Elisabeth Sparkles (Demi Moore) has just turned 50 when she is fired from her hosting job by the producer (Dennis Quaid) of a televised aerobics show. Elisabeth, like so many aging stars before her, is being forced into obscurity by a shallow industry that refuses to look past her aging body. But for the rich and famous there is always another option. Elisabeth is offered a new piece of biotechnology, which allows her to live out her youth once more. Or at least split herself in two and share her life with a younger model who can live the life she is being denied. And so begins The Substance, Coralie Fargeat's sophomore feature film, that has already been granted the moniker body horror, due its visceral imagery and mutations of the body.
