the substance is a 2024 body horror film written, directed, co-edited, and co-produced by coralie fargeat. it’s about a fading celebrity, elisabeth sparkle (played by demi moore), who gets fired by her producer (dennis quaid) for basically aging. then she decides to use this black market drug that makes her a younger version of herself (margaret qualley), but it comes with freaky side effects.

this movie is a france/uk/us co-production, following fargeat’s first feature film revenge. apparently, fargeat wrote the screenplay in two years with like, barely any dialogue but super detailed descriptions. iconic. demi moore got the lead role after interviews and margaret qualley was cast after. it was filmed in france over 108 days with a TON of prosthetic makeup, insert shots, creepy sets, and yeah, about 21,000 liters of fake blood. the prosthetic makeup is by pierre-olivier persin and it’s literally nightmare fuel.

it premiered may 19, 2024, at cannes (where fargeat won best screenplay, yay!), and came out in the us and uk september 20, 2024, through mubi. it crushed it at the box office — $78 million on a $17.5 million budget. the film’s gotten tons of awards, including golden globe wins and critics' choice noms. demi moore killed it, obviously.

but this movie makes you QUEASY. it's intense body horror, and that’s why most people probably won’t watch it. we did, though, so you don’t have to. and we’re gonna break it down scene by scene: what happened, what we liked, what we didn’t like, and all the messy, bloody, grotesque details in between. buckle up.