“The Substance” is a 2025 psychological thriller set in Los Angeles intended to emphasize the importance of positive self-image and the side effects of negative one. The message behind this movie is essentially that you do not realize how good you have it until it is gone. As current TV star Elisabeth Sparkle, portrayed by Demi Moore, attempts to grasp her fleeting career, as she is scared her age is making her “undesirable,” she is exposed to new drug targeting those who wish to return to their pasts. Elisabeth is offered The Substance and learns that after injecting it, a new and younger version of herself will be created by duplicating existing her DNA and birthing a new being out of Elisabeth’s own back.
After Elisabeth consumes The Substance, Sue, played by Margaret Qualley, is created. Sue is the younger, better, prettier version of Elisabeth but, the movie emphasizes, they are one person. Even though they are the same person, Elisabeth becomes increasingly jealous of Sue’s life, the life that was once hers. The caveat of The Substance is that “the matrix” (Elisabeth) and “the other self” (Sue) are required to switch back every seven days. After a while, neither can respect the balance.
The film is primarily solo scenes, relying on the actor’s body language and facial expressions to create the intended image and emotion, with little dialogue throughout the whole movie. This creates a more intense and intimate dynamic between actor and viewer by always having the camera up close and personal to its subject, much like the relationship between Elisabeth and Sue. Director Coralie Fargeat is clearly fond of the use of metaphors in her film. Using an egg as a frequent symbolism as it is on the poster of the movie, dressing both Sue and Elisabeth in a yolk-colored trench coat, and playing into the concept that both eggs and humans have a hard exterior and soft interior.
The Substance is not your typical horror or thriller movie. You will not be scared to walk alone in the dark after this movie, but you will be questioning reality when you see an elderly person or an objectively attractive person. It is not common for someone to be offered a drug intended to duplicate their DNA, but it is common for people all over the world to hate the image they see in the mirror and feel a sense of fleeting happiness when they look to their past. The Substance paints a horrifying picture of the downsides of nostalgia and insecurity but behind that horrifying picture is the message it is important to appreciate the past, and ill-advised to live in it.
