The Substance 2024

Me and Ape are about to watch The Substance

The Substance is a 2024 satirical body horror film written, directed, co-edited, and co-produced by Coralie Fargeat. It follows a fading celebrity (Demi Moore) who uses a black market drug that creates a much younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley) with unexpected side effects.

An international co-production between France, the United Kingdom, and the United States,[5] the film had its world premiere on 19 May 2024 at the 77th Cannes Film Festival main competition, where Fargeat won Best Screenplay. It was released theatrically in the United Kingdom and the United States by Mubi on 20 September 2024, and in France by Metropolitan Filmexport on 6 November 2024. Film critics praised the film for its screenplay and performances from Moore and Qualley, and became Mubi’s highest-grossing film to date, grossing $47.2 million on a $17.5 million production budget.

Plot

On her 50th birthday, Elisabeth Sparkle, a once-celebrated but now-faded Hollywood movie star, is abruptly dismissed from her long-running aerobics TV show by the producer, Harvey, due to her age. Distraught, Elisabeth crashes her car while distracted by a billboard of herself being taken down. At the hospital, a young nurse covertly gives her a flash drive advertising "The Substance", a black market serum that promises a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of oneself.

Elisabeth, intrigued and desperate, orders The Substance and injects the single-use activator serum. She convulses as her body generates a younger version of herself, Sue, who splits out from a slit in her back. The two bodies must switch consciousness every seven days without exception, with the inactive body remaining unconscious and fed intravenously with a weekly food supply. Daily injections of stabilizer fluid, extracted from the original body, are necessary to prevent Sue from deteriorating.

Sue quickly becomes an overnight sensation as Elisabeth's replacement on the TV show, leading a hedonistic lifestyle and enjoying her newfound fame and is offered the chance to host the prestigious New Year's Eve Show. Elisabeth, meanwhile, becomes a self-hating recluse. Nearing the end of her allotted weekly cycle, Sue parties and brings a man home for casual sex, delaying the switch and causing Elisabeth's right index finger to age rapidly. Elisabeth contacts the supplier, who warns her about the consequences of staying in the other body too long. Despite their shared consciousness, Elisabeth and Sue begin to view themselves as separate individuals and grow to despise each other; Elisabeth resents Sue for her frequent disregard of the switching schedule, which further exacerbates her aging, while Sue is disgusted by Elisabeth's constant self-loathing. Following a particularly destructive episode as Elisabeth, Sue stockpiles stabilizer fluid and refuses to switch back.

Three months later, the day before the New Year's Eve telecast, Sue runs out of stabilizer fluid. Desperate, Sue contacts the supplier, who informs her that she must switch back to replenish the supply. When they finally switch, Elisabeth finds herself horrifically transformed into a deformed and near-hairless hunchback. Determined to stop Sue, Elisabeth acquires a serum designed to terminate her. However, still craving admiration, Elisabeth stops before fully injecting the serum and resuscitates Sue, leaving both of them conscious. Realizing Elisabeth's intent upon seeing the near-empty syringe, Sue attacks and kills her before leaving to host the New Year's special.

Without Elisabeth, Sue's body begins to deteriorate. In a panic, she attempts to create a new version of herself using leftover activator serum, despite warnings from the supplier. This results in the creation of a grotesque mutated body, "Monstro Elisasue", with both Sue and Elisabeth's faces. Monstro Elisasue, dressed up in a mask cut from a poster of Elisabeth, limps onto the stage during the live broadcast. The mask falls off, causing the horrified audience to erupt into chaos and attack her. A man decapitates her, only for an even more mutated head to grow back. Her arm holding the mic-stand snaps off, drenching the audience in blood. Elisasue flees the studio but collapses into viscera. Elisabeth's original face detaches from the gore, crawling onto her neglected star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She smiles as she hallucinates being admired by everyone before melting into a puddle of pulp. The next day, her blood is cleaned up by a floor scrubber.

I must say it was a really strange movie and i really did not think it was that good.

i would give it and even that is a push