Warning: Spoilers ahead.
I’ve lost the ability to form coherent sentences. The Substance grabs you by the face and throws you around, like Ms. Trunchbull with that little pig-tailed girl in Matilda. After a gripping whirlwind of grotesque closeups, bloody injections, and high gloss horror, you are finally launched, propelled by inertia and disgust, landing with a wet splat on the concrete. You will be nauseated. You will be enthralled.
I’ve never been left at such a loss for words as I was post-Substance, which I watched with a director/cinephile friend of mine. Normally the two of us will have in-depth discussions about the movies we watch together; this was a very different experience. Quiet drive home, sitting in the car in silence. Opening our mouths to speak, and then not finding the words. ‘We need to sleep on it’, we finally concluded before parting.
Unfortunately, The Substance needs to be seen to be understood. And believed. Director Coralie Fargeat shows us grotesque bodily horrors we could never even dream of. An umbilical boob. Chicken leg belly button birth. Fleshy amalgamations of warped body parts. In the cinema, I couldn’t stop from covering my eyes but found myself still peeking through parted fingers. It’s a skin-crawling, stomach-churning spectacle. The Substance leaves nothing unsaid, no question unanswered. You are given an extremely detailed, full image of the story. So why am I still left feeling like I need more? Maybe an explanation; why did you do this to me??
So, what is it actually about? The Substance is a new, black-market drug which, when injected, begins a molecular transformation in your body which forces you to give birth to a newer, younger, prettier, better version of yourself. The catch is your new self and your original self – the Matrix – have to share your life. Each version gets seven days on, seven days off. While one version is out living their life, the other is stuck in a comatose state, not really dead, not quite alive. If this balance isn’t respected, the Matrix body will gradually become more and more disfigured and decayed.
This movie shows the worst possible result of abusing the Substance, when past-her-prime actress and aerobics instructor, Elisabeth Sparkle, discovers the Substance and gives birth to Sue, her other self. The Substance distributors assure that the Matrix and the Other Self are still the same person, that the Matrix is the one in control, but when Sue starts disrespecting the balance – taking more hours, days, weeks in control – she leaves Elisabeth trapped, unconscious and slowly deforming in a lightless chamber.
The last third of this movie is where shit really hits the fan. But I shan’t spoil it for you. But I will say this; after accepting that perfection is unattainable, Elisabeth, or rather, Monstro Elisasue as she becomes at the end of the movie, commits 110% to the horror. There’s nothing I love more than a female protagonist who, after endless battling, gives up on the person they want to be, and devotes themselves totally to the person they have become, no matter how horrendous.
