‘The Substance’: Outstanding Feminist Body Horror Never to be Forgotten [TIFF 2024 Review]
Body horror is a term we throw around a lot these days, and it’s beginning to lose its meaning. Any bodily harm or run-of-the-mill gore, I suppose, can be seen as body horror on some level. But the subgenre is so much more than we’ve been giving it credit for in recent memory. David Cronenberg destroying human DNA in The Fly or the viscerally rotten shunting sequence seen in Society, the 80s was a flaking, dripping, and gaping playground to push the emotional and visual boundaries of what body horror really is. While the new millennium ushered in a grisly nastiness in its gore, genuine and thoughtful body horror took a back seat in favor of different system shocks. Well, no longer. Coralie Fargeat has triumphantly returned with The Substance, her brilliant sophomore film that will leave an immortal mark on the horror subgenre and cinema as a whole.
Fargeat’s astounding new film concerns one woman facing the unforgiving reality of being an aging femme celebrity in show business. Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is a household name at the end of a phenomenal career. It all comes crashing down around her when she overhears an executive (Dennis Quaid) declaring his intention to fire her in favor of finding someone younger. Lost, desperate, and abandoned, Elisabeth crosses paths with a mysterious product, The Substance, that promises to induce the absolute perfect version of herself.
Watching the world she worked so hard to build crumble around her because of sexist pigs and the constantly changing goalposts of modern beauty standards, Elisabeth calls the discreet number she’d secured for the elusive treatment. She finds herself in a secret underbelly of Los Angeles with detailed instructions. The cautionary tale element of the film starts here, and a keen audience will be sure that all rules are meant to be broken, no matter how frightening the consequences.
Soon, Sparkle endures the treatment, which has her collapsing naked in her pristine bathroom. That’s when we are treated to the truly horrific image of her back slitting open. Out comes a younger, tighter, and brighter version of herself by means of some hellish reverse-birth. And out Margaret Qualley appears onto the bloodied white-tiled floors, taking on the mantel of fresh Elisabeth. But there’s a catch. The two women must change places every seven days. Or else.
First of all, and most importantly, the dual performances of Moore and Qualley are nothing short of genius. The dance between their ingenue and crone archetypes climax into the nastiest ballet you’ve ever seen. As the fantasy of Qualley’s Elisabeth grows, Moore’s horrors boil to a point of unimaginable lunacy. They are both delivering world-class performances worthy of award-season dominance. The only reason either woman will be ignored is the industry’s shallow disregard for genre. And, while they both demand the screen like lightning bolts, it’s Moore who delivers the performance of a lifetime with her vulnerability, strength, and downright insanity. Her supporting role on Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans earlier this year was a brief glimpse into her current renaissance, but she’s nothing short of brilliant in The Substance.
If anything displayed in this film somehow outshines Moore, it’s the outstanding direction and writing wielded by the visionary Coralie Fargeat. Her cult favorite Revenge left a permanent mark of its own a few years ago, but The Substance signals the arrival of one of the most exciting filmmakers of all time. The stylish agony of this body horror nightmare is all the more informed by its sturdy and nuclear throughline and thesis.
This is a bloody and bruised takedown of Hollywood’s brutal—and ultimately deadly—beauty standards and their enormous impact on women. But be warned, the ways Fargeat executes her point are absolutely not for the faint of heart. The final act of this film is one of the most shocking and downright stunning theatrical experiences I have ever had the pleasure of enduring. The Substance is a stone-cold classic that will never be forgotten.
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The Substance
Summary
A putrid and nauseating takedown of Western society’s impossible to achieve beauty standards, Coralie Fargeat’s ‘The Substance’ has likely emerged as the best and most important horror movie of the year. An instant classic.
