I highly recommend this movie. There will be spoilers, so if you are interested, go to your local movie theater or watch it through the Mubi streaming service and enjoy this one-of-a-kind movie.
Following an aging star named Elisabeth Sparkle, “The Substance” illuminates the ugly truth about beauty, youth and perfection. The drug’s slogan is: “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? Younger, more beautiful, more perfect.”
The Substance, a freakishly lime liquid, makes a more perfect version of yourself. We see Elisabeth struggle with her confidence as she gets laid off from her acting job, and she confronts the idea that she is getting older. Although Demi Moore, who plays Elisabeth, is beautiful, the film highlights her age with both her make-up and her clothing. The classic bold, red lipstick paired with a somewhat outdated wardrobe is what we see Elisabeth in.
The directions of the pill are strict: inject the substance once, the younger you must stabilize by stealing the older-you’s materials, you must switch bodies each week and remember that you are one. The directions describe the older self as the matrix, which is alluded to throughout the film.
Sue, played by Margaret Qualley, emerges from Elisabeth’s body like a butterfly from a cocoon. No words can describe how horrifying this scene was, especially as this was the first glimpse into how grotesque this film will get. Instantly, Sue gets the same acting job that Elisabeth had and starts to be even more successful than her. This starts the feud between the two; Sue is living a better life than Elisabeth ever could because she is younger and prettier.
Eventually, Sue starts to stretch out the time that she can stay in control. Elisabeth experiences the consequences of this, as at first, her finger becomes dry and shriveled. One of the most memorable scenes from the movie comes after this. Elisabeth was preparing for a date with an old friend from high school, and as she was getting ready, she looked in the mirror. Something wasn’t right, so she adjusted her makeup. As she almost left, she went back to the mirror. She covered up a bit, adding a scarf to the outfit. It still wasn’t right. Upset, she started smearing her makeup across her face, to the point her cheeks were a dark red not from blush.
This scene was quiet, with only the sounds of the brush against her skin to the smacking of her hands across her face as she tried to fix the unfixable. That scene broke me, it’s the realest example of the horrors the movie is conveying, we cannot get fully comfortable with our individual beauty.
Another week her whole leg becomes withered. Elisabeth becomes enraged and locks herself in her apartment, living an enraged life and she watches Sue steal her life away from her. The only thing is that Elisabeth is Sue, yet she doesn’t realize that.
This echoes how we perceive our younger selves compared to now. We give up our health and safety to experience short-term pleasures like smoking, drinking or partying. Most things we do for pleasure come at a cost, but the cost only becomes apparent as we grow older. Our joints start to hurt, the amount of medication we need to take increases and we start to skip things we enjoyed doing because of physical pain, all because of the things we did as we were younger. Of course there are other factors, but the film perfectly captures the idea of our younger-self stealing life away for fleeting satisfactions.
Carrying on, Sue gets offered a big opportunity to host the upcoming New Year’s Eve event, and she takes it. However, this means she must be in control for months to prepare. As she steals more from Elisabeth’s lifeless body, which is how Elisabeth rapidly ages, it gets to a point where there is no more left. Without Sue’s ability to sustain herself, she must switch back. Elisabeth awakens as a rightfully angry, saggy yet mummified version of herself. In an attempt to claim her life back, she “kills” Sue. Elisabeth is relieved that now she is in control, but she realizes that she won’t ever live Sue’s life again and that she needs Sue to feel alive. In a desperate attempt, she tries to bring Sue back, which surprisingly works. In anger, Sue ultimately kills Elisabeth, which means the matrix is gone.
On her way to the New Year’s Eve special, Sue’s body starts to fall apart. Her teeth fall out and then her ear, so she runs back home and does something I was not expecting. Sue injects herself with the substance. My mind was racing with so many thoughts on what would spawn from her, will an even prettier version? Will it be distorted? Would it just be Elisabeth? In a slow reveal, we see an abomination of various body parts, ligaments and faces in multiple places appear in the mirror. I like to consider myself strong-gutted when it comes to gore or anything disgusting, but I almost threw up when I saw the monster named “Monstro Elisasue”.
The show must go on, and we see Elisasue stumble back to the New Year’s Eve event, getting ready to perform. When she appears on stage, she’s wearing a mask of Elisabeth, and once the mask slips off, everyone sees the true horror that is left of her. The movie starts to change its tone here, with it becoming more campy. People start screaming at her, calling her “ugly” and “monster” as she cries out, “It’s me.” As someone tries to kill her, we see that this new body can replenish itself as it grows a new head. However, it is unstable, and new body parts pop, squirting blood, and growing back, repeating this cycle. This scene reminded me of the prom scene from “Carrie,” where everyone was getting blood spewed all over them. Everyone is screaming, everyone is getting blood on them as Elisasue is spinning around on stage living her dream, star-life.
The last scene we see of Elisasue, she leaves and stumbles on the hard concrete ground, exploding her body leaving a little appendage with Elisabeth’s face on it grunting as it contorts itself to move around. At the very end, we see what is left of Elisabeth made it to her Hollywood Walk of Fame star, and she happily dissolves into it leaving a red stain. When morning comes, a worker comes by to clean it up. I also want to point out that everything including Elisasue was the last 15 minutes of the film, since it happened so suddenly it left me completely shocked.
There is so much symbolism in this movie that if I were to cover only what I noticed, this review would be longer than the movie itself. I think that is beautiful though, there are so many interpretations of both the little and big things in this movie people can walk away with different views. I saw this with a friend who thought this movie was sad while I thought it was relieving to see. Of course this topic is sad, but the fact that there is a movie about beauty standards was done in a terrifying way shows how disgusting and scary it can get, and I’m so thankful it was handled this way.
“The Substance” is a cinematic, horrifying film that captures several aspects of what it’s like being a woman: aging, constantly being perceived by looks, and the desire to be perfect. If you like body horror, too, then you can zone out from the meaning and enjoy the protagonist’s campy mutilation. No matter who you are and what your background is, you can take something from this movie and apply it to your personal experience.
“The Substance” deserves a 9.5/10 kernels.
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