In Coralie Fargeat's brand new feminist scary movie The Substance, harmful social beauty criteria are the actual monsters. They (women objectification, the disposal of "the aged," the expansion of a field built on physical body adjustment) supply a beast of a pattern that leads Demi Moore's fading television individuality character Elisabeth Sparkle to seek a bootleg market therapy called The Substance that assures to produce her additional attractive. And in doing so, she goes through a creature-feature-like transformation herself.
The Substance is a repulsive process-- one involving syringes, liquids, and also Elisabeth's vertebrae opening to childbirth a younger double played through Margaret Qualley. Elisabeth and her counterpart, known as Sue, can easily not be actually conscious concurrently, so they each stay for a full week just before shifting places, with Sue detracting liquid from a discontinuous opening in Elisbeth's back The Substance to sustain herself. When Sue misuses The Substance, Elisabeth starts to grow older-- beginning with one scary, shabby finger prior to (blog post) spreading out into ancient, nearly worthless arm or legs; and when Elisabeth resist by binge-eating, Sue breakdowns a lot to make sure that she can draw chicken airfoils out of her navel.
In doing this, the movie suggest the fastidiously unsightly lengths some are going to most likely to be actually respected as excellent. It's implemented to a spine-tingling, life-like level that makes for a body system horror film for the ages.