The Substance (2024)

Director(s): Coralie Fargeat

Writer(s): Coralie Fargeat

Starring: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid

When the world gives you a pleasant surprise, accept it with open arms and give yourself some room to hope for a better tomorrow. BARF. But really, when it comes to horror flicks and awards, I never really expect too much because the relationship between the macabre and what’s considered “fine art” has never really been aligned and that’s something that I’ve come to terms with at an early age. I enjoy all aspects of cinema, but I also know that I must calibrate my brain depending on what kind of flick I’m about to enjoy. HOWEVER, when I see a flick like The Substance filled with creature feature practical effects, green goo and disgustingly beautiful transformations, award season is the last thing on my mind. Now, fast forward a couple months later after seeing this flick this thing gets nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay, Director, Supporting Actress, Actress, Picture and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup, Writing, Directing, Actress and PICTURE!!! Yes, folks, this crazy, fever-dream-induced, Cronenberg-esque, Sci-Fi, horror flick gets all the accolades that any artsy auteur could ask for in one macabre-filled swoop!

Now, the purpose of the FearTASTIC vault isn’t to convince folks whether films deserve awards or not, don’t know, don’t care. My vault, my rules, my kingdom. However, I can tell you that in this vault, this flick is fantastic, but I am surprised that other folks think so to be quite honest. It’s not a knock on the story, acting, production value, etc. because again, I love all of it and I’ll elaborate on why in a bit, but it’s because there are a lot of other flicks that have the exact same qualities that would never get even a modicum of love that this flick got, which to me speaks volumes to the industry more than the art itself but again, not the point of this entry. The Substance is a tremendously fun horror flick that’s falls into the category of a cautionary tale which are some of my favorite kinds of stories in the realm of the macabre, especially in the horror anthology world. One can definitely argue that this movie feels like an entry from a horror anthology flick with a much bigger budget and (obviously) MUCH, MUCH, MUCH bigger star power.

Let’s start off with the obvious, DEMI F*cking Moore. I mean, not sure which first born the director had to sacrifice to convince Demi to star in a creature feature flick but damn, she really went all out on this role. There was no daintiness to this movie; Demi really embraced the insanity that came with this role because this movie focuses on the concept of beauty and what we would do to hold on to this idea of staying beautiful forever to love ourselves even if it means becoming ugly on the inside (you like that one?). First off, Demi is still gorgeous to me, albeit the fact that she’s playing an over the hill star that’s watching her star power fade as fast as her looks but in this role, she’s hell-bent on making herself beautiful again and thus her journey leads her to, you guessed it, THE SUBSTANCE. The rules on how to use the stuff are super simple and fun for the audience to watch and the results are having to watch a younger, also beautiful Margaret Qualley literally come out of Demi’s skin to live another, separate life while sharing somewhat the same consciousness. Of course, if everyone just follows the simple rules, then everything will run just like clockwork and both parties can keep switching consciousnesses and have equal, allotted times to be in control and everyone gets what they want, what could go wrong? When would human nature ever interfere when it comes to following simple rules?

Yes, as you guess, everything goes to sh*t and that’s where the beauty of this movie kicks in high gear. I don’t consider this a spoiler because it’s obvious that things don’t go right because it wouldn’t be much a movie if it did, but I won’t spoil on how it goes wrong or why but I can tell you that the way it goes wrong is very beautiful from a practical effects standpoint. The transformations start small, but they are impactful and get much more disgusting as the movie plays out. Again, Demi steals the show with her descent into madness while Qualley does a stellar job on literally being a newborn trying figure things out while also plotting against her “other.” Like a really good song, the movie just keeps building and building until the effects and the plot reach a crescendo where the level of grotesque esthetic matches the fever pitch of the plot and at this point, you’re just wishing for the main character to find some sort of satisfying finale.

It’s an interesting feeling because again, I do agree that all the award nominations are very well deserved, and I hope Demi dips her toes in more horror flicks in the future, but I really do hope that this pushes a more mainstream audience to acknowledge that horror flicks can be beautiful and impactful forms of art as well as being an appreciation for the macabre.

And with that, I’ll end this entry with something even more contemplative:

Demi Moore is a hottie.

Life is FAR more interesting when we take interest in things that scare us.