Spoiler Alert: The following piece contains information and commentary about the plot of “The Substance.”
What makes a movie groundbreaking? By no means do I consider myself a film connoisseur, but I know a movie has something special when it leaves me thinking about it for days in its wake. I saw Coralie Fargeat’s, “The Substance” over a week ago, and I still find myself jumping at any opportunity to rave about this film to willing listeners.
“The Substance” follows ex-Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Sparkle’s desperate struggle to reclaim the love she was once showered with at the peak of her career. The spiral begins when 50-year-old Elizabeth, portrayed by Demi Moore, is swiftly kicked off her daytime fitness TV show by network executives seeking a younger replacement. Elizabeth then finds the Substance: a neon-green injection that promises physical perfection.
Upon administration, the Substance initiates a horrific metamorphosis. The film sequence of Elizabeth’s first injection is rich with stomach-churning physical effects and an intense musical score. Electronic music crescendos as Elizabeth’s spine splits to emit a young, beautiful alternate named Sue. The Substance only comes with the single instruction that “you are one,” meaning that both Elizabeth and Sue must follow a strict schedule of taking the injection every seven days. While one body is active, the other must be connected to a feeding tube until the week is up.
Sue, portrayed by Margaret Qualley, quickly rises to star status by taking over Elizabeth’s fitness guru position. She becomes America’s sweetheart and the golden image of all beauty standards. Fargeat intelligently utilizes dazzling montages to emphasize the overt sexualization of Sue as a public figure. In an interview with “Hammer to Nail,” the director states that these seemingly glamorous shots “represent how the gaze can chop us up into body parts. Often, that can be our only way to exist. That can be what puts us at the center of attention.
For Sue, that is the tool she uses because that is the only one she really knows.” These scenes highlighting Sue’s sexualization delivers horror just as flawlessly as some of the more outright grotesque moments in the film.
Ultimately, the tension in “The Substance” hits its peak once it is clear that the balance the injection demands is psychologically impossible for both Elizabeth and Sue to achieve.
Elizabeth’s deep rooted insecurity increases her craving for the validation that Sue effortlessly receives, causing her further torment from the pressure of beauty standards. Similarly, Sue’s obsession with youthfulness motivates her refusal to switch back into Elizabeth’s body as per the instructions of the Substance.
Every time Sue’s body remains active for more than seven days, Elizabeth’s body rapidly decays as punishment for neglecting the balance. Elizabeth fails to remember the single rule of “you are one” and does not recognize Sue’s actions as an extension of her own abuse of the Substance.
By the conclusion of the film, the two bodies have morphed into a Frankenstein-esque character dubbed “Elisasue.” In an interview with “Vulture,” Fargeat describes this final form as a “Picasso of male expectations.”
“Elisasue” is a hodgepodge of body parts thrown together into one monstrous figure that is anything but dainty and feminine. This being juxtaposes the physical perfection both Elizabeth and Sue fought so hard to achieve and is the ironic result of pushing their bodies to the limit of immortal beauty.
The true genius of “The Substance” is how clear it is in its messaging. Fargeat highlights the total brutality of female beauty standards by pairing it with shocking gore that refuses to spare the audience. She states that her ultimate goal in the explosive finale sequence was “to externalize the violence that I feel all those gazes and this beauty pressure puts on us.”
When viewing this movie in theaters, I watched four different audience members exit the screening at different points in the film. I found myself nauseated by certain scenes, but that plunged me into an even deeper admiration for Fargeat’s work.
It is no secret that the horror movie genre is dominated by male directors and screenwriters. This industry standard makes it increasingly difficult to produce a mainstream yet compelling horror movie focused on female-centric issues. Not only did “The Substance” impress me as a horror fan, it left me grappling with the uncomfortable reality about the social perception and treatment of female bodies.
More often than not, older female bodies tend to be concealed from the media as a whole. With this messaging, many women adopt the perspective that aging is an unavoidable curse that steals away self-worth.
Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” effectively functions as a blaring red alarm on this social issue. The extremity of the film certainly makes for a difficult watch, but it is a justified call to action. After all, the reality of beauty standards is just as grotesque.