Skip to content
The Substance centres around the premise of wishing you were younger than you are, because in the eyes of the media, high-profile female stars are on the wane once their age goes North of 50.
Thankfully, that’s not the case for Demi Moore (Rough Night), who’s put in a spellbinding performance at the age of 61 at the time of this film’s release, heading for 62 in November, while having filmed this up until October 2022, so, just before she turned the big 6-0.
However, for her character, Elisabeth Sparkle, she heads a hugely popular ‘Mad Lizzie’-style exercise show, and has just been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, but since age doesn’t appear to affect men in high-up positions, she gets the boot from Harvey (70-year-old Dennis Quaid – Strays, also putting in a great – but smaller – performance, and taking over from the original choice for the role of Ray Liotta, before he sadly passed away in 2022), so it’s time for drastic action.
After Elisabeth’s path sees her coming across a USB stick labelled “The Substance”, which promises the chance of a new life, “with a better version of herself“, she orders it, and like a lot of home delivery products, it comes in oversized boxes. After you inject yourself with an ‘activator’ shot there’s no going back, and this also comes with a packet of drugs and other impliments to facilitate the process.
NOTE: The video below is for humourous purposes, but you may wish to see the film first, BEFORE watching it. However, if you watch it now, you won’t really gleam any spoilers from it that you’ll remember.
With Margaret Qualley (Kinds Of Kindness, Drive-Away Dolls) taking her place as Sue, she’s the hot ‘new’ equivalent, and very resourceful – now the new face of exercise show Pump It Up. I’ll leave you to discover how they ‘swap over’, but in what was described as a ‘body-horror’ movie, it’s the freakiest Friday ever, and I thought I was watching a cutscene from the videogame The Evil Within.
But it comes with specific instructions: Both Elisabeth and Sue MUST swap over after 7 days each have elapsed, otherwise problems will occur. And you have to obey by the rules – just remember what happened in Gremlins!
But then it wouldn’t be any fun if she paid attention to those, and as she starts really burning the candle at both ends, I was wondering: how much she does ‘Pump It Up’, when is the eventual come down?
I’m avoiding spoilers, but it’s safe to say that The Substance is the most fucking insane David Cronenberg film that’s NOT been made by David Cronenberg!
I also saw one guy say online: “It’s the greatest film I’ll never watch again“, and I can understand that because it tells an intriguing and captivating story, but apart from maybe one revisit in a year or two, this film tells a story and once it’s done, I don’t really need to see it again, immediately.
Finally, this was sort-of a Screen Unseen, albeit a ‘Scream Unseen’, as it was a horror movie, so in theory, no-one knows what the film is until the BBFC logo appears onscreen, but it was widely-tipped to be The Substance. Even still, while there are sometimes people who leave early, I couldn’t see most of the audience because in screen 7 at the Trafford Centre, I was sat in the front section of seating, but I still saw one man leave 54 minutes into it.
The rest of the time, there was a lot of banging as the auditorium doors opened and closed. I know it’s almost two-and-a-half hours long, but can’t anyone learn to use the toilet BEFORE the film starts?!
Writer/Director Coralie Fargeat‘s movie is a definite tour-de-force, and her bloody 2018 revenge flick, Revenge was the ‘Kill Bill’ that Tarantino should’ve made! I can’t wait to see what she brings us next!
The Substance is in cinemas from Friday September 20th, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 140 minutes
Release date: September 20th 2024
Studio: MUBI
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 9/10
Director: Coralie Fargeat
Producers: Tim Bevan, Coralie Fargeat, Eric Fellner
Screenplay: Coralie Fargeat
Music: Raffertie
Cast:
Elisabeth Sparkle: Demi Moore
Sue: Margaret Qualley
Harvey: Dennis Quaid
Diego: Hugo Diego Garcia
Troy: Oscar Lesage
Craig Silver: Joseph Balderrama
Encourager: Alexandra Barton
The Stylist: Tiffany Hofstetter
Oliver: Gore Abrams
Suit: Vincent Colombe
The nurse: Robin Greer
Bob Haswell: Matthew Géczy
Alan: Olivier Raynal
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.