REVIEW: THE SUBSTANCE (2024)

By Stephen Pytak 

 I really think folks who are interested in seeing The Substance (2024) should try to avoid any spoilers before heading out to the theater. 

 So I'm hesitant to talk about it all that much, even though I'm, like, writing this review. 

 In short, I really, really enjoyed this flick. It's a wild ride! And fans of thrillers and the body-horror genre will find a lot to like here. It even has a shocking sequence which could be put on an all-time best list, right next to the shower scene from Psycho (1960) and the chestburster scene in Alien (1979). 

 Demi Moore gives one of the best performances of the year. And Margaret Qualley sizzles as a sex symbol who stirs up lots of trouble. She is a classic villain. 

 I'm giving the film 4.5 stars out of 5. So if you haven't seen it, stop what you're doing and go. 

 Meanwhile, I'm going to move on to some spoiler talk. 

Margaret Qualley as "Sue" in The Substance (2024).

 There were a few really good films this year which, for me, seemed to come out of nowhere. They included Late Night with the Devil and Strange Darling. And The Substance was another one. 

I knew nothing about The Substance when I saw the trailer on YouTube in the second week of September 2024. I checked out a few online reviews, just to get a sense of what it was all about. And when I noticed many critics really enjoyed it, I decided to shut out any media related to the film. I wanted to see it cold. And, somehow, I managed to do that. 

 It was made by Coralie Fargeat, who directed Revenge (2017), which I liked quite a bit. That was a very stylish rape revenge thriller. She wrote and directed The Substance, giving us something that might be one day considered a horror classic. 

 I couldn't remember the last time I saw Demi Moore in a movie. Maybe it was Indecent Proposal in 1993, Striptease in 1996 or G.I. Jane in 1997. I didn't follow her career, and don't know that much about her. But I know some trivia. I know she was the model for the photo used on the theatrical poster for I Spit On Your Grave (1978). 

 She has the film's pivotal role. And she knocks it out of the park. 

 The Substance is something of a cautionary tale crossed with something you'd see in an episode of The Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt. 

It's a story about an aging celebrity who's looking for some kind of fountain of youth to save her from wrinkles, crows feet, gray hair and anything that will threaten her time in the spotlight. 

 Her name is "Elisabeth Sparkle." She's a model, actress and host of an aerobics workout show. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And she lives alone in a pricey Los Angeles apartment with a view. She has no significant others or pets. It seems like her life as a celebrity is her only concern. And that's apparent when you see the big framed photo in her living room. It's a life-size picture of her in her prime. 

 When we meet Elisabeth, it's her birthday. She's 50. She cringes when folks around her remind her of that.  And the day becomes memorable for her for a few reasons.

For starters, she loses her gig. The head of the studio, "Harvey (played by Dennis Quaid)," breaks the news to her rather bluntly. He says he's looking for someone younger to be the star of the show. 

 Then she gets into a car accident. Unable to focus on anything but her mortal dilemma, she accidentally drives into traffic. And her world literally turns upside down as the vehicle rolls like a die. 

 She's not seriously injured. But while in the emergency room, she breaks down in tears, not from the pain or shock of the accident, but because she's completely unhappy with her life. 

A male nurse notices how depressed she is, figures out why and offers her an unusual solution, something that worked for him. He gives her flash drive with information about a black market drug. It's called "The Substance."

 And after reviewing the information and taking a lot of long stares into the bathroom mirror, Elisabeth decides to sign up.

 From there, her life is never the same. 

She receives a box filled with medical supplies, drugs and so forth. They include an "activator" which, she's told, will unlock her DNA and unleash another version of her.

On the first viewing, I wasn't sure if Elisabeth really knew what that meant. 

See, she never gets to meet the geniuses behind "The Substance." 

But that doesn't stop her from injecting some of that green liquid into her arm. 

 Since we never see the ghouls who manufactured this MacGuffin, I came up with my own theory about who created it. 

I think it's "Dr. Herbert West," the title character of the Re-Animator films, the pencil-snapping mad scientist made popular by actor Jeffrey Combs. The character's claim to fame was a green-colored agent which reanimated dead tissue. It's not a stretch to think that one of his attempts to improve the stuff led the kind of madness we see in The Substance. 

As soon as Elisabeth injects it, we get a showstopper of a scene.  And Demi Moore really throws herself into it. The filmmaking and editing are excellent. But without her commitment to the part, it just wouldn't have worked as well. 

 She pops the drug. She gets really dizzy, starts to feel funny, and collapses to the floor. Then the unthinkable happens. Her back opens up like the zipper on a suitcase and her co-star emerges. 

 This is "Sue" played by Margaret Qualley. She's a beautiful creature, a twentysomething angel. She's also something akin to a doppelganger or a Mr. (or Ms.) Hyde.

And as soon as she emerges, we start to wonder, who or what is she exactly? How smart is she? What is her level of intelligence? 

These are questions fans can ponder on repeat viewings. 

Anyway, soon after her dramatic entrance, "Sue" has enough smarts to read the instructions that came with "The Substance" to get the rundown on how she can continue to exist. 

And she learns her mortal coil is still attached to the aging, semi-retired starlet who's unconscious on the floor. 

She would be able to function for a week, then she would have to enter a coma-like state while Elisabeth woke and resumed her existence for a week.

This was a strict rule. And the two would have to learn to coexist, respect one another, find balance, take their medications on time and so forth.

 So Sue goes out in the world and, to some degree, follows in her host's footsteps. She goes to the studio where Elisabeth worked and scores her old job. And, overnight, she becomes a media darling that people can't get enough of. 

 Meanwhile, Elisabeth is spending a lot of time at home. The Substance wasn't the quickie fountain of youth she thought it would be.  And it seems like she becomes more and more bitter as she watches her spawn livin' la vida loca. 

 Like Joe Dante's Gremlins (1984) the plot involves a set of rules that need to be strictly enforced. But rules were made to be broken, right? And that touches off the insanity which drives the story through to the end credits. 

I started to get nervous in the last reel. I wanted this thing to have a powerful ending. And there were times I felt that the blood-soaked opera that was playing out was teetering between brilliance and stupidity. 

My star rating tells you everything else you need to know.

Yes. It's a masterpiece! 

RATING (On a scale of 1 to 5): 4.5