The Substance (2024)

4 out of 5 ****     

My first introduction to the Substance was through exhibits on Facebook that explained the similarities in setting that Coralie Fargeat's set designers used. The similarities were compared to the Shining or at least Kubrick in general. There may be something to this as I am also seeing influences from Under The Skin, The Cell, and The Fly.

The movie was a bit complicit with stereotypes and prejudices, but it was also insightful to promote a wolf in sheep's clothing sort of theme.

There is a serious grooming that inevitably leads to her destruction. Showing the perverse treatment of women in the film industry. Dennis Quaid plays a hate-able asshole. It is sad that the very thing that makes her so special and great ultimately causes her downfall. The Writers and Directors seem sickly amused here, but that's no surprise.

The film shows that we exalt and profit off of beauty, but we also secretly resent and control the beautiful ones in society.

The grotesque monster that emerges from The Substance is certainly a shot at inner-colors, and reminded me of the witch from Game of Thrones. The re-occuring flashes that It's You signals that the monster and the beautiful woman are one in the same. This is backed by Elizabeth Sparkle's rejection of a nerdy old friend. She is more consumed with chasing her beauty and success than she is with someone who truly cares about her.

This movie has an unforgettable ending. As the monster that has become Elizabeth Sparkle now explodes with blood all over the audience that once both cherished and loved her, and used her as a puppet for their greed and lust. It goes to show that even the most beautiful people can sometimes be entirely abused by their communities in the same way Carrie was in the Stephen King novel.

Major Themes-

1. Just how sick and disturbed Scientologists and Big Pharmaceutical chemists are getting these days. It is safe to say that the major substance in The Substance is more powerful than Methamphetamine in Breaking Bad, and more powerful than say...Compound V in The Boyz. There is also a very private, behind the scenes implementation of the administered drug that adds to the creepiness of this theme.

2. Yet we are not exploring the masculine empowerment of drug rings or chemically aided super powers in this film. Here Demi Moore is human all to Human. He desire to be young again is normal and innocent in a way. Her trust in her medical authorities is her weakness as she is simply trying to re-acheive control over her career.

3. The vanity and narcissism being major targets for corporate corruption.

Detected Symbols

1. The Fly in the wine alludes to a serious transformation (The Fly), and also suggests that something succulent is going to be the death of our protagonist.

2. The emergence of a younger version of herself wanting to totally eradicate and hide evidence that she is in fact using someone for her legacy. This symbol is shown well by the hiding of the body in darkness.

3. The blood that spews on the audience in the end is a symbol of how she worked her whole life just to please the industry and the people within it. It is an involuntary retaliation that is deliciously horrifying and disturbing, but it alludes to the true nature of our desire to create a spectacle out of people.