Oh help! In this horror movie, people are fleeing the theater
Horror is not really my genre, one jumpscare and I'm against the ceiling. But if even seasoned horror fans find a movie intense, then you know it's scary. This is exactly the case with ‘The Substance’. People even leave the theater because they don't dare to watch further.
In ‘The Substance’ you follow Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), an actress and TV fitness instructor. She sees her career slowly coming to an end and panics. When she hears about The Substance, a substance that makes you a younger and better version of yourself, all her problems seem to disappear. This becomes her salvation. Well, not entirely, it's never that easy as it sounds. It starts with activating the substance. Sparkle's younger version Sue has to be born from her back, a sort of modern Adam and Eve I think. This is depicted quite extensively and might give you a first idea of why this film is so intense. The two versions also cannot be active at the same time and must coordinate everything well with each other. Very surprisingly, that of course doesn't work out.
Body horror
What really is the ‘culprit’ is the large amount of body horror in the film. This means that fear is created by mutilating or deforming human bodies. Think of large amounts of blood or severed body parts. ‘The Substance’ has many such scenes. So many that at several screenings, people have walked out crying. Anyone who knows they can't handle that should be advised to skip this one.
More than just blood
Yet the film is not just a big bloodbath, there is certainly a message behind it. According to French director Coralie Fargeat, it is a metaphor for the violence inflicted on women, both by themselves and by society. Women must meet all kinds of beauty ideals and look as young as possible for as long as possible. That ideal image is mainly created by men, but it is up to women to decide how they deal with it. Stop seeking validation from the outside. That is the message of ‘The Substance’, from Fargeat and from Moore.
For those who dare: ‘The Substance’ is now showing in theaters.
