The lyrics to musician Frank Zappa’s song “What’s the ugliest part of your body?” from the album We’re Only in It for the Money, express an idea regarding the ugliest part of our bodies:
“What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it's YOUR MIND”
Lyrics: Frank Zappa
The Substance takes that view to the extreme and grotesquely so. Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is an aging actor who runs a fitness class on a TV network. She feels pressure from the hideous network boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid) and just about everyone else in the media industry, to remain young, except that, as with all human beings, she has aged.
Harvey’s ugliness permeates his mind. There are scenes of him eating that show beyond the grotesque nature of his eating that he presents outwardly the ugliest part of his entity- his mind and his thinking. He is beyond superficial. His toxicity taints his soul and stains everyone he encounters. Harvey is a monster of his own making. He’s the stereotypal, bordering on caricature, ugly, gross, aged male TV executive.
Harvey: What's the ugliest part of his body?
When Harvey finally tells Elizabeth she is no longer viable as a TV star, Elizabeth plummets into self doubt fuelled by societal and media expectations about her looks and age about her worth as a human being.
No amount of supplements or exercise can alter the aging process. There is no fountain of youth, not for Elizabeth, not even for the awful Harvey. He is, however, an old male in a position of power and control in the media while Elizabeth is vulnerable to the deterioration and taunts of her visage that stares back at her from the lens of a television camera.
Elizabeth doesn’t have a mirror on her wall that tells her she is the fairest of them all, although there are plenty of posters proclaiming andjeering her about her previous success as a youthful movie and TV personality.
Then an opportunity presents itself. While recuperating in hospital after an accident, Elizabeth is offered a remedy for ageing called The Substance with the promise that it will change her life. Elizabeth will discover that changes can be detrimental as well as beneficial.
The Substance and its chemical composition are never identified specifically. It is a thick oozy substance that divides human cells on a cellular level. It’s deliberately a generic term rather than a specific serum. It is representative of the human compulsion to reclaim youthful looks and desires.
The non-specific substance is not the most important element. It is also a scathing indictment of the beauty industry. It's the physical effects, the social demands and the psychological impact of substances in the beauty industry and in social circles that are under scrutiny.
Client 503 collects her serum
Elizabeth accepts the challenge. She accesses The Substance from a secret decrepit urban location, a symbolic reflection of her shattered vision of herself, with an interior that looks like a sterile, futuristic post office with the promise for her of a new and refreshed appearance.
She collects her serum from a post box identified only as 503. Using the substance invovles the use of needles and injections. Trypanophobia, the fear of needles, will test your fortitude.
The serum enters her DNA and splits her into two forms—a younger self and her original older self. In an intense, graphic scene, Elizabeth gives birth through her spine to Sue (Margaret Qualley), a full-sized but younger adult entity. This is a notion that you accept. You suspend your incredulity. The vivid depiction of her cell division is a visual assault. Subsequent changes to her physical selves get more confronting and grotesque as the film continues.
Harvey derides Elizabeth and screams to his production crew to “find me somebody new” and proclaims Sue is his “most beautiful creation”. His behaviour and demeanour highlight and embody his approach to both Elizabeth and Sue as disposable commodities that don’t exist for him beyond the boundaries of a TV screen and ratings. He doesn’t see, let alone acknowledge, their human qualities and existence.
Elizabeth discovers the cost of seeking eternal beauty
There are strict rules about the rejuvenating serum. Activate the process once only. Feed her original self. Feed her other self. Every seven days switch between the two selves. One self is always dormant while the active self lives her life for seven days.
Elizabeth & Sue: They are one
Elizabeth and Sue exist independently of one another but are two parts of the one person rather than two people. It is made clear that Elizabeth/Sue must remember that to alter these rules will cause severe repercussions for one or both of her selves.
Things, of course, go awry. It wouldn’t be a captivating film if everything ended happily ever after. Eventually, the dual personalities that co-exist in Elizabeth/Sue extend their lives beyond the seven day limit.
Sue’s rejuvenated entity becomes a successful TV presenter who eventually subsumes Elizabeth’s previous role on the TV network’s fitness show.
They forget the rule about the substance that reiterates they are one person, not two people. Actions by one of the bodies affects the other version of the body in catastrophic and monstrous ways. When things go awry in The Substance, there are no limitations to the visceral depictions on the screen for the viewer. The movie’s final scene turns the screen red with blood. The director’s vision is full-on.
Director Coralie Fargeat: “It’s a wake up call”
The Substance is not a gentle wave breaking on the shore wake-up call but a screaming banshee alarm. The ugliest part of Elizabeth’s body is not the physical body she abhors nor what the network chief sees as old. It is social perceptions and expectations that cast older women as undesirable and invisible that inject doubt and self loathing rather than affirming their strength and ability.
Official Trailer The Substance
© 2024 Olympic Studios & Mubi
“Beauty is only skin deep”
American author and playwright Jean Kerr, who authored the 1957 bestseller Please Don't Eat the Daisies, stated bluntly: "I'm tired of all the nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want—an adorable pancreas?”
The Substance shows, literally, that you truly don’t want to see an adorable pancreas stuck to the outside of your body, yet that is what you get in The Substance. Sometimes you need to experience visceral in-your-face movies that make a statement and make you go deeper than skin deep. It might not be pleasant but how do you sugar coat unpleasant topics to make them palatable? If you’re director Coralie Fargeat, you don’t.
The Substance
2025 Academy Award Nominations
Best Picture
Best Directing
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Golden Globe Awards
Winner
Best Actress: Demi Moore
FILM EXTRAS: Body Image & Body Horror
Videodrome (1983)
A Canadian science fiction body horror film written and directed by groundbreaking filmmaker David Cronenberg and starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and Deborah Harry.
Max, a television programmer, stumbles upon a show that leaves a subliminal impact on the viewers. As he unearths the origins of the program, he embarks on a hallucinatory journey. A hand gun will take on a literal meaning after you watch this movie.
Elephant Man (1980)
A biographical drama loosely based on the life of Joseph Merrick, a man with a severe physical disfigurement who lived in London in the late 19th century, was directed by David Lynch, produced by Jonathan Sanger, and executive produced by Mel Brooks.
Altered States (1980)
An American science fiction horror film directed by Ken Russell and adapted by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky.
A research scientist experiments on altered states of human consciousness using hallucinogenic drugs. But soon his mind-altering experiments get out of control.