The Substance (2024) Dir: Coralie Fargeat
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Few films have evoked in me the curiosity from a single trailer as this Coralie Fargeat directed indie horror. It looked insane and gruesome, which was pretty much all I needed or wanted to know before going to see it. If I had one concern, it was whether or not the film would fully deliver on its apparent messaging.
I want to talk about the practical effects first, because they were fantastic. The worst thing a body horror film can do is use CGI, in my opinion. It never looks as good and it never has the same impact. This film goes above and beyond with its practical effects, creating something akin to John Carpenter's 'The Thing' or David Cronenberg's 'The Fly'. The film was also extremely gruesome, which worked extremely well for the story.
The visual and auditory aesthetic of the film was sublime too. The soundtrack was intense and on-theme, the cinematography was highly stylised and stimulating, and the costume design was brilliantly selected and eye-catching. It was a treat for the eyes and ears, in that sense.
Here is when things get a little trickier to judge. There is no denying that the story was extremely visceral and intense, or that it succeeded in being a very goopy and gruesome body horror experience. Where this film seems to fall or fly, depending on the viewer, is with the success of the message it was trying to convey.
There is definitely a conversation to be had about whether or not they pushed the hypersexualisation too far. At what point does it stop subverting, and instead fall victim to, the very misogyny it attempts to cut down? I think the film does some of this well. It has a lot of shots which, depending on your point of view, either panders to the male gaze, or exploits it by making the audience complicit in it. I, for one, am leaning towards the latter option.
On that point, I think the film makes the audience complicit in the intense sexualisation of the character, as well as her actions, deliberately. This was, I believe, designed to make the audience just as uncomfortable as the explicit horror aspects. Now, I don't think the film did this perfectly, and, at points, leaned too much on the hypersexualisation of its character.
In regards to the messaging, there was certainly a lot to dig into. There was a clear stance against body-modification, especially in women. There was also a lot said about how women are treated as they age, especially in Hollywood. In short, it's a story about the highly misogynistic notion of women's beauty standards - of so-called 'aging out', and the 'ideal feminine body'.
As implied above, however, the messaging definitely didn't always hit home. The film definitely demonised the older female body, which was both deliberate and not, and while I don't think it was done maliciously, it doesn't come across too great. My sister also made some very good points about the allocation of blame in the film, which is a good point. The film seems unable to fully commit to its message, in that sense.
Is it feminist cinema? It felt more adjacent to feminist cinema. I think this film does so much so well, but intent is not the same as execution, which loses it a few points with me. That said it was still excellent, even if the message definitely got a little lost in the mayhem, especially during the film's extreme and wild finale.
Demi Moore was exquisite. I thought the way she leaned into every aspect - the good, the bad, and the ugly - was utterly marvellous. She killed it, honestly. I think her acting towards the end of the film - the last thirty minutes in particular - was genuinely superb. She embraced the chaos and came out looking monstrously good.
Margaret Qualley was also absolutely magnificent. I rate her very highly as an actress, and this was another example of how good she can be. She didn't have as much dialogue as I expected, but her facial expressions and body language were quite brilliant. I loved her acting so much, and thought she showed even more talent than we already knew she had.
Dennis Quaid was very much playing a pantomime, larger than life villain, and he did that jib excellently. He seemed to revel in his character's horrid personality, which was great, because it meant he had a superb energy in his performance that made everything he did that much more detestable.
Overall, while I don't think Fargeat succeeded fully in translating her film's message to its audience, I do think the end result was still very good. This film has so many strong points, and kept me entertained, engaged and thrilled the whole way through. For me, this was a really good piece of modern horror.
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