Cannes 2024: Coralie Fargeat’s Freaky Body Horror ‘The Substance’
by Alex Billington
May 31, 2024
What would you do to stay beautiful forever? This is a question that remains on the minds of many human beings on this planet. What will they do, how far will they go? What will they sacrifice? It’s pretty much the Monkey’s Paw concept mixed with an obsession with “beauty above all, always.” The immensely talented French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat takes this concept for a totally bonkers ride in her exciting new body horror film The Substance, a vibrant spin on this trope about sacrificing oneself for endless beauty. The Substance in question is a mysterious medicinal creation from an unnamed company that allows anyone to stay beautiful – as long as they follow the rules. Much like in Gremlins, however, someone is going to break the rules and the rest of the film becomes “fuck around and find out” with the most grotesque, horrifying consequences anyone could imagine. And the crowd goes wild! The Cannes press screening audience nearly lost it – cheering and hollering and applauding ferociously at the end. This is what great horror is all about.
Written & directed by Coralie Fargeat, her second feature after Revenge (2017), The Substance stars Demi Moore in a meta role as an aging actress / model named Elizabeth Sparkle. She’s getting older & her fame is fading. After receiving a tip, she decides to join “The Substance” program – and goes to a strange location in a weird part of Los Angeles to pick up a kit full of scary needles and food packs. The way it works is you inject yourself with neon liquid, and a second version of “you” emerges – a pristine, young, immaculately beautiful second copy of yourself. But your old body will lie there in waiting until you “switch” back – each body can be use for 7 days at a time until the person’s consciousness switches between them (or you end the program). These are arbitrary rules, but it doesn’t matter, they’re part of the concept Fargeat came up with for this and it works well enough. When she takes this substance, out pops Margaret Qualley who calls herself “Sue” and right away she’s on the rise in L.A. and everyone adores her. Of course, she’s stunning! Don’t start complaining that this film is an unfair critique of beauty – it is about how being obsessed with beauty above all is unhealthy & gross. And yes, a film is allowed to make this point, even if you don’t like it.
Fargeat’s The Substance is totally insane body horror of the highest order. It’s awesome, I can’t deny. Over-analysis isn’t worth it for this one. I had a blast watching it, though it is too long and could be cut back a bit (at 2 hours & 20 minutes there’s some, ahem, fat that could be trimmed). Too much unnecessary repetition, and too many shots of needles being inserted (once or twice is enough). It’s filled with the most gratuitously sexual shots of female bodies AND also the most disgustingly gross shots of [redacted] female bodies. And it’s entertaining as hell! The “beauty above all” story isn’t necessarily anything original (being obsessed with beauty always leads to misery) borrowing from classics like Robert Zemeckis’ Death Becomes Her and other modern films like Korea’s Beauty Water (which is also about a substance that you apply that makes you look beautiful until you turn hideous). It’s the way this story is TOLD that makes it so original. Horror fans are going to lose their shit for this film, because it’s as disgusting and horrifying as it is beautiful and entrancing. It’s rare to see the Cannes press screening audience go THIS wild during a film – that’s always the mark of something truly great. Even if it’s not perfect, it’s an unforgettably shocking cinema experience.
After emerging from the energetic screening, the debates began and over the next week at Cannes, I argued both for and against this film. I do wish it was a bit cleaner, a bit neater overall. There are too many useless shots that do not need to be in the film (that do not help the story progress) and I’m surprised no one told her this while editing. The story is powerful enough with a totally awesome performance from Demi Moore, who has to do way, way more than in this than just pine for her younger self and look beautiful. The finale is also absolutely bonkers, and I do mean that as a compliment. At some point halfway through this film, I was thinking “she better stick the landing or this will all be for nothing.” The ending is a doozy, a total knockout that you will NOT see coming (as long as you don’t read about it in advance). It’s an instantly iconic horror genre finale à la Carrie. Whether or not everyone who watches this will enjoy that finale is another question. I believe it sums up Fargeat’s specific vision in the wildest way possible; sometimes we really do need to hit people over the head with a message and this does that in a “holy shit!” way that I can’t stop thinking about.
Alex’s Cannes 2024 Rating: 8 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
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