The Substance is the most audacious film of 2024. Coralie Fargeat takes a high-concept body-horror premise — a drug that lets you create a ‘better version’ of yourself — and weaponizes it into a blistering critique of the entertainment industry’s treatment of women over 40.
Demi Moore gives the performance of her career as Elizabeth Sparkle, an aging fitness star who begins using the mysterious Substance to generate her younger alter ego, Sue (Margaret Qualley). The film’s first half is precise and controlled, building dread through symmetry and clinical aesthetics. The second half detonates entirely.
Fargeat, working with cinematographer Benjamin Kracun, creates images of grotesque beauty that burn into the brain. The practical effects work is extraordinary — among the best in years — and the film’s willingness to commit fully to its excess is genuinely shocking.
This isn’t subtle filmmaking. But subtlety would miss the point. The Substance is a scream of rage disguised as a horror film, and Fargeat makes every moment count.
