By now, you’ve probably heard of The Substance. Coralie Fargeat’s second feature film has catapulted her to stardom, thanks to its hyperbolic story, jaw-dropping visuals, and a cast of actresses giving their all. There are already rumours that Demi Moore will receive an Oscar nomination for her brilliant portrayal of Elizabeth Sparkle, a role in which she lays herself bare and confronts one of society’s greatest fears: ageing. This is a film where insecurity, body issues, the cult of eternal youth, and superficiality are pushed to the extreme. The result is a wild, eccentric, tense, yet humorous film that stretches you to your limits—and one you simply can’t miss.
It all begins with Elizabeth Sparkle, a former Hollywood star who once reached the pinnacle of success and even won an Academy Award. Now, she hosts her own TV fitness programme (clearly inspired by Jane Fonda), until she’s unceremoniously fired by Harvey (played by Dennis Quaid), the network’s director. This dismissal takes place in one of the film’s most grotesque and disgusting scenes (though nothing compared to the body horror awaiting us over the next two hours) as he devours prawns, splattering juice everywhere. It’s important here to take a moment to highlight the brilliant cinematography of The Substance, which masterfully employs extreme close-ups and detail shots (Demi Moore staring into a mirror, a fly drowning in a glass, needles ripping through flesh) that are as violent as the plot itself.
Following this devastating news, Elizabeth’s world collapses, and she spirals into a dark place. After miraculously surviving an accident, she comes across an illegal drug that offers an irresistible promise to a woman whose life and career are built almost entirely on her appearance: “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? The Substance generates another you. A new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect, you.” Initially sceptical, Elizabeth gives in and tries it. That’s where the true horror begins (self-loathing, degradation, and despair, but also a dazzling second chance, as brilliant as Hollywood’s spotlights and cardboard backdrops).
From Elizabeth is born Sue (played by Margaret Qualley), a version of herself with taut skin, hypnotic blue eyes, perky tits, a dazzling smile, and a feigned innocence that soon makes her America’s new sweetheart. Thanks to Sue, the actress and fitness instructor is back on top. But there’s a catch: this new half (“Remember, you are one,” insists the mysterious voice behind The Substance) is ambitious and unstoppable, always eager for more. For this weird symbiosis to work, Elizabeth and Sue must switch bodies every seven days; otherwise, the matrix (Elizabeth) will suffer irreversible consequences. That’s as much as I can reveal.
Coralie Fargeat’s film horrifies us with its gory visuals but, more importantly, it gets under our skin with the message it conveys: the absurdity of today’s beauty standards, especially in Western society, and the pressure on women to remain eternally youthful, battling against the inevitable passage of time. In 2024, with our growing obsession over image and body (fuelled in part by constant exposure on social media), beauty treatments such as Botox, fillers, and hair transplants have become commonplace. The Substance works like a chapter of Black Mirror, holding up a mirror to our world through extreme examples. Fiction, after all, is a tool to explore the reality we live in.
Demi Moore herself delivers the performance of her career, constantly fighting against the expectations imposed by the male gaze, the film industry, and society at large. It’s almost paradoxical that she’s turning sixty-one in less than a month, yet in the film, she portrays a fifty-year-old woman—believably, of course. I saw a comment online noting that Moore is nearly the same age as Betty White when The Golden Girls began (just two years younger). It’s a perfect example of what’s happening: back in the 1980s, a sixty-year-old looked ‘old’ and was perceived as a granny. Nowadays, people can look and act much younger than their age.
For those of us who grew up surrounded by women, especially during our teenage years, the extreme obsession with body image is nothing new. And even more so for those of us raised in the 2000s, when bulimia and anorexia were tragically common (and still affect thousands of girls today far more than boys). From puberty, or even earlier, girls are bombarded with messages about altering their bodies: push-up bras for bigger breasts, makeup to hide ‘imperfections’, diets to stay thin—it never stops. The Substance offers a ‘solution’ that answers to these prayers rooted in self-hatred.
The psychological pressure to meet these unattainable standards means that women are often the first to succumb to anything promising improvement. Alarmingly, we now see Gen Alpha girls (born from 2010 onwards, raised under Instagram’s watchful eye) frequenting Sephora and adopting ten-step skincare routines even before hitting adolescence. We’ve also seen celebrities losing drastic amounts of weight by using Ozempic, a drug intended for diabetes treatment. Perhaps we’re not ready for a younger, ‘more perfect’ version of ourselves that drains our life force—yet. But that addiction to looking good, receiving compliments, and feeling on top of the world is something we can all relate to in a society that increasingly fuels our insecurities.
