TV & Film
ARE YOU cat, fox, or deer pretty? Do you have siren eyes or doe eyes? Is your nose upturned, button-shaped, or Greek?
In our society, beauty and looks have a critical impact on our self-perception, evident in the growing obsession with aesthetics and the soaring popularity of infamous products or procedures. While some may view these cosmetic improvements as paradigms of self care, others argue they may ultimately serve as facades—reinforcing the consuming and unwarranted ideals of beauty imposed on women.
Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (2024) accurately depicts this superficial nature of beauty standards, underscoring their impact on women’s personal cognizance in a grotesque, bone-chilling body horror film that has taken the world by storm.
The film is seen through the lens of a celebrity named Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), starting with her monotonous career as an aging artist. Despite being beautiful and staying in tip-top shape, the once-shining TV fitness personality was eventually reduced to a worthless bygone as she lost her youth, leading to the cancellation of her daily workout show and the waning of her stardom.
Elisabeth’s declining presence in the show business drives her to resort to a peculiar injectable cosmetic product called “the substance,” a suspicious vibrant green concoction from an underground source that is rumored to create a younger, “perfected” replication of its user through cellular division.
Distraught from the monstrous reality of the media industry, Elisabeth takes the plunge, setting off a descent into utter madness as she grapples with unattainable societal standards, the grueling matrix of balance, and her hostile doppelganger, Sue (Margaret Qualley).
With its satirical tone and clever representation of the media’s scrutiny of women to fit rigid archetypes, the film clearly left no room for subtlety. The maximalist, gory thriller was indeed an eye-opening experience with its bold and mimetic direction filled with plot twists and unpredictability. Its flamboyant dialogue and comical script, which mirror the realities women face, provide an interesting contrast to the stomach-churning depiction of extreme beauty procedures and the psychological toll of idealized standards.
Moreover, Fargeat’s utilization of stereotypical, pompous, and caricatural male characters also creates a disturbing lens of introspection on the absurdity of patriarchal expectations and figures present in our androcentric reality.
Moore’s stellar performance as Elisabeth sheds light on the real experiences and inner turmoil of women grappling with perfectionism and misogynistic ideals. Despite playing an admittedly insufferable and impulsive character, Moore’s raw, emotional performance elicits empathy, showing the painful cycle of self sabotage and deep-set insecurities.
However, Qualley’s astounding portrayal of both Elisabeth’s clone, Sue, and their mutant fusion, Monstro Elisasue, undoubtedly stole the spotlight. With her charisma and allure, Qualley expertly navigated these complex characters, capturing the audience’s attention throughout the film. Her cunning execution of her two contrasting roles kept viewers attuned, even as Sue’s macabre looksmaxxing efforts evolve into the abominable appearance of the freakish hybrid with disproportionate features.
Aside from the exceptional acting, the killer synth-heavy sound design was also one of the driving factors that helped The Substance reach new heights as a “campy” psychological horror film. Raffertie, also known as Benjamin Stefanski and the creator of soundtracks for iconic shows and movies like American Horror Story: Coven (2013), One Way (2022), and The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power (2022), led the artistic composition of the feature’s distinctive score. His unique electronic arrangement that mimicked pulsating heartbeats captured the suspenseful essence of the psychodrama that leaves you on the edge of your seat.
Regardless of the accolades and positive reception following its debut in the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, many international viewers had mixed reactions to the two-hour, 20-minute action-packed thriller as a whole. On one hand, the film may be viewed as having too many high-intensity scenes and not enough exposition scenes to balance it out, resulting in an overstimulating nightmare of a movie. Others, however, were drawn to the psychodrama’s absurdist approach and anxiety-inducing screenplay that were rich in eccentric charms and quirky horror movie references.
Amid the polarized responses, Fargeat crafts a symbolic reflection of the vulnerability of women navigating structural conflicts and systemic pressures, depicting the extreme and often grotesque lengths they would willingly go through to fit into unrealistic beauty standards. While the film’s brazen and overly theatrical approach and progression may feel overbearing to some, its sharp, humorous critique of patriarchal expectations and superficial beauty norms has definitely secured its spot as one of the coveted cult films of the 2020s.
