From its ominous, reverberating house-music score to its crazy logic to it going from partial Cronenberg to full Cronenberg, THE SUBSTANCE (2024) is an an over-the-top ride into obsession with glamor and the price this imposes. Starring Demi Moore giving it her all and then some, with Margaret Qualley killing it as her counterpart, this movie was a lot of fun to watch and a breath of fresh air for moviegoers looking for something new and different in a theater experience.
In this story, Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore) is an aging actress currently hosting an aerobics workout show. The head of the network (Dennis Quaid laying it on thick as a smarmy and piggish Hollywood type) wants someone younger and more attractive to take over the show, and fires her on her fiftieth birthday. This sends Elisabeth into a downward spiral of feeling old, irrelevant, and washed up, but there is hope: A young medical intern tells her about The Substance, a black-market drug that allows you to create a younger version of herself. It works, but of course there’s a rule, which is both women must remember they are the same person and live in balance, and of course if the rule is broken there is a cost.
Thematically, the message is obvious: Hollywood and the glamor industry create an idealized image of beauty with pressure to achieve it at any cost to remain alive and relevant. Otherwise, the film explores the antagonism between those whose youth is fading and the young who want to make their own mark on the world. The way this is told is part sci-fi, part urban fantasy, and part horror, with a heavy lean on the horror, particularly the body horror type. The story is powered by its over-the-top, overstimulating visuals and snappy pace, making Elisabeth for me someone I sympathized with but had a hard time empathizing with, which I guess is the point, as she’s a walking caution sign and blind to the cost of what she’s doing. By the end, as I said, the body horror enters the grotesque and gross-out realm of the Cronenberg with a last act that dragged a little for me but it utterly gonzo, wrapping with a nice horrifying final image. The film has a punchy, angry, raw, unsettling, and unapologetic feel.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with THE SUBSTANCE and would happily recommend it. Whether you wind up liking it or not, I think you’ll find it a pretty wild ride.