Demi Moore learns a hard lesson–that you shouldn’t inject strange, green substances into your body–in The Substance, one of the wildest, boldest, and twisted movies of the year. Moore and co-star Margaret Qualley deliver impressively immersive performances in this body horror film like none other. It deserves to be seen, even if it ultimately sags under its own weight and ambitions.
Writer/director Coralie Fargeat beats you over the head in the first minute and continues to do so for The Substance’s overly long 140-minute runtime. Your appreciation of the movie will depend on your willingness to be bludgeoned.
For the first hour or so, I welcomed the beating wholeheartedly. From the cinematography to the music to the overall pulsing style, Fargeat (who made the excellent French thriller Revenge) establishes an in-your-face tone that had me vibing with her movie immediately. I literally grinned early on as I realized I was watching something special.
Moore is downright terrific, and Qualley is equally so. I won’t beat the drum about horror performances going underappreciated, but both go all in with wildly different but rewarding turns. Both are electric on screen for completely different reasons. Let’s not overlook Dennis Quaid’s over-the-top portrayal, either.
Grotesque in unexpected ways, The Substance leans into its body horror elements fully. From Fargeat’s zooming in on Quaid chomping down on crawfish to Moore’s back splitting open, the movie has something for everyone to make them squeamish. Needles into puss-filled wounds. Fingernails peeling off. Teeth falling out. Bones cracking. Whatever gets under your skin, Fargeat has something for you (and I won’t even touch on the blood-drenched climax).
As much as there is to like, The Substance does start to feel excessive as it enters its second hour. The movie is relentless, and while much of it is riveting, it all begins to feel like a bit much, like Fargeat just couldn’t help herself by heaping on more just because she could. The scene by scene editing is incredible, and yet overall more cutthroat editing (or a tighter screenplay) would have worked wonders.
The Substance is a blast… for a while. I wanted to love this more, and for a while I did. It’s wild, it’s ridiculous, and its takedown of misogyny and Hollywood’s fascination with youth smacks you in the face. It doesn’t fully work, but then again, what did you expect from injecting strange, green substances into your eyes?
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.