THE SUBSTANCE : Tuesday 24th September 2024

I saw the R18+ rated 'THE SUBSTANCE' earlier this week and this UK and French Co-Production is a satirical body horror film Written, Co-Produced, Directed and Co-Edited by Coralie Fargeat in only her second feature film outing following her 2017 debut with 'Revenge'. This film screened in the Palme d'Or main competition at this years Cannes Film Festival, where Fargeat won the award for Best Screenplay. It was released here in Australia, the US and the UK last week and in France from 6th November, cost almost US$18M to produce, has so far grossed US$6M and has generated positive critical acclaim.

The films opens with a small handful of workmen seen laying a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with the name of Elisabeth Sparkle emblazoned upon it. Over time with literally hundreds of thousands of feet walking over it, the star becomes cracked and somewhat tarnished. Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), is a former Academy Award winning Actress and now is renowned for a popular TV aerobics show which has been running for many years. On her 50th birthday she is fired by her boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid) who wants to relaunch the show with a much younger, more virile, more attractive host. On the drive home she is distracted by workers tearing down a billboard of her show, and her vehicle is T-boned by another car and ends up on its roof. Elisabeth is hospitalised but miraculously suffered no injuries, but amid her distress and anxiety a young nurse gives her a flash drive labeled 'The Substance' - a black market product which promotes a mystery supplier's invention - a serum that, when injected, creates a younger, more beautiful, more 'perfect' version of the user, though the two are still connected as one. 

After plugging in the flash drive to her TV and watching the brief ad she initially discards the drive in the bin, but after some deliberation comes back to it. She orders the product and the next day receives a message that her package is ready for collection from a nondescript location seemingly in the arse end of town. Arriving back at her apartment she injects the product - a single use 'Activator' resulting in a younger version of herself in her 20's (Margaret Qualley) being violently and quickly born from a large slit running the length of her spine.

The younger form, stitches up Elisabeth's back and adopts the name 'Sue', and is instructed by the mystery supplier to inject a 'Stabiliser' serum extracted from the unconscious Elisabeth each day. The two are instructed to switch bodies every seven days without fail, with one resting unconsciously and drip fed liquid food while the other lives life as normal. Harvey initiates his talent scouts to begin a search for a new host and when Sue is auditioned she is almost instantly hired back onto Elisabeth's old show and fairly quickly reaches the giddy heights of fame and admiration. When Elisabeth is forced to switch bodies with her, however, she continues to struggle with a heightened sense of inadequacy, loneliness and low self-esteem.

The differences between Elisabeth and Sue become ever more obvious, as Elisabeth begins indulging in overeating and alcohol while Sue addictively extracts more Stabiliser to avoid having to switch bodies, causing Elisabeth to age rapidly at first with a dishevelled index finger, then her left leg with her hair thinning and greying and age spots appearing on her face. Elisabeth contacts the supplier, who tells her that she can either keep obeying the switches or terminate the Substance, neither of which will restore her past appearance. Elisabeth relents and continues to abuse the Substance as Sue.

Weeks pass by as Elisabeth is reduced to a haggard, bent over old woman due to Sue's ongoing addiction. When Sue is invited to host a highly anticipated TV network New Year's Eve special, she extracts enough Stabiliser from Elisabeth's spine to be used for the next couple of months. However, on the eve of the special, Sue runs out of Stabiliser and is forced by the supplier to switch back to Elisabeth. To her abject horror, she is now a hairless and deformed hunchback. 

Desperate, Elisabeth calls the mystery supplier again and asks for the Termination serum. She disguises herself in heavy clothing, goes to the nondescript address and obtains a new serum to end Sue's existence. However, still yearning for that feeling of fame and admiration, she stops at the last second and revives Sue, severing their connection. Upon seeing the near-empty serum, Sue is angered by Elisabeth's actions and repeatedly slams her head against the bathroom mirror. Elisabeth crawls to the lounge room where the pair fight with Sue kicking Elisabeth across the room to leave her in a crumpled heap on top of a shattered glass coffee table only for Sue to repeatedly kick Elisabeth to death until she bleeds out. Sue then leaves to go host the New Year's Eve show.

Unable to stabilise herself as a result of Elisabeth's death, Sue's body begins to rapidly deteriorate backstage. First one of her teeth drops out then more leaving gaping holes in her mouth and then her finger nails begin dropping off too. In a frantic bid to save herself, Sue rushes back to the apartment and disobeys the supplier's instructions and tries to create a new version of herself with leftover Activator. Instead, she inadvertently creates 'Monstro Elisasue', a grotesque hybrid monster of the two. Meanwhile, Harvey and his Board of Directors are excitedly keen to see Sue take to the stage and wow the American TV audience on NYE. 

Monstro goes to take Sue's place and shocks the audience into stunned silence as they take in the scene before them at the live broadcast. The horrified spectators quickly descend into violent chaos, culminating in Monstro's head getting decapitated, grotesquely regenerating and bursting with blood. As the audience becomes drenched in Monstro's blood, the hybrid manages to escape outside before collapsing into a bloody heap of viscera.

The face of the original Elisabeth emerges from the remains as a blob, slowly crawling toward her neglected star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Elisabeth finds solace by positioning herself on the star, eventually merging with it as she melts away. The next morning, her bloody remains are cleaned up by a floor scrubber. 

You have to hand it to Coralie Fargeat who for only her second feature film outing has here written and Directed a script that has something to say about the manner in which we perceive beauty, try to cling on to it as we age, and the ever present impact of the media (in all its forms) on how that beauty is viewed. At the same time Fargeat doesn't shy away from the blood and guts that literally spew forth in the third act that make for a mesmerising watch - the like of which you will have trouble seeing anywhere else this year. Demi Moore gives a no holds barred performance which is probably her finest role in a couple of decades, and is ably supported by Margaret Qualley as two sides of the same coin. If your fan of body horror, blood and entrails aplenty all wrapped up in a neat storyline, then this movie is for you . . . and if not there's plenty of other films at your local Odeon to choose from.

'The Substance' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-