How does writer/director Coralie Fargeat make a half-hour Twilight Zone/Tales of The Unexpected plot last a painful two hours and 20 minutes? By having everything in The Substance unfold at a glacial pace.
Past-her-prime actress Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is given a second shot at celebrity by a mysterious medical procedure - involving The Substance - that births a new, younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley).
The rules are, though, that each versions can only exist for one week at a time.
However, the younger iteration, calling herself Sue, soon starts to abuse the privilege with a predictably gruesome results for all concerned.
Past-her-prime actress Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is given a second shot at celebrity by a mysterious medical procedure - involving The Substance - that births a new, younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley).
The rules are, though, that each versions can only exist for one week at a time.
However, the younger iteration, calling herself Sue, soon starts to abuse the privilege with a predictably gruesome results for all concerned.
What could have been a solid David Cronenberg/William Burroughs/HP Lovecraft sci-fi body horror instead slowly slouches its predictable way towards an unearned Grand Guignol climax that's more a Troma parody than the clever arthouse genre subversion it seems to think it is.
I know it's supposed to be a parable about the inability to fight fate, but that doesn't excuse the multiple plot holes and inconsistencies in the story.
A pretentious horror flick for people who don't watch horror films, The Substance is one of the worst movies I've seen in recent years, pretty much on a par with that other example of Emperor's New Clothes that was the hugely overrated and oversold Poor Things.
Both of these movies seem to think the best way to subvert the male gaze is to give it exactly what it wants and have its lead actresses parade around in the nude for lengthy periods of time.
Really socking it to The Man!
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