Elisabeth Sparkle is a fading celebrity who cannot cope with the aging process, so decides to use a black-market drug named The Substance to create a younger and better version of herself. You are one.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
During the opening scene we see a star being placed on the Hollywood walk of fame with the name Elisabeth Sparkle, nice and new but then witnessing the wear and tear on that star over the years and everything that goes on as people walk by, from taking photos to comments about seeing her in something years ago.
That was the perfect way to demonstrate and highlight just how Elisabeth was starting to feel in herself, an Oscar winning actress who was now on a TV show doing exercise routines. Ridiculed by her boss Harvey, who quite frankly thought she was well past her sell by date and wanted someone much younger to take over that slot. Hitting another birthday and feeling extremly low and lonely which sees her in hospital after a car crash and she is then given some informaton from a young doctor.
The Substance.
It was mysterious and something that pulled her in, but then was thrown in the bin as come on surely some kind of drug that gave you a younger better version was not going to be real? Well, it didn’t take long and Elisabeth goes through with it. The rules were simple, breaking them will have unimaginable circumstances. We then meet Sue (in rather horrific circumstances and detail) and everything is about to take a little bit of a turn.
Sue, that younger and better version of what Elisabeth currently was is about to take over the life she once had. The thing is though each version had 7 days before the swtich had to take place, with no expections …
We just knew that was never going to be stuck to, but we truly had no idea what the consequences of this would be. In all honesty I don’t even think I could have imagined the direction the film would head in, although that maybe a good thing for my own sanity. At times The Substance truly borderlines on brilliances and the potential of being a masterpiece, the final act turns utterly batshit crazy and quite frankly I couldn’t really believe what I was watching.
At the core of the story we get the thought provoking nature of how women in particular are forced to try and stay looking as young as possible, because people respond better to those pretty young women. The push for perfection is what drives Elisabeth and wanting the life she had previously been living. Sue could easily have it all and wanted to take it all as well, even though they were supposed to act as one. That drive for power created not only a monster but a struggle as well.
Body horror, isn’t really a genre of horror that I have a lot of experience with watching. (Although the majority of people probably know that horror isn’t my favourite genre in general). So I wasn’t fully sure what to expect with this film, some scenes really did shake me to my core, but maybe not the extreme parts (more of the simple teeth and finger nail scene). In general the close up shots, loud sounds and music created a haunting piece of filmmaking.
Demi Moore was incredible in the leading role, fair play to her for going all in and putting it all out there I guess as well, really embracing parts of what the film is about for her in real life as well. I did read that she was very nervous about the naked scenes with her age, but found solace with Margaret Qualley as they were often naked together. Qualley was also incredible and even though I did spend a lot of the film trying to remember who her famous actress mother was, it’s Andie MacDowell incase anyone was wondering. Dennis Quaid who stepped in to replace Ray Liotta who had been cast but didn’t film any scenes before he died was all in for the close up shots.
Oh and I might be a little bit put off eggs for a while.
Let's Go To The Movies 