In The Substance, director Coralie Fargeat presents a searing, satirical body-horror film that uses grotesque transformations and science fiction to dissect society's obsession with female youth and beauty.
The film’s central character, Elisabeth Sparkle, played by Demi Moore, is a former starlet reduced to a daytime aerobics instructor. As she confronts the harsh reality of aging in a youth-obsessed culture, the film uses her desperation for relevance to explore the invisibility of aging women and the male gaze's relentless objectification of female bodies.
At its core, The Substance serves as a feminist critique of the way society consumes and discards women once they reach a certain age—particularly in Hollywood, where youth is often synonymous with worth. The premise centres on Elisabeth, whose career as an actress has dwindled to a shadow of its former self. On her 50th birthday, she is unceremoniously fired by her boss, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), who dismisses her with a chilling phrase: “renewal is inevitable.” His words echo the sentiment that there is no future for aging women in a society fixated on youth.
Desperate for a way to regain her former glory, Elisabeth is introduced to "the substance," a black-market drug that promises to generate a younger, more beautiful version of herself. This transformation, however, comes with strict rules—she must alternate life with her new double, Sue (Margaret Qualley), living in turn every seven days while the other sleeps to regenerate. Elisabeth's split existence soon spirals into a nightmarish struggle for identity and relevance as Sue eclipses her in fame and beauty.
The Male Gaze: A Weapon and a Critique
The Substance uses hyper-sexualised cinematography to critique the male gaze, a concept director Coralie Fargeat aggressively deconstructs throughout the film. The exaggerated slow pans over Elisabeth and Sue’s bodies—wet lips, toned buttocks, perfect skin—are familiar visual tropes that mimic the way women are often objectified in film and media. Fargeat, however, pushes beyond mere mimicry. Through devices like mirrors, cameras, and television screens, she highlights the dissonance between appearance and reality, drawing attention to how women's bodies are consumed and commodified.
In Elisabeth’s world, appearances reign supreme, but The Substance exposes the underlying horror when beauty is prioritised over humanity. The grotesque transformations Elisabeth undergoes, including injecting, vomiting, and bleeding, create visceral disgust, underscoring how society treats women’s bodies as disposable once they begin to age. This imagery taps into the psychological horror of women’s fear of irrelevance, driving home the film's core message: aging, for women, is not merely a biological process but a social one, marked by dehumanisation and dismissal.
The Uncanny Double: A Psychological Horror
The motif of the double haunts The Substance, playing into the film’s psychological tension. When Elisabeth takes the substance, she gives birth to Sue, a younger, more vibrant version of herself. Yet rather than experience youth vicariously through Sue, Elisabeth is confronted with her worst nightmare: Sue’s rise to fame and beauty exacerbates Elisabeth’s own feelings of envy and irrelevance.
The doubling dynamic, rooted in Freudian psychoanalytic theory of the “uncanny,” drives the film’s horror. Sue and Elisabeth are two versions of the same person—yet they are irrevocably divided. Their bodies may share DNA, but they cannot exist simultaneously. This split psyche becomes a battleground for identity and survival as Elisabeth’s sense of self deteriorates in the face of Sue’s growing power.
Fargeat’s film is deeply aware of the cultural archetypes at play, drawing on the psychoanalytic concept of the uncanny to evoke discomfort. Freud described the uncanny as the unsettling feeling that arises when something familiar becomes disturbingly unfamiliar. For Elisabeth, Sue represents both a reflection of her younger self and a monstrous entity that threatens to erase her existence. The unsettling image of Sue plastered on billboards amplifies Elisabeth's sense of self-loathing and fear of being forgotten. The more Sue rises, the more Elisabeth’s body deteriorates—an exaggerated, literalised depiction of how society discards older women.
The Mother–Daughter Nexus: Love, Envy, and Destruction
At the heart of the film lies the relationship between Elisabeth and Sue, which resonates with archetypal dynamics between mothers and daughters. Sue embodies both Elisabeth's desires and her deepest fears: she is the youthful self Elisabeth can never be again, and her very existence threatens to obliterate Elisabeth’s life. As Sue continuously breaks the seven-day rule, which allows each woman equal time in the world, Elisabeth’s body ages rapidly during her periods of dormancy, leading to grotesque physical decay.
The mother-daughter tension plays out in a manner reminiscent of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, as Sue’s disgust with Elisabeth’s aging body mirrors Elisabeth's internalised self-hatred. The mural-sized photograph of Elisabeth in their shared apartment becomes an object of revulsion, hidden away like Wilde’s infamous portrait. The film delves into the darker aspects of female identity, love, and competition, using Elisabeth and Sue’s duality to explore the conflicts between desire, envy, and the unattainable pursuit of youth.
Horror and the Grotesque: Aging as Monstrosity
As Elisabeth’s body deteriorates, The Substance draws on iconic imagery of monstrosity to underscore society’s treatment of aging women. Elisabeth's grotesque transformation—into a hybrid of The Lord of the Rings' Gollum, Star Wars' Palpatine, and David Lynch’s Elephant Man—highlights how women's bodies, once they pass their prime, are seen as repulsive, freakish, and monstrous.
The film's scenes of Elisabeth gorging on food, stirring a cauldron with wiry grey hair, and mutilating her body with injections of "the substance" serve as a brutal commentary on the extremes to which women are pushed in the pursuit of youth. As Elisabeth becomes increasingly deformed, the film highlights the false economy of beauty—a reminder that beneath all the cosmetic enhancements lies an imperfect, decaying body.
In the end, there is no redemption for Elisabeth. Her pursuit of youth only traps her further in her body, a vessel of horror and decay. The Substance pulls no punches in its critique of a society that devalues women as they age, showing the psychological and physical toll of trying to maintain an impossible ideal. The film’s final scenes leave a haunting message: the more Elisabeth tries to escape her aging body, the more she becomes enslaved by it.
Through its feminist critique, The Substance paints a horrifying picture of a culture that punishes women for aging. By using body horror to amplify the psychological and physical consequences of this obsession, the film pushes its audience to confront the deeper implications of society’s fixation on youth and beauty.
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