Sydney Film Festival Review - The Substance

 

“Remember you are one.”

Stylish, sexy, and squelchy, The Substance is a grotesquely blood-splattered and fiercely satirical feminist body horror that revels in its campy chaos with fully committed performances from Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Denis Quaid, a fantastic sci-fi premise, and some insanely impressive practical makeup effects, that combine for explosively hilarious results! 

Discussion Points:

Truly brings a whole new meaning to being “gagged.” I will be the first to admit that I am probably not the target demographic for The Substance, a feminist body horror that takes creature inspiration from Jekyll & Hyde, The Fly, The Thing and heck even Minion from Spy Kids and style cues from Cronenberg, Tarantino and Edgar Wright. I’m not a huge horror fan, nor am I female and constantly being targeted with beauty products - and yet I still had an absolute blast with this in a packed State Theatre as the closing film of this years Sydney Film Festival. We had people cheering, we had people throwing up, we had people leaving throughout, we had people clapping spontaneously, we had laughs, we had gasps - we had it all. It’s a sharp sci-fi satire that pokes exactly at our media and cultural obsession with beauty and sex appeal that descends into utter chaos in the final 30 minutes in some of the most crazy Cronenbergian body horror ever seen. Demi Moore gets to flex some serious muscle, dramatically, comedically and physically, and Margaret Qualley continues to prove she’s a fearless actress open to anything. And then there’s the scene stealing Dennis Quaid as an egotistical misogynistic TV producer who’s so over the top it’s mesmerising. Definitely not for everyone, but for people who enjoy horror comedies, body horror, horror satires or feminist satires - this is the film for you!