Introduction
Recently, I have found myself to be experiencing a continuous desire to watch as many new films as possible. A few days ago, I was conducting a search and came across ‘The Substance’. I had viewed the trailer for this particular movie many times, and I was extremely intrigued by the concept, however, I had not found the time to visit the cinema. As this had been on my watchlist for a while, I finally decided to view the film. From the very beginning, I can say that I was hooked. There are definitely no moments in the film that feel dull or laborious and I was positively curious as to how the story would end. Due to my adoration for this feature, I have decided to write a detailed analysis stating my interpretations.
A brief recap of the film
Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is a Hollywood actress who stars in her own aerobics TV show, however, her fame is diminishing. The producer of show, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), believes Elisabeth has outgrown her role and desires someone younger. After being released from her TV job, Elisabeth is involved in a car accident. The nurse checking her over slips a flash drive into her pocket. This contains a video explaining ‘The Substance’, a drug that creates a ‘perfect’ version of the user. After some consideration, Elisabeth eventually orders and collects the drug. She follows the instructions provided, which results in a perfected version of herself, Sue (Margaret Qualley), emerging from the flesh of her back. Sue is now in control and she quickly discovers how to stabilise herself using fluid from the back wound. The drug’s instructions indicate that the two must switch every seven days.
Sue becomes the new star of the aerobics show after charming Harvey and whilst her life is thriving, Elisabeth spends her seven days in control feeling depressed. Sue then starts to abuse the routine and remains as herself for longer than seven days. The more this occurs, the greater the effect on Elisabeth’s body as she becomes more wrinkled and aged. These consequences cannot be reversed. After Elisabeth destroys the kitchen, Sue decides she must remain as herself and continues to take fluid from the former’s back. When the supply runs out, she discovers she must switch places in order for the fluid to be regenerated. Elisabeth awakens and appears extremely aged and feeble. She chooses the terminate Sue, however, she cannot finish the process. After she revives Sue, both versions now exist at the same time. The latter is enraged at what Elisabeth was going to do and kills her.
Sue then prepares to host the ‘New Year’s Eve Show’ as her popularity has grown. Her teeth, however, begin to fall out and her nails break. She rushes back to her apartment and injects herself with the remaining activator liquid, which is only intended for ‘single use’. Instead of creating another ‘perfect’ version of herself, a horrific monster (Monstro Elisasue) emerges from her back. The creature is made up of haphazardly arranged features from both women. The beast then heads to the studio and begins to host the show. The audience is horrified with one member attempting to kill her. The film ends with this creation exploding in the street outside the studio.
Analysis
Introduction
‘The Substance’ utilises many techniques, such as, vivid and shocking imagery as well as parallels to drill in the themes of negative beauty standards and the consequences ‘playing God’ into the audience.
Beauty Standards
Beauty standards is arguably the most important aspect of the film. This theme is portrayed through the character of Elisabeth and the presentation of the male gaze. For example, she is a very physically stunning woman, however, she is viewed by society (the men in particular) as ugly due to her age. The fact that she feels the urge to inject herself with an untrustworthy drug in order to create a ‘better’ version of herself highlights how barbarous beauty standards for women are. In contrast, the men in show business, such as, Harvey and the shareholders are all presented as elderly. This demonstrates how it is the men that set these requirements as well as judge female attractiveness, however, the same rules do not apply to them. Thus, males are permitted to grow old, whilst they cast aside women who age in order to fantasise over younger girls in a predatory manner. This links to the concept of the male gaze, where women are overly-sexualised in media for the male consumer’s pleasure. This is especially illustrated by the repeated ‘butt shots’ of Sue when she is dancing as well as when the crew replay tapes of these angles tape in slow motion. This is purposefully uncomfortable to watch in order to indicate to the audience how women are viewed as objects that serve one purpose to look ‘pretty’.
