Since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, The Substance has been causing a stir. The second feature film by French director Coralie Fargeat, in the guise of a biting Hollywood satire, delivers the most disturbing body horror since Titane. In other words, Fargeat continues exactly where she left off seven years ago with her equally thrilling screen debut Revenge.
If you are looking for an unforgettable cinema experience, you should definitely buy a ticket for The Substance. Of course, you can always catch up on this film later in your home cinema. But experiencing this disgusting torture together with other people in a dark room, increases the event character of the film. Last but not least, it is conceived as a spiral of the incomprehensible.
But what exactly is behind The Substance?
Black Mirror meets body horror: The Substance is a bitter Hollywood satire with an unbelievable finale
The premise sounds like a Black Mirror episode: Hollywood star Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is shocked to discover after her 50th birthday that there is no longer room for her in the dream factory. Where fans once besieged her star on the Walk of Fame, a desolate picture of cracks and breaksWorse still: studio boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid) takes away her fitness show.
You can watch the trailer for The Substance here:
The Substance – Teaser Trailer (German) HD
In her search for a way out, Elisabeth stumbles upon the mysterious product that gives the film its title. The Substance creates a young version of oneselfSue (Margaret Qualley), blessed with eternal youth, emerges from the back of the aging Elisabeth. The catch: Sue and Elisabeth can only travel the world for seven days each, taking turns.
From a “perfect balance” is mentioned in the Substance instructions. But the rhythm is by no means easy to keep to. Especially when all doors are open to Sue and she has not even gone through half of them after a week. If she allows herself an extra day, Elisabeth gets it through a accelerated ageing process to feel and the uncompromising transformation of the body begins.
Coralie Fargeat stages a repulsive spectacle that you can’t take your eyes off of
Fargeat takes no prisoners. She didn’t do that in the extremely bloody Revenge, in which perfectly formed bodies are completely destroyed against the backdrop of a harsh desert environment. For The Substance, she leans even more into the satirical elements of the story and creates a cinema that will keep you hooked with every twist. gasps loudly for air. Did that really just happen?
While Demi Moore turns into a movie monster, The Substance takes a look at beauty ideals and double standards. The studio boss smacks his lips and is a real disgusting person. Elisabeth is locked in a dark room where no one can see her. Sue falls under the intoxication of the flawless surface. The fronts are clearly divided and remain rigid for a long time. The film is not as ambivalent as hoped.
Nevertheless, it has incredible impact because Fargeat appears first and foremost as a filmmaker who is interested in striking images and uses them to maximum effect. The uncanny of David Lynch, the disturbing of David Cronenberg, the severity of Stanley Kubrick: many strong influences come together here, drawing us ever deeper into the abysmal Los Angeles.
The Substance catapults itself into the disgusting body horror Olympus with an unbelievable monster creature
Aside from its well-known role models, The Substance continues another dialogue, namely the one that Jordan Peele initiated two years ago with Nope. The sci-fi western is a blockbuster that asks about the Price of the spectacle – and Fargeat is extremely interested in that. Elisabeth Sparkle is no longer a spectacle, but Sue is, which the film expresses in unnaturally shiny shots.
It is easy to position Margaret Qualley’s body perfectly in the spotlight. But what happens when one of the most gruesome and tragic figures in recent film history makes her way onto the stage against all odds and draws the audience into a storm of spectacle that is beyond belief? can never clean again? The Substance plays out this thought experiment to the bitter end.
With its completely unleashed finale, The Substance earns its place in the disgusting body horror Olympus alongside The Fly and The Thing. In Nope, the characters try by all means to hold on to the incomprehensible. In The Substance, the incomprehensible unleashes itself to the fullest directly into our lapwhen we are sitting in the cinema. And you will definitely never forget it.
The Substance has been running since 19 September 2024 in German cinemas.