Society doesn’t often feel pity for beautiful women, especially actresses. Seemingly perfect with glowing skin, flowing locks, and dazzling smiles — these women inspire envy and unrealistic body standards in most girls from a very young age.
However, the love the world heaps on these women is a fickle beast, turning to judgment, name-calling, and criticism as soon as these golden goddesses start to careen towards their 40s – an age when it becomes near impossible for women to still be considered beautiful. The box office draw these actresses were in their 20s and 30s wanes, even though they’re still just as talented, more experienced, and often even MORE beautiful as time passes.
That’s where we meet Elisabeth Sparkle.
Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is a famed actress who hosts a popular TV exercise show that she promptly gets fired from the second she turns 50. To add insult to injury, she’s patronized by her slimy, misogynistic producer (Dennis Quaid, who puts in the most disgusting food scene performance in a film I have seen in years).
Elisabeth is beyond distraught seeing a billboard of herself be removed and questions everything in her life, causing her to crash her car. When you’ve always been beautiful, it’s hard to come to terms with anything else. At the doctor, she’s given a mysterious flash drive by a nurse. That flash drive will change her life – alter her entire universe.
The drive shows Elisabeth a way to beat her fears of aging and being washed up in the world she’s always been a welcome part of. All she has to do is inject The Substance, a neon-colored medicine that promises Elisabeth youthful regeneration.
There’s just one tiny catch.
The medication will literally bring forth another version of Elisabeth that will retain her own consciousness, but she has to trade bodies with this version of herself every seven days. Of course, the younger Elisabeth (“Sue” – Margaret Qualley) is brighter, sleeker, fresher, and a total bombshell. The tale of what unfolds is a dream-turned-nightmare.
I’d like to say that this film is rooted in satire, and while it does have satirical, funny moments, this movie is steeped in more reality than I’m comfortable with, which is what makes it so excellent to watch.
So often, even in 2025, older women are cast aside in favor of everything younger, newer, skinnier, flashier. To imagine a woman as stunning as Demi Moore feeling anything but dazzling makes my heart hurt! But her aching, desperate performance is what really makes this movie a winner.
Despite the laughs that occur as Elisabeth feels her oats in her younger self’s body (Margaret Qualley is incredible), there is an underlying pain in every scene as Elisabeth watches Sue’s career eclipse her own as they fall into a routine of trading back and forth as Sue inhabits Elisabeth’s dream life, and Sue’s big-eyed beauty becomes the hit of Hollywood.
And that’s when the horrors of societal expectations turn into practical FX body horrors!
Touted as body horror, a notoriously difficult genre to get right (at least in my mind) The Substance offers amazing, skin-crawling special effects as Elisabeth splits off into her younger counterpart. The horror looks real and grotesque, adding a level of honesty to this completely insane, sci-fi storyline.
Even more exciting than the gory, gruesome transformation (even the eyeball thing grossed me out!) is the fact that The Substance has “Crossed Over.”
What do I mean by that, exactly? It’s how I feel when a horror movie goes beyond our community of genre fans and seeps into the larger consciousness – bringing in an audience of viewers who don’t normally enjoy horror, much less body horror. These aren’t the target group who take the joy we do in flinging limbs and bloody messes. These films become outliers.
The Substance — in no small part due to Demi Moore, an iconic actress whose been filling theaters for decades — really made a mark at the box office, bringing in over $17 million in the US alone. And now, this film has made horror history, becoming only the seventh horror movie of all time to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, with tons of accolades coming Demi Moore’s way despite the fact she herself admitted that in her career as a popular, beloved, famous actress, she’d never gotten any notable award nods (a damn shame) until she received the Golden Globe for Best Actress for this movie.
It’s almost like – art mimicking reality – or vice versa.
What the excitement and interest that has surrounded this film tells me is that it resonates with many people. Particularly women. As women, we’re judged harshly by society. You can look at the Tom Cruises, George Clooneys, Hugh Jackmans, and Robert Downey Jrs of the world and see that they’re still viewed as desirable leading men — still cast opposite beautiful actresses (mostly decades younger) and seen as hot box office commodities.
You’ll also see that, aside from a few exceptions (I loved seeing Nicole Kidman in Babygirl) middle-aged women are not seen in the same light. I really hope that The Substance can help bring about a renaissance for older actresses, because the numbers and awards don’t lie. This movie, while yes, a horror film — a somewhat gory movie with an almost comical, tongue-in-cheek ending — says a lot of serious stuff behind the guise of good entertainment. When taken to heart, The Substance could change the game for actresses, keeping these beautiful, valuable women where they belong – in starring roles.
I absolutely loved The Substance.
The Substance was my favorite horror movie of 2024, for multiple reasons. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to watch it and see what everyone is talking about.
Here’s hoping The Substance morphs into an Oscar winner!
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Where to watch The Substance (2024)
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