Movies
‘The Substance’ Review – Absurdist Horror Comedy Unleashes Jaw-Dropping Body Horror [TIFF]
Writer/Director Coralie Fargeat set the bar high for herself in 2017, with her debut feature Revenge delivering a visceral, feminine twist to the rape-revenge thriller that climaxed in an epic bloodbath. So much that it seemed nearly impossible to top. Yet the filmmaker does just that with sophomore effort The Substance, transforming a familiar concept into something so entertaining and grotesquely over the top that it keeps you firmly in its grip until an epic, grand guignol finish.
Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a Jane Fonda-type aging starlet still kicking butt as an aerobic instructor on a morning show, much to the chagrin of her sleazy producer boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid). Elisabeth is already feeling the Hollywood pressures that apply to older women in show business when she overhears Harvey’s intention to swap her out with an emerging ingenue. When she’s tipped off to a mysterious new anti-aging treatment, The Substance, Elisabeth realizes she could possess the answer to her and Harvey’s problems. The Substance provides Elisabeth with exactly what she wanted- a younger version of herself with career ambition in spades. But it comes with strict rules and gnarly consequences if broken.
The Substance is a natural, stylish evolution of Revenge in visuals, form, and theme. Elisabeth, and her younger counterpart, Sue (Margaret Qualley), represent classic feminine archetypes. Sue, particularly, shares Revenge’s affinity for bubblegum pink-loving girlies with big star or heart earrings and flaming mythical creatures. The men are similarly crude and repulsive, though with a heightened sense of exaggerated absurdity. An early scene sees Elisabeth trying to placate her boss Harvey during a work lunch, but the extreme fish-eye closeups of Quaid eviscerating shrimp in the most barbaric fashion, complete with slurping, squelching sounds, ensures every bit of Elisabeth’s disgust is palpable. It’s a world where no one is likable, a surprising gift that unshackles the narrative and its characters, letting them be at their absolute worst for our amusement (and disgust).
The sound design team does an incredible job delivering a constant assault on the senses, a methodical means of getting you squirming in your seat long before the body horror arrives. It’s matched by a vibrant production design, a bold, colorful blending of the ‘80s and the present to further instill the modern yet otherworldly setting. This is a world that’s based on reality, but isn’t bound to it, letting Fargeat ramp up the insanity at a measured but brisk clip.
Fargeat isn’t just taking aim at the unrealistic beauty standards that plague Hollywood here but the way that those standards create vicious, increasingly shorter cycles of even more impossible standards. The harder the attempt to evade age, the more catastrophic it seems to get. The push and pull between Elisabeth and Sue, both ultimately bound by the same body and desires yet torn apart by age, is made all the more riveting by the fearless performances by Moore and Qualley- both operating in exquisitely rare form, unafraid to get vulnerable or gross.
And boy, does this movie put them both through the wringer in the gross department. Prosthetics and makeup effects designer Pierre Olivier Persin (Border, “Game of Thrones”) also certainly does his part in bringing the jaw-dropping ick factor.
As over-the-top and gloriously hardcore as the finale goes, the precise type that calls some of the goriest of the early ‘90s to mind, it’s the sense of humor that surprises most. Fargeat is having a blast lambasting Hollywood’s skittishness around aging, pointing out the absurdity of it all at every turn. It yields a new camp horror classic, bold in its approach and delightfully deranged. It’s as funny as it is revolting, existing in a heightened sense of reality that’s as hypnotic as off-putting.
Fargeat helms with assured confidence, delivering a tactile visual feast for the senses. Considering just how insane the horror gets, complete with a protracted finale that more than earns the robust runtime, well, here’s to hoping it doesn’t take Fargeat quite so long to release her next horror manifesto. The Substance is a campy body horror revelation.
The Substance screened at TIFF and releases in theaters on September 20, 2024.
This week’s new releases offer everything from giant monsters to Spielberg aliens to ass-kicking martial artists and even an ash-eating medical student. Do we have your interest?
Here’s all the new genre movies that released on Friday, June 12, 2026!
These aren’t all HORROR movies, but we want you to be aware of them all the same…
Norwegian creature feature Kraken is now available on Digital.
The film was also unleashed in select theaters. Check your local listings.
In the monster movie Kraken, “unnatural behavior in wild salmon, followed by inexplicable deaths in Norway’s deepest fjord, points to the mythical Kraken. The ancient, multi-armed monster has awakened, ready to crush everything that moves or makes a sound.”
Pål Øie (The Tunnel) directs Samuel Goldwyn Films’ Kraken from a script by Vilde Eide, Kjersti Jelen Rasmussen, and Natasha Arthur. Sara Khorami, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Øyvind Brandtzæg, Jenny Evensen, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes, Jon Erik Myre, Hans Morten Hansen, Steinar Klouman Hallert, and Filip Bargee Ramberg star.
An all girls trip into the desert for escapism fun instead implodes in violence in the revenge thriller Find Your Friends, now streaming only on Shudder.
In the film, “Amber and her four best friends flee Los Angeles for a girls’ trip in Joshua Tree, only to find themselves unwelcome in a desert town simmering with quiet hostility. As isolation sets in and encounters with aggressive locals grow more threatening, festering resentments within the group begin to surface.
