Film SPOILER Review: The Substance
Film SPOILER Review: The Substance
Synopsis and commentary for a brilliant arthouse horror movie.
I loved this movie. It’s been a very long time since we’ve gotten a unique horror film that is artfully done, isn’t about some random cryptid or cult, and will make you think.
To say this was an experience would be the most accurate description. You don’t just watch this movie. You experience it.
This story follows Demi Moore’s character, Elisabeth Sparkle, as she navigates aging in Hollywood. I don’t want to say too much about this before the spoiler section because you really need to go into this movie somewhat blind to get the most out of it.
Directed and Written by Coralie Fargeat
Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and the amazing Dennis Quaid
Description: A fading celebrity decides to use a black-market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
I went into this movie only knowing 2 facts: it’s a horror about a black market drug, and it’s one of Demi Moore’s best performances. If you are interested in this movie, I recommend you save this review for later and go watch it first, or you’ll do yourself a disservice. Don’t worry, this review will be here when you get back! Watch the trailer if you like, but if you don’t, that would be even better.
It goes without saying that it IS a horror, so if you don’t like horror, just don’t. And if you won’t, feel free to read the spoilers.
With that out of the way, the following is my **SPOILER** synopsis and review of The Substance.Please do NOT read ahead if you don’t want spoilers— you have been warned! :)
The movie opens with someone injecting a raw egg yolk with a green solution. After a few seconds, the egg yolk divides, creating a second yolk along with the first, swimming in the same whites. Then it cuts to the creation of a star on the walk of fame for Demi Moore’s character Elisabeth Sparkle. It starts with the fresh concrete pour and care for its formation to years of use and abuse by people walking by, spilling on it, the weather, etc.
This was my immediate indication that the movie’s theme is not subtle. And I love that.
Elisabeth Sparkle is a famous Hollywood fitness personality, with a TV show reminiscent of Jane Fonda from the 80s.
After a recording session, Elisabeth runs to the bathroom, but finds the girls room out of service, so she runs into the men’s. While in the stall, Dennis Quaid’s character, “Harvey” (like I said, not subtle), bursts in while on the phone, talking about how old and gross Elisabeth has become and needs to be replaced. She hears the whole exchange in secret… but I don’t think she saw him NOT WASH HIS HANDS.
Later on, the two of them are at dinner, where the most misophonic sounds to assault the ears happens with closeups of Harvey eating shrimp with cream sauce. It was disgusting, but completely on point.
I thought it was interesting to see how disgusting he was acting while telling Elisabeth, the beautiful Demi Moore, that she wasn’t good enough anymore. Completely ironic, and sadly the state of double standards in Hollywood.
While these shots are technically “gross”, the film is shot in such an artistic and memorable way, with the use of color and sound.
As Elisabeth drives home, she’s distracted by one of her billboards being torn off—right over the face, of course—when she’s struck by another car. By a miracle, she makes it out of it completely unscathed, and the doctor tells her she’s good to go. As he tries to tell her happy birthday, she begins to cry so he leaves the room.
The male nurse stays behind and feels her spine (weird) and tells her she’d be a “good candidate.” Elisabeth also finds this weird, noticing the bright red birthmark on his wrist, then she leaves the hospital.
I can’t remember if this happens when she leaves either the set or the hospital, but she runs into an old friend who was in class with her in high school. He tells her that she’s still the most beautiful woman on the planet, and gives her his number (which falls into a puddle of dirty water).
At home, there is a large bouquet of roses with a note that tells her: You were great.
Elisabeth feels something in her pocket, and it is a thumb drive with “The Substance” labeled on it. She plays the video and it goes through a pitch asking if the viewer ever wanted a better, more perfect version of themself… then demonstrates with two yellow balls of clay how the drug can create this experience. The narrator ends by reminding the viewer to remember that you are still the same person, and claps the two yellow balls together.
You Are One
Elisabeth waffles a bit, but then decides to request The Substance. She is sent a card with the number “503” on it, and directions to go to an address in an alley. The alley is narrow and sketchy, full of trash and graffiti, with a small card reader on the wall with the logo for the substance (it looks like two yellow “D’s”). An aluminum door scrolls up halfway, forcing her to duck under it to get to the hall inside, which is equally filthy, until the very end.
At the end, there is a pristine white room with a handful of lockers, one of which is the one labeled “503.” She gets her package and goes home.
Inside the box are 4 vacuum-sealed bags with large cards containing instructions.
Activate once
Stabilize daily
Switch every 7 days without exception
Remember you are one.
She goes to the bathroom and stands naked in the mirror for a while before extracting the activator (which is the green substance). It’s very clear on the label to discard after use. She injects herself, with a very closeup shot of needle poking skin, then convulses on the floor.
