Human beings have long pondered their vitality and how to deal with aging. This goes doubly so for women due to the pressures they face to remain physically attractive for as long as possible, with their worth often being unfairly attached to how youthful they appear to the outside world. Writer/director Coralie Fargeat has a new horror take on the effect this societal issue can have on a woman’s psyche.
In The Substance, we find former A-list actress and current aerobics show host Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) facing the arrival of her 50th birthday. Unfortunately, this milestone is marked by her boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid) firing her because of her age and dwindling relevancy. As she struggles to cope, Elisabeth learns about a mysterious laboratory that sells a substance that promises to create a split, younger version of herself that she must switch consciousness with every other week. Elisabeth indulges and creates Sue (Margaret Qualley), who replaces her as host of her show and returns to the top of the celebrity world. However, the pair soon find it hard to coexist.
While The Substance does at times provide the obvious commentary on how women are treated differently based upon their age and attractiveness, outside of those few moments, its themes on acceptance of our own aging and the resultant insecurities are done well. The film opens with a personification of Elisabeth’s career and life trajectory, her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It starts out as an attraction that is adorned, but over time, ending up forgotten and discarded; a relic, just as she has become. It is fitting that a drug is what is used in order to help Elisabeth in achieving a young, “better” version of herself, because the film treats that continuous quest for eternal vitality and improvement as an addiction that grabs onto its host and doesn’t let go. Elisabeth and Sue keep striving for perfection and an improved version of herself until it culminates in something deformed, a grotesque version that is worse than what the normally aging Elisabeth began with. The film turns into full on body horror in the last half of the film, but it serves as metacommentary that reinforces the theme. The horror of how we view ourselves as we naturally age and treat ourselves and others as a result mirrors that of the horrors that Elisabeth/Sue goes through physically as a result of the substance. As Elisabeth poured more into her younger self, giving her all of her energy and focus for the purpose of success and feeling desirable again, it came at the expense of her current, older self. Elisabeth became a grotesque shell of herself as a result of internalizing what society coveted, chasing what she once was. It’s a parable meant for the audience to reflect upon and take in, to question what we value in our lives and the lives of others. Putting a premium on social status, attractiveness, and success at the cost of being true to ourselves and valuing everyone for their humanity in its fullest form makes monsters out of us all as well as the world we inhabit. And that is an ugliness that becomes as hard to hide as it became for Elisabeth, even if it doesn’t show externally for us as it did for her.
Moore gives a performance of note, one that forcefully reminds the audience of why she became a star in the 1990s in the first place. During the film’s first half, she does a strong job of portraying the gnawing issue of how women are treated as they age, particularly those women who had long been viewed as beautiful. As men slowly lose their attraction to her, and aren’t shy about showing or telling her, it pushes Elisabeth toward desperately trying to regain the youth she has lost. Even in moments where she may feel a tinge of her previous desirability, the insecurities linger and resurface when confronted with the realities of the world around her. Both the script and Moore present this strongly during a scene in which Elisabeth prepares to meet her old high school classmate Fred (Edward Hamilton-Clark) for a drink but is unable to leave her house with the specter of Sue’s young visage staring at her from across her living room window. Her struggle to erase the evidence of her age and resulting lack of confidence are the perfect show and don’t tell of the film’s theme, made so by Moore’s performance.
The Substance also manages to stand out visually as the film is stylishly shot with great use of color. There are some stellar match cuts and extreme wide shots that provide both a cinematic and artistic flair that really pop onscreen. The use of good staging and framing of the characters result in some shots that could operate as modern paintings at times. Director Coralie Fargeat and Director of Photography Benjamin Kracun utilize Jonathan Demme-like tight shots on characters throughout, particularly on Harvey. The use of these shots seems to coincide with the intent of highlighting the grotesqueness of the character being shown in terms of their behavior and personality. The effect is to force the audience to focus upon their nastiness and making for a more visceral experience with it in order to garner more empathy for what Elisabeth must navigate, thus making her decision to use the substance more understandable.
The Substance is a horror film that takes big swings both thematically and in terms of its stylistic choices. Most of the horror elements come in the climax of the film and will certainly be polarizing for queasier members of the audience. It is also in this segment that the message of the film becomes a bit more heavy handed, but the rest of the film is strong enough to chalk up this part of The Substance to satisfying its horror categorization and avoid writing the film off entirely. Demi Moore shines in the lead role and is deserving of the buzz she has received in this sort of comeback role. Margaret Qualley is a strong supporting actress that compliments Moore greatly. Coralie Fargeat has cemented herself as a director that can show off her horror bonafides while maintaining some substance (no pun intended) in her films that elevate the material as well. An impressive second feature and a director to watch.
Image: MUBI
