The Substance - The scoop and digest

Coralie Fargeat writes and directs her second feature after Revenge.

Demi Moore - Elisabeth Sparkle

Margaret Qualley - Sue

Dennis Quaid - Harvey

Gore Abrams - Oliver

Hugo Diego Garcia - Diego

Oscar Lesage - Troy

Summary

On her 50th birthday, Elisabeth Sparkle, star of aerobics TV show Sparkle Your Life, is fired by her sleazy boss Harvey.

After seeing her billboard taken down, Elisabeth has a car accident, but miraculously escapes unharmed.

At the hospital, for being a 'good' candidate, a nurse gives her a mysterious flash drive labelled "The Substance," with promotional video telling her that one injection will release a younger, better version of herself.

Using Activator fluid, 'Sue' is born through her back.

The only rule is they must share bodies every seven days, without exception.

Over time, Sue grows tired of 'respecting the balance', leading to disgusting consequences.

Remember you are one

Feminist body horror is a satirical take on celebrity culture, youth and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Gnarly climax goes absolutely nuts, culminating into a delightful symphony of blood and guts.

Fargeat cites David Cronenberg and John Carpenter as primary influences, and boy, does it show, as monstrous hybrid of Elisabeth and Sue is like Rabid (1977), The Thing (1982) and The Fly (1986) had a baby with Brian Yuzna's Society and Peter Jackson's Braindead.

Aside from amazing prosthetics, Moore and Qualley are good fun, and a special mention must go to cinematography and effective sound design.

For all its superlatives, principle reminds of Seconds (1966), which by pure coincidence, has Elisabeth Fraser playing Plump Blonde.

However, all concerned should be sued for plagiarism, as this 'unofficially' remakes Brian Thomas Jones' 1988 film The Rejuvenator (partly inspired by Roger Corman's The Wasp Woman, remade in 1995).

Ruth Warren (a rich actress), has gotten too old for leading roles, so takes Dr. Ashton's age-reversing serum to regain beauty.

She dubs her youthful self as Elizabeth, but is blissfully unaware that formula involves withdrawing fluids from brains of dead bodies.

Unforeseen side effects transform her into a hideous monster.

Err, yeah.