A poisonous green liquid that guarantees eternal beauty – who wouldn’t reach for the syringe? Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley shine in Coralie Fargeat’s satirical feminist body horror comedy “The Substance“, which has the potential to become a cult classic.

High-cut tracksuits with plenty of legroom, slightly outdated moves à la Jane Fonda: Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), a former Hollywood star, has swapped her Oscar roles for a morning TV fitness show. At fifty, however, her sleazy producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid) considers her an old woman and wants her to be replaced by a younger, sexier version as quickly as possible. Elizabeth’s pent-up self-hatred begins to boil, and so the number of a doctor who has cryptically promised her that a certain substance will help her achieve the desired eternal youth comes just in time. The life-changing utensils are stored in a personalized locker in a gloomy side street.

Terribly beautiful: "The Substance" settles accounts with the beauty craze

Almost brand new

Back in her luxury loft, Elizabeth injects herself with the green substance in her snow-white, oversized bathroom. After a few seconds, body horror à la David Cronenberg begins: the spine splits, blood flows and Sue (Margaret Qualley) rises up – Elizabeth’s younger, more perfect self, while the old shell lies motionless on the floor. And suddenly there are two who are one: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of the modern age. The film is full to the brim with references to literary and film classics. You can’t help but think of “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. The only difference is that the ageing version cannot be stowed away in the attic like Dorian’s painting, but still takes part in life. There’s a shift change every seven days. One lives and loves, the other lies seemingly dead in the bathroom and is fed liquid food.

Fight against time, patriarchy and the self

For Sue, the seven days are one big party, as she immediately makes the limelight her home and becomes Elizabeth’s successor. After all, she is young and beautiful – still the currency with which women pay. Her aerobics show “Pump it up with Sue” is wonderfully exuberantly filmed, with close-ups and wide angles, vibrant, gaudy and a tongue-in-cheek homage to the 1980s. Sue sweeps across the dance floor, her teeth white, her skin smooth, her smile oversized. Glitter, latex, plastic – everything is a little out of date and completely oversexualized. And yet we are not much further away from the silver screen – thanks to Botox, BBLs and Ozempic. Once a day, the incapacitated self has to be deprived of fluids in order to stabilize the living self. Of course, things go wrong pretty quickly when Sue realizes that the rules can be bent. For every extra day she cheats herself out of, Elizabeth ages at record speed until she is monstrously disfigured. The role is tailor-made for Demi Moore, with headlines piling up about her “Botox fails”. And the tabloids try their hand at complicated math to find out how much of her fortune she has spent on beauty procedures. Being over 60 and female in Hollywood and still wanting to live and work seems provocative to many. Despite its satirical exaggeration, “The Substance” is so close to reality that a touch of documentary film resonates. If this substance really existed – some Hollywood starlets would reach for the syringe.

Cult classic in the making

Even though Coralie Fargeat quotes her way through literary and film history – Brian de Palma’s “Carrie” and Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” also send their regards – her film remains an original. “The Substance” is louder and more feminist than its inspirations. It is over the top and in your face from A to Z – which is precisely why it has the potential to become a cult classic. You don’t have to laboriously break down the metaphors here, because they are held in front of your eyes in the extreme close-ups and shouted into your ears with powerful sound design. Fargeat and some of her companions, such as Julia Ducournau with “Titane”, not only make the somewhat offbeat subgenre of body horror suitable for the masses, but also lend it a female perspective that has been lacking until now. This is not about playing moralizer. We all know that beauty ideals for women are absurd and have gotten completely out of hand with social media. Men live out their sexism on a daily basis, while women become invisible from the age of thirty. Instead of despairing at the patriarchal structures, Coralie Fargeat weaves their frustrating persistence into the most entertaining and clever film of the year. Existing as a woman in this world can be pretty miserable – a film that derails as brilliantly as “The Substance” with its grotesque humor provides more comfort than a serious examination of the subject does.