The Substance (2024) is a body horror that blends dark humor with disturbing imagery that explores the pressures of aging, identity, and fame. Directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, The Substance received 90% rotten tomatoes and won best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival.
Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a once-famous Hollywood star who struggles to stay relevant as she ages. After getting fired from her long-running TV show on her 50th birthday because of her age, Elisabeth reaches her lowest point emotionally. While in the hospital recovering from a car accident, a nurse slips her a flash drive advertising a mysterious drug called “The Substance.” This black-market serum promises to create a younger and more beautiful version of herself, offering Elisabeth the chance to reclaim the youth and fame she has lost.
The drug works, but the process is far from simple. Instead of simply turning into her younger self, Elisabeth’s body convulses violently, and a new, younger version of herself—named Sue (played by Margaret Qualley)—emerges from her back. Every seven days, the two women must swap bodies. One is awake, living life as the younger version, while the other remains in a comatose state, kept alive by an intravenous food supply. Overnight, the younger version, Sue, becomes a sensation, taking over Elisabeth’s old TV show as an exercise video host and living the carefree, indulgent life Elisabeth used to enjoy.
At first, the setup seems to be a dream come true for Elisabeth: the chance to live as her younger self, but eventually, the consequences of “the arrangement” emerge. The film doesn’t simply focus on the body horror—the twisted transformations that happen as Elisabeth’s body grows older while Sue thrives in youth—it also explores the emotional and psychological toll of the body-swapping. Sue’s hedonistic lifestyle, full of parties and shallow pleasures, makes Elisabeth feel increasingly bitter and resentful. Elisabeth starts to realize that Sue’s carelessness is ruining her body, and the more time Sue spends in control, the worse Elisabeth’s condition becomes.
Their relationship unravels, transforming their previously shared consciousness into a terrifying nightmare. The film reaches its peak when Sue’s desperation to keep herself alive leads to the creation of “Monstro Elisasue”, a horrifying and grotesque hybrid of both Elisabeth and Sue. Brutal chaos ensues, emphasizing how far the obsession with youth and beauty can push people. In the end, the creature collapses into a pool of blood and gore, leaving behind a mass of decaying flesh.
The final moments of this film are a haunting metaphor for the emptiness of chasing beauty and fame. The film closes with a final image underscoring the film’s message: in the pursuit of beauty and success, one risks losing their true self, only to end up as empty, discarded shells.
At its core, The Substance is a film about vanity, aging, and the consequences of trying to hold onto an idealized version of yourself. The body horror is disturbing yet serves a larger purpose: it’s a critique of society’s obsession with youth, especially in Hollywood. The film illustrates the tendency for people, particularly women, to prioritize their appearance over their talents or personalities. In an industry where women are often judged by how they look rather than what they can do, aging becomes a silent threat.
The pressure to remain young and beautiful is suffocating, and women, in particular, are made to feel as though their value diminishes as they grow older. Elisabeth’s desperation to regain her youth speaks to a larger, more universal fear of aging and becoming irrelevant. As she discovers, however, the more she tries to hold on to her youth, the more she ends up losing herself. The film reveals the harsh reality of an industry where women are constantly fighting against the clock, trying to hold onto something that was never meant to last.
The relationship between Sue and Elisabeth is central to the film’s emotional impact, as they quickly start to view each other as with bad blood rather than two parts of a whole. Elisabeth’s frustration with her aging body and Sue’s carefree approach to youth causes a split between them, one that’s mirrored in their physical transformations. The film suggests that the pursuit of beauty and fame can cause people to lose their sense of self as they become obsessed with maintaining an image that can never last. Their downward spiral is a warning about the dangers of vanity, not just how it can affect our bodies but also how it can destroy our mental and emotional well-being.
The final creature, Monstro Elisasue, ultimately shows what happens when the two womens’ obsessions with youth and unattainable perfection go too far. Through its disturbing visuals and unsettling story, the film leaves the audience with an uncomfortable truth: when one focuses too much on the outside, they risk losing what truly matters.
