesome practical effects.
Visceral and highly impactful, the team led by Pierre-Olivier Persin created something that’s going to stay with you long after the movie is over. In fact, if you’re squeamish, you might find these parts of the movie repulsive and hard to watch. I especially liked the fact that they avoided CGI like plague, focusing their efforts on extremely believable prosthetics. Moreover, everything is happening in brightly lit rooms and not shadows or out-of-focus faraway places. This combination of shocking visuals and thought-provoking concepts also appears in the underrated eighties gem Society. I highly suggest you check it out if you liked this combo along with 2021’s Titane by the French director Julia Ducournau.
Even Margaret Qualley’s breasts are indeed prosthetics and so are many other body parts on the display here. She was brilliant as Sue, playing her role pitch-perfect. And the same goes for Demi Moore who got the role after Fargeat read her autobiography where she talked about her relationship with aging, beauty standards, and her body. I would also like to mention 70-year-old Dennis Quaid who gave a phenomenal performance as the sleazy producer Harvey. Everybody’s talking about Tom Cruise not aging but what about Dennis? Wait a minute, a sleazy producer named Harvey, that sounds a bit familiar?
Well, I thought this was going to be a relatively short review/recommendation but I guess this is that type of a movie. There are three more things I want to talk about and the first one of them is the delightful black humor. Almost every scene is laced with cynicism and tactful black humor somewhat defusing the shocking visuals. Secondly, The Substance never delves too deep into the thought-provoking concepts it explores. A lot of the things remain pretty vague and unexplained. The thing I found most confusing was the question of consciousness.
The transfer of consciousness, to be more precise and there’s a whole Reddit thread delving deep into this topic. Finally, we have the exploration of addiction. The Substance works like any other drug and both the craving and the grave consequences of its use are accurately depicted. Everything culminates in one hell of a finale that appears to have been too much for most of the viewers. I loved it, though, I loved every last unconformable and jaw-dropping second of it. Especially the eye/breasts part which was the cherry/nipple on the top.
Director: Coralie Fargeat
Writer: Coralie Fargeat
Cast: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Hugo Diego Garcia, Gore Abrams, Oscar Lesage
Fun Facts: Believe it or not but MUBI is the main distributor for The Substance after it took the Cannes Film Festival by storm. Universal Pictures originally wanted to distribute the movie through their company Working Title but they backed away after learning just how visceral and graphic it is.
Rating:
IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17526714/
