David Cronenberg and Quentin Tarantino have a heir and her name is Coralie Fargeat. Coralie Fargeat is not afraid to shock. In fact, I think the purpose of her films is to shock. She’s doing it to get attention and maybe to attract an audience that wouldn’t otherwise come to her movies, but it’s just a tactic to gain more people watch for the message. And the message is shouted with the shrillness of ‘horror’. ‘The Substance‘ (2024) is her second film. The debut film made seven years ago, ‘Revenge’, managed to catch my attention in a genre that most of the time leaves me indifferent. With ‘The Substance‘, Coralie Fargeat amplifies her means of expression. Apparently we are dealing with a film that combines the genres of horror and science fiction. For many viewers, that’s all and enough. But ‘The Substance‘ is much more than that. It is a film with a strong feminist message and is a scathing critique of misogynistic and ageist television entertainment. Everything is dressed up in the form of a movie with an 80s aesthetic, quoting and paying homage to the ‘class B’ movies of that decade. Viewers who can’t stand violent films will do well to avoid viewing it, as it includes many scenes bathed in blood and a massive dose of ‘body horror’.
Elisabeth, the main heroine of the film, is a former movie star with a star on Hollywood Blvd., whose youth and prime have passed. At 50, she has a fitness show on morning television, which is canceled because the producer (who happens to be named Harvey) wants a younger screen presence. Desperate because age is catching up with her, she cannot resist the temptation to respond to an ad promising a revolutionary genetic treatment, a kind of self-cloning into a younger version constructed from her own DNA. The procedure has restrictions and conditions that must be strictly followed. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong.
This movie could have ended about half an hour earlier than the 2 hours and 20 minutes running time. Many of the commenters have noted this, but in this case I think it’s not just about conforming to a Hollywood trend, which I don’t really like, by the way. It is precisely the last part that seems to me to have been most important to director Coralie Fargeat (who also wrote the screenplay). The sensation-seeking audience that gathers towards the end to see a New Year’s show are us, the ones who have resisted the screening of the film in the cinema theatre or at our homes until then. We are hearing the desperate scream of the creature who was once a glorified star and then a woman who, in the eyes of the misogynistic society around her, was losing value as she inevitably advanced in age. As for the visual effects, I think the choice of makeup and prosthetics that could have been done in the 80s is intentional. In fact, the whole concept and cinematography are a tribute to the action, horror and sci-fi films of 35-40 years ago, but with a very different message, perhaps even contrary to the mentalities of that time. Although she has only made two feature films so far, it can be said that the director has created a recognizable visual style of her own, constructing sophisticated architectures for the buildings where the action takes place, where the modernity of the exteriors is combined with corridors that shrink the action in crushing perspectives. Some scenes quote the films that influenced her (‘class B’ films, but also Kubrick from ‘Space Odyssey’ or ‘Shining’ for example). More than once the director quotes herself, meaning scenes or details from ‘Revenge’. Demi Moore plays with commitment and courage a role that she knows can bring her an Oscar or destroy the rest of her career. Dennis Quaid is also excellent as the obnoxious producer Harvey, who offers a counterpoint of sarcastic satire. There is, by the way, quite a lot of humor in this film, but the atmosphere is dominated by screaming and despair. ‘The Substance‘ will become, I believe, a cult film, but there will always be a need for viewers to be warned about what they are about to see. For Coralie Fargeat, this is the second achievement in a career that promises to be formidable.