The Substance (2024)
Directed by Coralie Fargeat
A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
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Fargeat pays homage to a bathroom from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and the general vibe of her film suggests a meeting of Dr. Strangelove’s humor and the New French Extremity movement’s brutality.
Numerous elements reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining appear on-screen, from patterned carpets and red bathroom walls, all the way to specific shots, but these obvious callbacks serve little thematic purpose beyond recognition.
Fargeat nods to Stanley Kubrick in these early scenes: the blood-red corridor in the TV studio is straight out of The Shining and an omen of oncoming carnage.
She draws heavily on the hallucinatory moment in “The Shining” where Jack Torrance embraces a young woman in a bathtub, only to see her transformed into a cackling old crone. Beyond that, Fargeat‘s images recall the exploding-beast-with-a-writhing-face in John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” the bloodbath prom of “Carrie,” and the addiction-turned-dread of “Requiem for a Dream.”
There are no carriages turning into pumpkins, but a lot of superb horror homages: “Carrie” (1976), “The Shining” (1980), “Doctor Sleep” (2019), “The Brood” (1979) and even “Tar” (2022).
Or, as Fargeat says, a mashup of Robert Zemeckis’ “Death Becomes Her,” David Cronenberg’s “The Fly,” Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” and Jane Fonda’s workout videos.
While some films are invoked for more specific reasons, like the body horror of Brian Yuzna's cult horror-comedy Society and Ridley Scott's sci-fi slasher Alien, others like Hitchcock's Psycho become reference points without clear purpose, as though Fargeat were attempting to simultaneously pay homage to Hollywood's male-centric, female-focused horror canon while defying and deconstructing it.
In that vein, it makes sense to lean on Showgirls and Brian de Palma's Carrie and Brian Yuzna's Society and even Cronenberg's The Fly, but the late-inning embrace of the imagery of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream feels slapdash, momentarily knocking The Substance off its axis.
But it’s hard, then, to square these images with what the director does next, as The Substance’s final stretch descends into a full-blown, blood-fountain homage to gross-out cult classics like Brian Yuzna’s 1989 horror film Society. It turns the body into a public spectacle and invites the audience in, a little too eagerly, to gawk at what has elsewhere been presented as such intimate, secret disgust.
Coming off as an unholy fusion between “The Portrait of Dorian Gray” and Death Becomes Her – with some loving nods to The Shining, John Carpenter’s The Thing and Brian Yuzna’s cult nightmare Society - The Substance is one hell of a wild ride.
Just as long as you’re not squeamish at the sight of blood, cascades of organs and the most grotesque prosthetic creations since 1989’s Society.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde initially seems to be a template, but Fargeat instead taps into hardboiled 1980s nightmare fuel, like Larry Cohen's The Stuff (1985), anything by Frank Henenlotter, and, in its final act, Brian Yuzna's Society (1989).
There is precious little restraint to The Substance. Fargeat, with cinematographer Benjamin Kracun, sexualises parts of the film in a manner so deliberately excessive it reminds one of Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls.
When Sue takes over Elizabeth's show, Fargeat springs an even wilder set piece, a workout number so robotically sexual that it suggests a Jazzercise session restaged as a lap dance from Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls.
The tabloid fodder and airbrush snafus which have followed Moore make her casting reminiscent of Gloria Swanson playing Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s noir classic Sunset Boulevard (1950). But Fargeat’s shifting narrative twists and turns away from more simplistic readings to highlight how women can be their own unique victimizers as Elisabeth’s inherent self-loathing solidifies her downfall.
One of Fargeat’s best symbols, worthy of Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, is the opening close-up of Sparkle’s Hollywood star as it’s installed and becomes just another bit of set dressing. A woman’s storied career is reduced to a monument that a guy accidentally sprays with fast food. When Harvey is reminded that Elizabeth won an Oscar, he bristles contemptuously, “For what? King Kong?”
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Beyond that, Fargeat‘s images recall the exploding-beast-with-a-writhing-face in John Carpenter's “The Thing,” the bloodbath prom of “Carrie,” and the addiction-turned-dread of “Requiem for a Dream.”
Coming off as an unholy fusion between “The Portrait of Dorian Gray” and Death Becomes Her – with some loving nods to The Shining, John Carpenter’s The Thing and Brian Yuzna’s cult nightmare Society - The Substance is one hell of a wild ride.
In that vein, it makes sense to lean on Showgirls and Brian de Palma's Carrie and Brian Yuzna's Society and even Cronenberg's The Fly, but the late-inning embrace of the imagery of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream feels slapdash, momentarily knocking The Substance off its axis.
Her cruelty towards Elisabeth, her ‘matrix,’ begins to transform the woman into an old crone, which suddenly makes The Substance begin to feel like, of all things, Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000).
…an overwhelming mishmash of styles that feels like if Gaspar Noé directed an episode of Tales from the Crypt and then David Cronenberg put it into the Brundlefly machine with the ‘80s cult classic From Beyond and those Ellen Burstyn scenes from Requiem for a Dream and it was then released by Adult Swim.
While some films are invoked for more specific reasons, like the body horror of Brian Yuzna's cult horror-comedy Society and Ridley Scott's sci-fi slasher Alien, others like Hitchcock's Psycho become reference points without clear purpose, as though Fargeat were attempting to simultaneously pay homage to Hollywood's male-centric, female-focused horror canon while defying and deconstructing it.
Some have compared the film to past Cannes Palme d'Or winner Titane by Julia Ducournau, which is a far superior film, but the gulf between the two is illustrative.
Filmmakers like David Cronenberg and Julia Ducournau – the king and queen of body horror (and two of my favorite directors of all time) – have found fascinating, unique ways to implement these elements to a plethora of themes, whether it is the 80s obsession with violence on the media in Videodrome or finding unconditional love in Titane.
The last time I had a similar reaction was when I saw Titane, the provocative body horror film by Julia Ducournau (and, ironically, another French filmmaker).
This lends The Substance a greasy, trashy sheen, which eventually evens out as the film's tone becomes more exaggerated, earning comparison to Julia Ducournau's Titane (2021).
Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is a body horror film that takes after Julia Ducournau's Titane.
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In “The Substance,” Fargeat also references David Cronenberg’s fondness for body horror in movies like “The Brood,” where a mad scientist experiments on a pregnant woman with dire results, Stuart Gordon’s “Re-Animator,” which also features a neon green goo that resembles The Substance, James Whale’s “The Invisible Man,” which follows a medical marvel gone awry, and Brian De Palma’s “Carrie,” in the way it uses copious amounts of blood and destruction to illustrate a girl’s pain.
In that vein, it makes sense to lean on Showgirls and Brian de Palma's Carrie and Brian Yuzna's Society and even Cronenberg's The Fly, but the late-inning embrace of the imagery of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream feels slapdash, momentarily knocking The Substance off its axis.