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.
The holiday weekend means a light week for new horror releases, but it does bring the return of Dark Castle Entertainment to select theaters. It’s being joined by 6 new horror movies.
Here’s all the new horror releasing June 29, 2026 – July 3, 2026!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
You wished for it. The highest-grossing horror movie of the year (so far), Curry Barker’s Obsession, arrived on Digital on June 30.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”), Inde Navarette (“Superman & Lois”), Cooper Tomlinson (“That’s a Bad Idea,” Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (The Death That Awaits), and Emmy Award-nominee Andy Richter (“Conan,” Elf) star.
Based on a story by director James Kondelik (Behind The Walls) and a screenplay by Canadian writer Victor Rose, survival thriller Pitfall headed home to Digital on June 30. Family is murder in this Cineverse release.
In Pitfall, a young man becomes separated from his friends in the woods and plunges into a ten-foot pit lined with spikes, impaling his leg and leaving him helpless. As reality sinks in and his situation grows dire, he realizes the fall wasn’t an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
The Amityville IP leans into Jaws with Amityville Shark House, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday too, as it released on Digital June 30.
Will Collazo Jr. (Amityville Thanksgiving) and Shawn C. Phillips (Amityville Karen) co-direct from a script they wrote with Julie Anne Prescott.
In the movie, after discovering an ominous shark idol hidden beneath the decaying floorboards, Richard unknowingly awakens an ancient and savage force. As the entity begins to merge with him, a quiet coastal town descends into blood-soaked chaos.
With each victim claimed, the monstrous predator grows stronger, fueling a cult’s belief that their dark god has been reborn. Now, the race is on to stop the carnage before evil consumes everything in its path.
Phillips and Prescott also star alongside Tasha Tacosa, Maritza Brikisak, Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Adam Marino, and Carl Solomon.
Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD as of June 30 is Jacked, directed by John Fucile from a script he co-wrote with Simon Fraser.
The synopsis: “Set in the summer of 1987, JACKED follows two small-town teenagers whose day at the lake turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down and they encounter a violent stalker.”
Marla Jean Robison, Tom Koch, Anthony Cipriani, Wynn Reichert, Kam Perez and Bella Marie star.
Get ready to work up a killer sweat and maybe spill some blood with Slashercise, a workout meets slasher hybrid that arrived exclusively on Bloodstream on July 1.
Written and directed by Ama Lea (Deathcember), the retro-styled feature follows “a masked killer known only as Meathead as he stalks the fitness clubs of Los Angeles, turning workout sessions into blood-soaked nightmares. As the city’s top trainers are picked off one by one, a group of determined fitness fanatics must fight back before they become the next bodies on the mat.”
Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), John Bloom (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Sarah French (Blind), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Sarah Nicklin (V/H/S/Halloween), Diana Prince (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Jared Rivet (The Once and Future Smash), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), and Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) star.
After a record-breaking box office run, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ feature debut is heading back to theaters with bonus footage. AMC Theatres is unleashing Backrooms: Everything Must Go Editiontoday, July 3.
In the film written by Will Soodik, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsvestar.
AMC describes this release as a “theatrically exclusive post-credit” with additional footage from Kane Parsons. Expect 16 minutes of bonus footage, with the new version clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm and Dark Castle Entertainment are back with Lockbox, in select theaters July 3. It adapts Soren Narnia‘s Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop” by Emmy-winning playwright Justin Yoffe.
In Lockbox, “Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.”
Lou Taylor Pucci (Touch Me, Evil Dead), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms) star.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by Lockbox.
Be careful who you let in. Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci star in Lockbox, only in select theaters this Friday. Get tickets.
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