By Seth Lukas Hynes
The Substance
Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid
R18+
4.5/5
Written and directed by Coralie Fargeat, The Substance is a bonkers, utterly brilliant sci-fi body horror film.
Ageing TV star Elisabeth Sparkles (Demi Moore) creates a younger version of herself named Sue (Margaret Qualley) through a macabre procedure, only for the process to spiral out of control.
The Substance is a repulsive but riveting film riddled with layered suspense, social commentary and pitch-black comedy.
Moore delivers a career-best performance of desperation, frustration with the status quo, and horror and resentment as the procedure goes awry, and Qualley is sexy and subtly sinister as Sue.
The film examines the commodification of women’s bodies and the extreme idolisation of youth in popular media, with Dennis Quaid as Elisabeth/Sue’s theatrical, slimy boss Harvey, but also how some women tear each other down instead of supporting each other, with Sue figuratively cannibalising her older self to maintain her youth.
The Substance is 140 minutes long but doesn’t feel like it, weaving Sue’s growing career, the mutating Elisabeth’s helplessness and the strict rules and grotesque side-effects of the procedure into a tight, brisk but gut-wrenching ride.
The Substance features phenomenal prosthetics, gore effects and creature design, along with deep, damp sound design that turns eating or a kiss squirmingly unpleasant.
Needless to say, The Substance is extremely graphic, but the explicit content serves a calculated narrative and thematic purpose.
The climax may be a little over-the-top (and that’s saying something), but it’s still a glorious Carrie-like crescendo of Harvey’s objectifying industry reaping what it sowed.
For more biopunk media like this, check out the films Antiviral, eXistenZ and Repo Men and the video games Wrought Flesh and Cruelty Squad.
Almost like if David Cronenberg directed a feminist Gremlins, The Substance is playing in select Victorian cinemas.
