France has been shockingly consistent the past 25 years in unleashing artful, gory, and even thought-provoking horror films. This cinematic movement, dubbed the New French Extremity, has burgeoned with quality thrillers from directors such as Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (INSIDE), Gaspar Noe (IRREVERSIBLE), Pascal Laugier (MARTYRS), Alexandre Aja (HIGH TENSION), and Julia Ducournau (RAW). These films reaped box office receipts and controversy in equal measure, graphically tackling such hot-button topics as rape, revenge, pregnancy, homosexuality, and vegetarianism.
In 2024, we got a prominent new entry in the movement. THE SUBSTANCE, directed by Paris-born Coralie Fargeat, had a limited release this autumn before recently taking up residence on a number of streaming services. It tells the story of an aging star who goes to horrific lengths to extend her stay in Hollywood’s warm limelight. Specifically, this includes injecting a black-market drug that guarantees glowing, youthful results…but only if the directions are very closely followed.
With its monstrous, twisted body parts and geysers of body fluids, you might think there’d be no comfortable room for commentary. Hold on there, folks, because THE SUBSTANCE handily takes on body dysmorphia, ageism, and celebrity in one fell swoop. In what may be her greatest career achievement, Demi Moore dives head-first into her role as Elisabeth Sprinkle, a Hollywood has-been who’s tumbled down quite a few pegs on the ladder of fame and fortune. The results of her dabble in biofuckery is a pretty, perfect entity simply named Sue, wonderfully fleshed out (literally!) by Margaret Qualley, recently featured in Yorgos Lanthimos’s odd fantasy, POOR THINGS.
Playing out like a coked-up mix of BASKET CASE, MALIGNANT, and Joe Dante’s GREMLINS, THE SUBSTANCE boils its darkly comedic social commentary down to one point: how humans just cannot play by the rules, and that we’re seemingly pre-programmed to derail ourselves. As Fargeat’s blood-soaked fairy tale shows us, vanity, opportunity, and a few extra body parts are destined to get in the way.
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