It’s not cool to be a celebrity and get old. A woman takes a drug that creates a replicant of her—just younger and more beautiful. But will she follow the rules that are set, or will it all go to hell?
The Substance is a dark, body horror satirical comedy about getting older and wrinkly. In the movie, we follow a celebrity who is fading away because of her age, and she’s offered a special drug that creates a replicant of her. But you know this won’t end well—for the woman or her replicant—because one of them becomes more famous, while the other one lives in the shadow.
I really enjoyed The Substance as an entertainment movie. I don’t feel it has much to say about getting older and the desire to stay young forever. I’ve seen a lot of better movies in that department. It’s not a movie with deeply developed characters or meaningful dialogue. However, as an entertainment movie with a lot of gory, practical effects, it’s pretty solid. It’s so nice to see good old gory practical effects again instead of charmless CGI.
The movie is gory, but not that gory—because when you deal with practical effects, it’s more charming, and it just puts a smile on my face. Toward the end, it really takes off, and there’s especially one scene with a boob coming out of an eye socket that was both cool and disturbing.
My main issue with the movie is that it’s way too long. It should’ve been 40 minutes shorter. It’s a great-looking movie, and the cinematography is world-class, but the pacing is way off. The universe in The Substance is pretty small, so it should have had a runtime of around 100 minutes. There’s not that much you can drag out with so few characters, and it feels a little samey.
You can tell this is a European movie. Something like this wouldn’t be made in the U.S.—which is fine, because who really cares about Hollywood anymore with their generic, boring, lifeless, censored movies? The Substance is a fresh breath of air that we all need if we love movies. It should entertain you if you enjoy a lot of blood and gore, as well as some crazy characters willing to do anything to maintain their beauty and popularity.