For better and for worse, The Substance, the new, buzzy body horror film, sends up oppressive beauty standards with the subtlety of a blowtorch.
The substance itself, a brat-green liquid labeled “ACTIVATOR” in the font of a minimalist skincare line, ignites a strange cellular reaction. When injected into an egg, as in the film’s title sequence, the yolk trembles and splits into two. Injected into Elisabeth, played by the cannily cast Demi Moore, a “newer, better you” – an idealized clone named Sue (Margaret Qualley) with more collagen and fewer wrinkles – emerges from a gnarly slice along her spine. (The substance’s mysterious company, off-screen save for a few lockboxes in a vacant Los Angeles, provides twine for the strikingly icky stitch-ups).
