The Substance

Every scene of this film wowed me at TIFF. The casting, atmosphere, visual and sound design, music, and, of course, the symbolism of it all.

Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley couldn't have been more perfectly cast as leads. Their devotion to the process and trust in their director was clear to me. Their vulnerability pulls this off and leads to a very compelling fever dream.

Everyone involved should be really proud of this film. To me, it's a future cult classic.

It is body/psychological horror, so don't expect jump scares. It's deeper than that. I found myself getting lost in reflection during the film (as a 47 year old woman it really spoke to me).

But it's also extremely fun to watch!

Take it seriously as a true work of art, but don't at the same time, and you'll have a blast.

Was an enjoyable watch but the last 20-30 minutes got kinda silly and dumb, it lost its intelligence and subtlety too say the least and went to pure dumb gross out scenery, completely unnecessary especially when the messaging wasn't exactly subtle and was evident throughout the entire movie, from the very premise itself tbh, point is they could a ended on a much stronger note before the final change as it added nothing too what it was trying to say or show, not that it should turn anyone off from watching it, it's a good movie that will keep you interested from start too finish but should've been 20 min shorter.

This movie really stuck with me for a while and was thought provoking. Luckily at the grotesque bits I was looking away so I wasn't plagued by nightmares like the other person I watched it with. There are very graphic scenes, but I feel it added to the campiness and I didn't see the really gross ones. The message was clear cut and necessary in this day and age. My only real question that I never felt was addressed was how separate and connected their minds were, overall they both acted as entirely separate beings and I thought part of the point was that they were the same being but the disconnect between the characters mentally and their actions and how they affected each other was surprising.

The better version of you is you. Not to be someone else nor someone younger or prettier. I like the message that packed in sarcastic way. At the end of the day, you need to choose, your own beauty or beauty with the monster within. Getting older and not pretty anymore is natural. Getting less famous and attractive is the consequences of life. Be grateful of what you have, and being not satisfy with what we have, only will lead us to the disaster. And remember karma does exist. You plant flowers, you will see the beauty. So, it is worth to watch. You will not see scary thing if you understand the message.

Let me start with the positives. There are a LOT of them. The casting? Perfect. The acting? Pretty flawless. All performances drew me in and added greatly to the story. The concept was phenomenal and super interesting. A really great idea for a movie. The cinematography was unique and very good. The score also greatly added to the suspense. The first 2 thirds of the movie executed all of these things to a T

So why 6 stars? THE ENDING. Took the believable and suspenseful story aspects and threw them out the window in favor of indulging the director's Cronenberg fantasy and desire to max out the special effects budget. It came off as completely disorganized, almost like they had no idea what to do with the ending or any desire to make it interesting. A movie with so much going for it and I left the theater disappointed.

Side notes: enough with the butt shots. We get what you're trying to do, that's enough. Also, if you want to disgust your audience, put in the work in the writers room. Adding over the top squelching sounds to almost every scene is lazy.