“What begins as fun and reckless escape spirals into a violent struggle for control and survival, as past wounds and present dangers collide in a night that turns their trip into a nightmare.”
Bella Thorne (The Babysitter), Chloe Cherry (“Euphoria”), Helena Howard (I Saw the TV Glow), Sophia Ali (Uncharted), Zion Moreno (“Gossip Girl”), and Chris Bauer (“True Blood”) star in the feature debut by writer/director Izabel Pakzad.
Steven Spielberg is more sure today than he was when he made Close Encounters and ET that aliens are very real, and with Disclosure Day, he aims to make you a believer too.
Okay so it’s not a horror movie, but the sci-fi blockbuster is now playing in theaters.
The vague synopsis for Disclosure Day reads: “If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to seven billion people. We are coming close to Disclosure Day.”
The film stars SAG winner and Oscar® nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (Challengers, The Crown), Oscar® winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Kingsman franchise), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters, The Perfect Couple) and two-time Oscar® nominee Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin).
Based on a story by Spielberg, the screenplay is by David Koepp, whose previous work with Spielberg includes the scripts for Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Combined, those films earned more than $3 billion worldwide. Koepp also wrote the script for Jurassic World Rebirth.
Steven Spielberg is of course no stranger to extraterrestrial encounters, directing two of the greatest alien movies of all time: Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 and E.T. in 1982. It’s an arena he returned to in 2005, directing an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.
Here in 2026, Steven Spielberg sees hope in the existence of aliens. He notes in the final trailer for Disclosure Day, “How will disclosure change us? I believe for the better.”
Another movie that’s not a horror movie but worth mentioning here is the violent martial arts revenge thriller The Furious, which is now playing in theaters from Lionsgate.
Xie Miao (The New Legend of Shaolin) and Joe Taslim (Mortal Kombat) star.
After his daughter is kidnapped by a criminal network and he receives no help from the corrupt police, Wang Wei sets out on a rampage to find her himself.
His only ally is Navin, a relentless journalist whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. Fueled by a furious vengeance, the unlikely duo ruthlessly fights against the kidnappers.
Kenji Tanigaki (Enter the Fat Dragon) directs from a script by Mak Tin Shu (Kung Fu Jungle), Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan Sin (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In), and Frank Hui.
A disturbing weight loss craze involving human ashes opens up a haunting world of hurt for a young woman in Saccharine, which is now available on Digital outlets at home.
From writer/director Natalie Erika James (Relic, Apartment 7A), the Australian supernatural body horror film follows lovelorn medical student Hana, who becomes terrorized by a sinister force after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze: eating human ashes.
Midori Francis (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Danielle Macdonald (Patti Cake$), and Madeleine Madden (“The Wheel of Time”) star in Natalie Erika James’ latest nightmare.
From directors Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, I Am Frankelda is billed as the first ever full length stop motion movie from Mexico, and it’s now streaming on Netflix.
The history-making stop-motion film is a dark fantasy set in a world of monsters.
Here’s the synopsis: “In 19th-century Mexico, Frankelda is a gifted writer whose dark tales are ignored and dismissed. Forced to suppress her voice, she refuses to give up, even as many try to silence her. But when she is thrust into her subconscious, the very monsters she created come to life.
“Guided by Herneval, a tormented prince trapped between dreams and nightmares, she must restore balance between fiction and reality before both realms collapse. Meanwhile, the sinister writer Procustes and his conspirators plot to seize control. As Frankelda and Herneval grow closer, their bond becomes both a strength and a curse.
“To rewrite their fate, she must confront a love that defies existence and reclaim her power as a storyteller—before dark forces consume her imagination and reveal horrors beyond her creation.”
The directors said in a joint statement, “As brothers, we grew up inventing worlds together, drawing, playing, imagining. Over time we understood that fictional characters were not only companions but guides. Sometimes they felt closer than the people around us. They provided us courage, wisdom, and solace. We believe fiction is not an escape from reality but a way of understanding it. A way of converting truth into palatable chunks. I Am Frankelda comes from a lifelong love of storytelling.”
Mireya Mendoza, Arturo Mercado Jr., and Luis Leonardo Suarez lead the voice cast.
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature is a macabre beauty.” Meagan also notes in her review, “I Am Frankelda is a gothic fantasy feature whose boundless creativity is matched by its ambition.”
The lines of reality and delusion blur in Time of Death, now available on Digital.
Michael Kelly (“The Penguin,” Dawn of the Dead 2004) stars with Kevin Pollak (End of Days), Mena Suvari (Vampires of the Velvet Lounge), and Dennis Haysbert (Send Help).
In the horror-thriller, “When a prisoner vanishes without a trace, Detective Frank Morley (Michael Kelly) is sent to a decaying prison on the verge of shutdown. What begins as a routine investigation quickly spirals into a dangerous search for answers.”
Will Wernick (Escape Room 2017, Follow Me) directs from a script by Jason Rosen. They also produce alongside Kelly Delson, Jeff Delson, and Kyle David Crosby.
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