The Substance Review

The Substance is a body horror film directed by French Director Coralie Fargeat and it stars Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle a veteran actress who has hit her peak and is on the edge of being fired from her TV show Pump It Up when she overhears her producer Harvey discuss wanting to replace her with a much younger actress. When Elisabeth hears the news she is given a flash drive that promotes The Substance which creates a “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” version of whoever uses it. However, the draw back is that the both younger/older versions remain inactive for a week, while the younger user has to inject themselves with the Stablizer Serum from the older users body each day.

The only problem is that whenever the younger version uses the serum more and more, then it gradually changes the older version of the user. Not only is the transformation very haunting but the Serum itself is very addicting. We constantly hear, “one more" multiple times but one turns into two, two turns into three and so on and so fourth. The major theme I got out of this was addiction. Also, the beauty standards and age restrictions Hollywood puts on women.

I went into this film completely blind and I'm so glad that I did because this film is tragic and haunting at the same time. Not saying that men don't go through similar issues but we do have it a lot easier compared to women and the opportunities that we are afforded. It's honestly sad that there is an age limit when it comes to women being, “desirable”. Btw, can we stop telling women to smile, please? They hate that.

Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5