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What You Missed About ‘The Substance’
The body horror has been labelled a feminist statement, but the film is something else, first and foremost
*spoilers ahead*
The Substance, the gory horror movie about a woman (played by Demi Moore) who takes a black market drug to create a younger version of herself (played by Margaret Qualley), has been out for a little over a month now. The Substance begins with Moore’s character (Elisabeth Sparkle) losing her job as a TV show workout host due to the perception she’s too old. Plagued by frustrations about her ageing, Sparkle takes a mysterious substance that creates a separate, younger version of herself. The catch is that Sparkle must alternate between seven days in her original body and seven days in that of Sue, the younger version of herself who goes on to gain Sparkle’s old TV hosting role and become a sensation in her own right. Against the backdrop of her beloved, beautiful, younger copy, Sparkle struggles to feel any real sense of self-worth and descends into madness.
You can see why the film has been hailed as a definitive feminist statement — although that wasn’t my first takeaway upon seeing it.
For a while, I said nothing of my alternative takeaway. Not because I had any reason to believe it would be controversial or…