The Substance (2024)
Directed by Coralie Fargeat
Body horror is a big subgenre with tons of gross movies, mostly from David Cronenberg haha. The Substance came a long last year with TONS of hype, and bolstered a good cast, lead by Demi Moore. As soon as I was able to find it to stream, I jumped on it quickly.
The Substance is about an aging fitness instructor, played by Demi Moore whom is looking to combat the aging process. She stumbles across this miracle drug called The Substance. As soon as she starts taking it, weird shit happens. A youthful woman emerges from her like she’s Butterfree bursting out of Metapod. With the drug, comes strict rules, like you’re controlling a Mogwai. It wears off at a certain time and you can’t extend the time of the young person, or it basically eats away at the older version. Of course she doesn’t follow the rules and the two are at odds and shit hits the fan.
The acting is really good. Demi Moore was great! Margaret Qualley was also really good as Sue, the young version of Demi Moore’s Elisabeth. Dennis Quaid has a cup of coffee in this, and he’s kind of not that important lol. Man you see Demi Moore naked, quite a bit in this movie, which was kind of surprising. I love how confident she is to show herself at an advanced age, she’s great.
Man the special effects? Pretty amazing! I could’ve sworn that Screaming Mad George was involved, if you know who that is, then you understand what I’m saying lol. Everything is like a pile of lumpy gross flesh and I love that it is all practical effects. By the end the thing she’s turned into is painful looking, and great.
I really enjoyed this movie, it was weird as hell, gross, and interesting. It was an original idea that was acted well, shot well and had some cool REAL effects. If you haven’t seen this, then you should. I give this an A-, I only take a down a little because its like 2.5 hours long which is insane for horror, sorry not sorry.
