The Substance Review: Confronting the horrors of being a woman in the 21st Century

18/11/2024

Edie Bell-Brown (she/her) explores the intersection of feminism and fear in The Substance.

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By Edie Bell-Brown

The Substance (2024), directed by French director Coralie Fargeat, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, is a feminist fable in the form of a satirical body-horror that explores the turmoil and tribulations of modern womanhood. Achieving ‘Best Screenplay’ at Cannes Film Festival, the film has sparked a lot of attention and raised many thought-provoking questions on social media, but is it all it’s hyped up to be?

Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is a former Hollywood-star and is now the host of an aerobics show. When she turns 50, Elisabeth’s titular ‘sparkle’ goes out and she is fired by her boss Harvey, played by Dennis Quiad (the name here being a rather explicit reference to Harvey Weinstein). In a desperate attempt to retain her former glory, Elisabeth decides to take ‘The Substance’, a black market youth serum which promises to create a ‘better, more beautiful, more perfect’ version of herself. After injecting herself with the alarmingly neon-green liquid, ‘the other’, Sue (Margret Qualley), is born by tearing out of Elisabeth’s back. Sue embodies the Hollywood dream: she is young, beautiful, charming – the perfect replacement for the discarded Elisabeth as a new fitness instructor. However, Sue’s growing success eats away at Elisabeth and her sense of self diminishes. As the rules of ‘The Substance’ are broken, things begin to go horrifyingly wrong.

The acting and casting of The Substance is exceptional. Demi Moore gives a career-best performance as Elisabeth Sparkle, whose character’s journey in the industry undeniably mirrors that of Moore herself. In my opinion, the most powerful scene in the film sees Elisabeth getting ready for her date with fan/former classmate Fred, in a desperate attempt for some sort of connection. Yet, when she looks into the mirror and realises it is not Sue staring back at her but her own ageing reflection, this triggers a spiral of insecurities. Similarly, the casting choice of Margaret Qualley is obvious, but nonetheless brilliant, as Qualley – daughter of actress Andie McDowell – is one of Hollywood’s favourite nepo-babies. Dennis Quiad’s perfectly slimy portrayal of Harvey serves as a caricature of all that is rotten and corrupt in the entertainment industry. One of the most grotesque scenes of the film is a close up shot of Harvey disgustingly stuffing his face with shrimp, representing the harsh reality of Hollywood’s tendency to chew up and spit out actresses once they are, in his words, “past their prime of 25.”

Fargeat has undeniably crossed new boundaries into the underrepresented genre of body-horror, successfully creating something so cinematically beautiful and moving, yet full of gore (and a soundtrack good enough for the clubs). Whilst she makes clear visual nods to countless classic horror films of the 80s, such as The Shining, The Fly and Psycho (to name a few), Fargeat spins a Kubrick/Lynch-inspired modern twist to show the real-life horrors of being a woman in contemporary society. The Substance is a cautionary tale about the dangers of sexism and ageism within Hollywood.

The Substance does touch upon Hollywood’s unattainable beauty standards, masculine gaze and its obsession with youth, yet I feel that it fails to explore these themes beyond a surface level. Perhaps the film would have been more powerful in conveying its message as an hour-long Black Mirror-esque television episode instead of a two and a half hour comedy/body-horror. I felt that where the film went wrong was the last act; it went on far to long to the point where it felt tiresome and repetitive. As the visuals became more chaotic and as things began to fall apart, the scenes felt both terrifying and comedic, to the point where it felt as if the film struggled to find the balance between the satire and the serious. These constant tonal shifts took away from the film’s powerful message concerning just how far women will go to fit into Hollywood’s beauty standards. Whilst the film successfully achieves a shock-factor due to its extravagantly graphic and grisly visuals (impressively, 70 to 80 percent of what is seen on screen is not CGI), the comedic undertones seem to overshadow the deeper meaning of The Substance. So, whilst the film is trying to show how there is nothing scarier than being a woman in the 21st century, this message is turned into sardonic laughing stock.

Despite my issues with the film, beneath all the blood, gore and laughter, The Substance offers a refreshing female perspective into the darker side of the entertainment industry and the destructive impacts it can have upon women. The relationship between Elisabeth and Sue is what I found most interesting and added a depth to the film; the unknown voice of ‘The Substance’ continually reminds us that Sue and Elisabeth are ‘one’ and share a consciousness. Even when they feel like two completely separate characters, they are trapped in a circular, parasitic relationship. Their dynamic is coded like a mother-daughter relationship: they are dependent on each other for survival, but this dependency breeds resentment. The Substance provokes us to look at the way we perceive ourselves and others within society, where our identity and sense of self worth is based on the eyes that look at us through a camera or a mobile phone, rather than what we see in the mirror. Overall, Fargeat successfully achieves something rare: a critique of Hollywood wrapped in a blood-soaked and visually stunning package.