The Substance Movie Review

“The Substance” is a movie that describes how Beauty might be skin-deep, but Vanity is a cancer that gets deep into the bone marrow. A famous Movie/TV Star reaches an age where she gets discarded. But she finds a way to use a mysterious ‘substance’ that can make a new and better version of herself. But like with Dorian Gray; when you mess with Nature, Nature will tend to mess with you back. You get the ‘picture’…

A long-time movie star named Elisabeth Sparkle (played by Demi Moore) has continued being in the public eye. She is currently the star of a TV network personal fitness show. The studio head is a creepy, misogynistic worm named Harvey (played by Dennis Quaid). His focus is on getting young and beautiful women for the TV shows. Elizabeth is about to turn fifty, so Harvey gives her the boot.

Elizabeth is a bad traffic accident after being so upset. She has nothing broken, except for her spirit. She finds a mysterious package in her coat pocket afterwards. There is a USB drive with a phone number and the words “The Substance”. What could all this mean? The young handsome intern must have dropped it in there. At home, she watches the video and then calls the phone number.

She is sent to a weird address in a dingy abandoned building. She finds a stark white room with lock boxes. She retrieves a ‘starter kit’ and takes it home. There are no details anywhere in the materials. The very basic instructions are “Activation”, “Stabilization”, and then after seven days — “Switch”. The kit contains some weird green-goo colored ‘Substance’. There are needles and tubes and ‘host food packs’ — everything that would make a normal person turn and run away.

However, at this point Elizabeth is desperate to regain some of her youth and beauty. She wants to go back and show Harvey that he was wrong to fire her. She thinks that a younger, more beautiful ‘Elizabeth’ could find an audience that surpasses the small, dirty dreams of a weasel such as Harvey.

With no medical supervision, in a stark white tiled bathroom — Elizabeth gives herself an injection of the ‘Substance’. It is a huge medical risk, but she is ready to take it. Nothing works as Elizabeth expects it, because the result is that there is soon a second naked female body on the stark white tile floor. But second person is much younger and more beautiful.

She calls herself ‘Sue’. This ‘Substance’ creates a duplicate body of a person, but younger. The original person and the younger body must “Switch’ every seven days — No Exceptions! What happens if the “Switch” does not happen at the scheduled time? Well, the original body is not going to get any better looking…

Sue (played by Margaret Qualley) is now ready to take it back to Harvey, and show to him that he was wrong. Sue is hired as the Star on the new fitness program. It has a different focus and a different vibe. The fitness show starring Elisabeth Sparkle was successful, but a little dull. Now, Harvey has built a better fitness show focusing on Sue’s — assets…

Sue becomes a major player in the network, she and Elizabeth trade off every seven days. Sue takes a week long break from her hit TV show. Elizabeth spends her seven days wondering if she made the right decision. Then Sue has a few weeks when the seven days turn into seven and a half days. And then later — it becomes eight days, and then longer. After all, her audience loves her and she needs to get more screen time.

But any time that Sue overstays her seven days, it is Elizabeth’s body that pays the price. Just like with that Dorian Gray picture — the rotten things done by the young and the beautiful will only come back to haunt the original — as if it got hidden in an attic. But Elizabeth finds way that she can fight back at how Sue mistreats (and ages) her.

Elizabeth has those seven days in rotation, and she finds a mean trick. She can forgo the ‘host food packs’ and instead indulge in high-carb and fatty foods. This is not only delicious — it will also make Sue almost lose control when it becomes her seven day stint. Harvey, of course, has no clue about the little inner battle between Elizabeth and Sue. He just knows that Sue will host the annual New Year’s Eve show.

The pitched battle between Sue and Elizabeth gets weird and stomach-churning. The conflict of two parts of the same person, now in two bodies, is not going to have a happy ending. The difference between the ‘host’ body and the ‘activated’ body is getting intense. One cannot exist without the other, and the other is withering away. Only an extreme and over-the-top ending will be store — regardless of whether it is Elizabeth or Sue.

Harvey’s network special event turns more stomachs than it turns in viewers. Elizabeth and Sue have a final graphic and bloody battle. Sue and Elizabeth become a single combined monster with a disturbing look. The studio audience is treated to more blood than the ending of “Carrie” and the elevators of “The Shining” combined. Elisabeth Sparkle has truly earned her Star on the Walk of Fame.

“The Substance” has a great premise that combines the yearning for Eternal Youth with the cold medical push into the Unknown. The performances of Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are pretty bold and fearless. The visuals are freaky and unsettling.

Coralie Fargeat, as the Writer and Director, knows exactly what type of emotion each scene should bring. Plus, she is not afraid to punch the viewer in the stomach to get that emotion. Other than the over-all length of the movie, this is one that has few flaws. However, you need to be OK with the graphic body horror and the nudity. Also, it would not hurt if your favorite color is ‘blood red’…

“The Substance” could be a modern retelling of the ‘Picture of Dorian Gray’, but just substitute disturbing body horror for the aging portrait in the attic. You get the ‘picture’…