THIS IS WHERE THE BODY HORROR BEGINS
The Substance creates a clone of her that bursts from her back. This is Margaret Qualley’s entrance into the movie. Once Elisabeth’s clone comes out, she passes out, and the clone stitches her up (more needles and skin). This is the image you see on the poster. There are some very prolonged nude shots from here on out while she examines herself in the mirror, and later on.
The clone leaves Elisabeth on the bathroom floor with a slow drip of a week’s worth of milky looking food source. She also has to do a spinal tap on Elisabeth to extract 7 days worth of spinal fluid to inject every day (stabilize). She figures this out when she starts bleeding from the nose and starts to feel terrible. After stabilizing herself, she declares her name to be “Sue.”
So Sue finds an ad for the role to replace Elisabeth, and immediately applies and gets the part. What follows is an insane fever dream of twerking, air humping, and undulating in the name of “exercise.”
Again, the movie is not subtle.
ANYWAY, to keep this succinct, the rules are for the women to switch every 7 days. One particular day, Sue takes an extra day and ends up aging Elisabeth’s finger. Elisabeth is furious, and goes out for coffee, running into an old man with the same bright red birth mark on his wrist as the male nurse that gave her the video. He asks her if “she’s taken more time from you” and waxes on about how she still matters. It flusters Elisabeth and she bolts from the cafe.
At home, she finds the phone number from her old friend and decides to meet up with him. Ultimately she stands him up because she can’t look at herself in the mirror without comparing herself to the huge billboard of Sue right outside her window. This is despite the fact that the man still finds her beautiful. This was so sad for me to see.
Elisabeth spends her 7 days being a couch potato, which frustrates Sue, who takes more and more time from Elisabeth, aging her. She gets to a point where she resembles an 80 year old, which infuriates her, causing her to trash the house. She calls the owner of the substance, who keeps reminding her there is no “you” and “her,” and that they are one and the same.
When Sue “wakes up” to see the mess, she withdraws so much spinal fluid from Elisabeth to last her for 3 months. During this time, she gets the spot to host the New Year’s Eve event, gets a boyfriend, and loses track of time. She also calls the owner of the substance to complain, who tells her the same thing he tells Elisabeth.
It’s interesting commentary to think that each version of herself is at war with the other, not understanding that they are the same person.
Sue doesn’t have enough fluid to get her through the New Year’s event, so her only option is to switch so the fluid can regenerate. Elisabeth is now hunched-over and haggard, completely aged. She calls the substance number and requests termination. He asks if she is sure, because what has been taken can’t be returned. Elisabeth agrees and gets the termination package.
All it contains is a big syringe full of dark black liquid that she begins to inject into Sue. Elisabeth stops midway, wanting to save the part of her that “everyone still loves.” She attempts to bring her back by switching, and Sue wakes up midway, with Elisabeth also still awake.
Sue attacks Elisabeth, and there is a long fight between them that Sue wins, leaving Elisabeth dead on the floor.
Sue gets ready for her event with her fancy blue dress. When she gets there, she starts losing teeth and other body parts, because she can not exist without Elisabeth. Sue rushes back home, getting out the EXPIRED activator to create a better clone of herself.
THIS IS WHERE IT GETS WILDLY UNHINGED
Out comes a Cronenberg nightmare. If you’ve ever seen the episode of Rick and Morty with the Love potion, that’s pretty much what we get.
The “Elisa-Sue” monstrosity is a creeping mess of random body parts, eyeballs, and Elisabeth’s face screaming on it’s back. It gets the blue dress on, which is pretty hilarious since the dress doesn’t fit—there are boobs poking out of it all over.
It takes the picture of Elisabeth, cuts out the face, and sticks it on like a mask, putting lipstick on the mouth of the picture before going back to the event.
When arriving to the event, it gets on stage, pleading with the crowd that it’s “still her” when she vomits up a boob. A member of the crowd screams, putting everyone in panic. A man hits her with a bludgeon, exploding her top half, which regenerates.
The next 5 minutes are her spraying blood from her body like a firehose into the crowd as everyone screams. The monster rushes outside and disintegrates, leaving only the disembodied and screaming Elisabeth face to slither over her star on the walk of fame and look into the sky with a deranged smile. She melts away and is swept up the next day by a street sweeper.
The End.
And that folks, is The Substance. It was weird, it was wild, and it was art. If you can believe it, I left a lot out due to the sheer length of the movie (about 2.5 hours). If you haven’t seen this and still chose to read this far, you should really go see the movie. There’s only so much I can type up in a Substack review.
Until next time!
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