The Substance is Real Horror: I’m Going to Throw Up!
Okay, I did it. I finally watched this filthy, slippery green, puss-filled, blood-soaked, overindulgent, gore-smut of a movie. I’m going to throw up now!
The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Body Horror has been around since the 1950s, soon being integrated as a classic sub-genre of horror with movies like Rosemary’s Baby, Alien, and The Thing—which was also extremely terrifying for a movie made in 1982. Personally, body horror has never really been my thing. I can handle blood, but seeing the human body contort, swell, and twist into some deranged new species with a vengeance is a little too much for me. Ghosts and demons I can handle; the occasional psychological narrative is my favorite; slashers are alright, but The Substance had me covering my eyes, squirming in my seat, and laughing in crazed amusement.
Photo: MUBI/Courtesy Everett Collection
Demi Moore is so brilliant in this film. I can feel the desperation and frustration even in the scene at the restaurant, where Harvey shoves his butter-coated fingers into his mouth, getting pieces of shrimp stuck to his teeth. She sits there staring into his ugly face and feels ashamed of herself. It’s both insane and heartbreaking. I think that this beginning portion of the movie is important and often forgotten. Of course, the gross depiction of this middle-aged man shoveling crustaceans into his wrinkled mouth is disturbingly memorable in itself, but it becomes overshadowed by the rest of the movie’s imagery. Still, this part of the movie as well as the scene showing Elizabeth Sparkle struggling to prepare herself for a date with a (mediocre) man, are the most real parts of the movie, most clearly revealing a message.
Equally as brilliant is Margaret Qualley. Though the actress seems very humble, she portrays Sue as a bratty, self-important young woman who is utterly entranced by the way others perceive her and, thereby, how she perceives herself. It’s interesting because neither actress has much dialogue in this film; it’s all very emotive. Qualley’s scenes, in particular, relief on facial expressions that, though without speaking or an internal monologue, put me in her head. Maybe it’s because I’m also a young woman who feels sexualized and fetishized by the world around me—particularly by the white, male, and powerful—but the way she responds to others’ reactions toward her is so real. When everyone tells you that all you’re good for is looking nice in male-controlled spaces, you fall into the trap of internalizing it, getting off to it even. It’s an evocative theme and something that we don’t really acknowledge for the sake of virtue-signaling our feminist mindset.
Margaret Qualley as Sue in The Substance
But besides the wonderful acting, the effects and cinematography of this movie effectively made it one of the most horrifying movies I’ve ever seen. Nothing could have prepared me for the birthing of Sue’s character. The unnatural, yet surreal depiction of "‘the substance” was nearly unwatchable, turning my stomach inside out from the moment Elizabeth pressed the long skinny needle into her arm, releasing that bright green liquid into her bloodstream, to when we see Sue staring at herself in the mirror with an expression of pure wonder. It’s a brilliant scene, ending with Elizabeth Sparkle’s body curled into itself on the white linoleum floor of the bathroom, and Sue standing tall, naked, and supreme.
There are other moments throughout the movie that made me want to shriek in the theatre—the only thing that stopped me was my perfect movie etiquette. Every squirmish scene bordered on reality, making them all the more terrifying. One of the final scenes during New Year’s Eve was particularly horrible. I can honestly say that I hated every second of it. Not even the amusingly dramatic moments were enough to break me out of my horror to break into a smile. Coralie Fargeat, I’m sending you my therapy bill after that.
Sorry if this review scared anyone out of watching this movie—that is if anyone is reading it. I genuinely think The Substance has great commentary about how both young and aging women view themselves. The worst think about the beauty industry is how it forces us to pick on every “ugly” part of ourselves, criticizing and agonizing over our looks until we turn it into something grotesque. Sometimes there’s truly nothing more terrifying than our own reflection.
