Writer/Director Coralie Fargeat set the bar high for herself in 2017, with her debut feature Revenge delivering a visceral, feminine twist to the rape-revenge thriller that climaxed in an epic bloodbath. So much that it seemed nearly impossible to top. Yet the filmmaker does just that with sophomore effort The Substance, transforming a familiar concept into something so entertaining and grotesquely over the top that it keeps you firmly in its grip until an epic, grand guignol finish.
Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a Jane Fonda-type aging starlet still kicking butt as an aerobic instructor on a morning show, much to the chagrin of her sleazy producer boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid). Elisabeth is already feeling the Hollywood pressures that apply to older women in show business when she overhears Harvey’s intention to swap her out with an emerging ingenue. When she’s tipped off to a mysterious new anti-aging treatment, The Substance, Elisabeth realizes she could possess the answer to her and Harvey’s problems. The Substance provides Elisabeth with exactly what she wanted- a younger version of herself with career ambition in spades. But it comes with strict rules and gnarly consequences if broken.
The Substance is a natural, stylish evolution of Revenge in visuals, form, and theme. Elisabeth, and her younger counterpart, Sue (Margaret Qualley), represent classic feminine archetypes. Sue, particularly, shares Revenge’s affinity for bubblegum pink-loving girlies with big star or heart earrings and flaming mythical creatures. The men are similarly crude and repulsive, though with a heightened sense of exaggerated absurdity. An early scene sees Elisabeth trying to placate her boss Harvey during a work lunch, but the extreme fish-eye closeups of Quaid eviscerating shrimp in the most barbaric fashion, complete with slurping, squelching sounds, ensures every bit of Elisabeth’s disgust is palpable. It’s a world where no one is likable, a surprising gift that unshackles the narrative and its characters, letting them be at their absolute worst for our amusement (and disgust).
The sound design team does an incredible job delivering a constant assault on the senses, a methodical means of getting you squirming in your seat long before the body horror arrives. It’s matched by a vibrant production design, a bold, colorful blending of the ‘80s and the present to further instill the modern yet otherworldly setting. This is a world that’s based on reality, but isn’t bound to it, letting Fargeat ramp up the insanity at a measured but brisk clip.
Fargeat isn’t just taking aim at the unrealistic beauty standards that plague Hollywood here but the way that those standards create vicious, increasingly shorter cycles of even more impossible standards. The harder the attempt to evade age, the more catastrophic it seems to get. The push and pull between Elisabeth and Sue, both ultimately bound by the same body and desires yet torn apart by age, is made all the more riveting by the fearless performances by Moore and Qualley- both operating in exquisitely rare form, unafraid to get vulnerable or gross.
And boy, does this movie put them both through the wringer in the gross department. Prosthetics and makeup effects designer Pierre Olivier Persin (Border, “Game of Thrones”) also certainly does his part in bringing the jaw-dropping ick factor.
As over-the-top and gloriously hardcore as the finale goes, the precise type that calls some of the goriest of the early ‘90s to mind, it’s the sense of humor that surprises most. Fargeat is having a blast lambasting Hollywood’s skittishness around aging, pointing out the absurdity of it all at every turn. It yields a new camp horror classic, bold in its approach and delightfully deranged. It’s as funny as it is revolting, existing in a heightened sense of reality that’s as hypnotic as off-putting.
Fargeat helms with assured confidence, delivering a tactile visual feast for the senses. Considering just how insane the horror gets, complete with a protracted finale that more than earns the robust runtime, well, here’s to hoping it doesn’t take Fargeat quite so long to release her next horror manifesto. The Substance is a campy body horror revelation.
The Substance screened at TIFF and releases in theaters on September 20, 2024.