You may have thought cinema had hit its pinnacle shock value when Barry Keoghan had sex with a tomb in Saltburn, but Demi Moore’s fantastically nasty new picture proves otherwise.
This year’s Cannes Film Festival has premiered some of its most controversial films, including Emma Stone’s gang bang in Kinds of Kindness, the contentious Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice, and David Cronenberg’s death-obsessed latest, The Shrouds, which is filled with decaying corpses.
However, The Substance outperforms them in terms of demanding, surprisingly gross content on the big screen, as well as full-frontal nudity from its leading lady, 61, in her most prominent film performance in years.
It is, without a question, the most repulsive film shown at Cannes this year, splattering the audience with blood, gore, and organs as it embraces the role of a physical body horror.
Coralie Fargeat’s film follows fading A-list actress Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore), who, after being axed from her workout segment on a morning show, consumes an experimental substance that “generates a new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect, you.” (Enter: Margaret Qualley).
The manner Qualley emerges from Moore’s body is only the beginning of the explicit nudity, as well as the horrible and suffocating truths each must conceal as they try to live glamorous Hollywood lives, one week at a time.
That is the main rule, and the dreadful repercussions of breaking it bring viewers to a climax so disgusting that they may lose their lunch.
‘This one is for the sickos,’ enthused critic Josh Parham after the film’s premiere, while David Ehrlick wrote: ‘The Substance is absolutely f**king insane and by far the best film in Competition so far. An instant body horror classic, equal parts Freaky Friday and The Fly, Demi Moore going full demented. Loved.’
Beyond Fest also praised it as ‘the most bats**tf**kinginsane movie of the last 20 years’, adding: ‘It is on such a freakish level that it’s impossible to believe it exists. Demi Moore goes there and @coraliefargeat has carved a contemporary horror unlike anything you’ve seen.’
The Substance also has an amazing 92% rating on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, while it has been criticism for its depiction of the pressure women face to be perfect, which means only slender and beautiful.
Without giving too much away, the body horror portion of The Substance must be seen to be believed, and as you read on, I hope you will be glad for what I have just gone through to bring you the titillating teases in this report.
Elisabeth and Sue (as Qualley’s character refers to herself) operate in such a way that, despite having separate lives and bodies, they are linked by Elisabeth as ‘the matrix’ and must’stabilize’ themselves every day by injecting spinal fluid. While one is off living their life for a seven-day run, the other is kept in the lavatory and fed nutritional gunk through a tube.
Of course, it is underlined that they must never exceed seven days each, and of course they do, in regulations you know are meant to be ignored, such as never feeding a Mogwai after midnight or you will wind up with a gremlin.
Moore’s gremlin form is a sight to behold, reminiscent of the stomach-turning Grand High Witch’s reveal in Roald Dahl’s Witches (1990).
But The Substance does not end there; there is still a furious struggle between Qualley and Moore, complete with heads bashed into mirrors till faces are coated in a sheen of blood and bodies kicked across the room.
What if you wanted to envision pulling a chicken drumstick from your navel? You are in fortunate; The Substance is here to grant your dream!
However, the final act reveals a genuinely grotesque, misshapen creature of arms, teeth, faces, slime, and flesh – a nightmarishly superb special effects creation that fully embraces the horror film’s high-camp drama and silliness.
This is where the boob vomiting begins, but remain for the hosing of blood, blasts of bodily matter, and other horrific scenes.
The film’s closing few scenes are almost totally played for laughs, too, if you have not been turned off by what occurred before, with the creature that next crawls forth like anything.
After all of that, it goes without saying that The Substance will appeal to a segment of its body horror following who want to be entertained while also being grossed out by its plunge into disdain.
However, at the ridiculous finale, it is difficult to laugh at a lady and the pains she has gone through in order to fit to society’s ideas of perfection, which are beauty, thinness, and youth.
It also adds nothing to the conversation about the excessive pressure placed on women, other than the standard, non-gender-specific moral of “be careful what you wish for.” It is clearly critical of it – that is where Dennis Quaid’s horrible TV executive Harvey (it is not subtle) comes into play as the man who fires Elisabeth, hires Sue, and is always
Quaid commented at the film’s Cannes press conference: ‘People say [Fargeat] hates men. No, she hates a**holes. But a**holes are so fun to play.’
He also revealed he was delighted to be taking part in ‘the beginning of an incredible third act’ for Moore’s career – and it’s undeniable that she’s back with a bang (and a splatter).
The Substance premiered at Cannes Film Festival on May 19. It has been acquired by MUBI for distribution, with a release date yet to be announced.
Source My Celebrity Life.
