The Substance

I went into this movie with absolutely no knowledge of what it was about and I’m so glad I did, because this became one of my favorite movies of the year. It was crazy, unexpected, and I related so hard to the message of the movie, which deals with the societal pressure of getting older, especially in women. I started feeling sorry for Elizabeth when she got dismissed from her job due to “being too old,” because she doesn’t even look old, which I understand that’s the point. In general, I think Demi Moore looks wonderful for her age, but it was hard to watch seeing her feel insecure about it. My heart broke when Elizabeth ended up missing her date with someone who genuinely liked her for who she is because she kept worrying about how she looks and feeling like she’s not good enough for him. I love some of the shots in the movie because you can see the inspiration from other movies. Some that I saw referenced were Requiem For a Dream, The Shining, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's clear that Coralie Fargeat is paying homage to these movies, and I thought it made the transformation scenes look cool. It was clear that Elizabeth hated Sue for extending her schedule, which in turn caused her to age rapidly. But since they were technically the same person, Elizabeth also enjoyed living vicariously as Sue since it felt like a second chance for her to experience being loved again and to have everyone adore her because she was an attractive young woman. That’s why she decides to not kill her at the last second, even though Sue was destroying her body. And that’s something we see so many deal with today. Society always favors the “hot younger woman” over a woman that’s older, which causes so many older women to try many things to stay and look as young as possible, sometimes to the most extreme degree. Once an audience member decapitates Monstro Elisasue and her body starts to break and the blood splatters across the entire audience, that’s when I became obsessed with the movie. What’s funny is that usually I’m squeamish when it comes to gore scenes like that, but I was just more grossed out by the smaller stuff like Dennis Quaid eating shrimp like a slob or Sue losing her teeth during the New Years Eve show. But seeing the audience drenched in blood made me go from “wtf am I watching” to “this is the best movie I have seen this year.” The batshit insanity gets cranked up to 11 and I loved every minute of it. Usually, I’m not into body horror movies, but this movie was an exception. I love this movie so much, and it’s definitely going to be a new obsession for me.