Food is also utilised as a motif to illustrate the theme of beauty standards. Early on in the film, the audience is forced to watch Harvey gorge rather disgustingly on a plate full of shrimp. In a later moment, Sue pulls a chicken drumstick out of her belly button. This piece of meat bears similarities to Elisabeth’s leg that becomes wrinkled due to Sue’s abuse of ‘The Substance’. Furthermore, one of the most memorable scenes features Elisabeth messily preparing all of the foods listed in the cook-book given to her by Harvey. This gift was a leaving present to ‘keep [her] busy’ after she was dismissed from the her TV show due to her age. Thus, all of the aforementioned scenes display a link between food and age. Harvey appears older than Elisabeth but is repulsed by her elderliness. He fires her from her role, however, his age does not affect his job. Harvey is also allowed to grotesquely devour his food and not maintain any etiquette, where as, he believes women have an image to maintain and ‘pretty girls should always smile’. As he associates Elisabeth with old-age, she is no longer viewed as beautiful with any body standards to maintain and so he gifts her a recipe book.
The subject of strict beauty standards is persistent throughout the film. This is exhibited through numerous shock value scenes, indicating the treacherous lengths that both Elisabeth and Sue will go to be considered ‘perfect’. For instance, the latter is determined to stay in control and goes against the drug’s instructions by refusing to switch back to Elisabeth. In doing do, she continuously takes the back fluid from her older self, even though, she can see the skin around the wound is beginning to turn black. This also causes Elisabeth’s body to age and wrinkle. As Sue does this, she curses her with slurs, such as, ‘old’ and ‘fat’. Thus, she is willing to physically destroy the original version of herself in order to maintain perfection. This therefore demonstrates the horrifically negative effects of severe body standards for women. When Sue eventually switches back with Elisabeth, the latter contemplates terminating the experience. Ultimately, she cannot go through with killing her other persona as this would mean remaining as only her elderly, ‘has-been’ self. Consequently, Elisabeth’s insecurities forbid her to end the program and have a life of her own, which further illustrates to the audience the cruelty of female beauty standards.
The final act of the movie employs horrifying imagery to show Sue unwillingly experiencing changes to her body that affect her beauty. As she prepares to host the ‘New Year’s Eve Show’, her teeth begin to fall out and her nails break off her fingertips. Thus, she is put in the place of Elisabeth and is now the ‘ugly’ one. Sue now decides she must create a ‘better’ version of herself and injects the serum into her body. Instead, a monstrous combination of the two women emerges from the flesh of her back. This creature horrifies the audience members of the show and they are presented as very dramatically screaming as well as attempting to destroy the beast. The treatment of ‘Monstro Elisasue’ could therefore be an allegory for how women, who are perceived as unattractive, are met with cruelty and intense judgment. Furthermore, after the creature is decapitated, blood aggressively erupts from wound and covers the elderly shareholders in the audience. This indicates how men ‘bleed’ women with their unreasonable beauty standards until there is nothing left, completely destroying them mentally and physically.
During the close of the film, parallels are used to illustrate a final reference to beauty standards. This is shown through the remains of Elisabeth reminiscing on a time when she was adored for her beauty. Her head breaks away from the decaying body of ‘Monstro Elisasue’ and crawls towards her star on the walk of fame. She lies there, smiles and melts into a pool of blood. This mirrors the first scene in the movie where Elisabeth stands over her star surrounded by numerous paparazzi. The years pass and eventually no one cares to look at her marker and a man accidentally covers the star in ketchup. Thus, this final moment is extremely important to the crux of the story, highlighting even further that the purpose for Elisabeth’s actions over the course of the film were for her to be admired and considered ‘beautiful’ again. Additionally, the shot of the spilt ketchup is identical to blood on the star at the very end, foreshadowing Elisabeth’s fate and also implying that this was ‘set in stone’ from the very beginning. This suggests that the negative effects of strong beauty standards will always have consequences unless changes are made in society.
The theme of ‘playing God’
The theme of ‘playing God’ is demonstrated throughout ‘The Substance’, such as, during the gruesome scene of Sue surfacing through the flesh of Elisabeth’s back. This is sacrilegious against the usual purity and beauty of a mother birthing a child. Thus, the drug itself and its results go against God and nature by creating life in a profane way. Elisabeth is punished for her defiance of natural order when Sue begins to abuse the seven day balance. This begins when the former’s finger becomes wrinkled and serves as a cruel reminder to her that all humans must age. Eternal life is not something to be sought out and thus, Elisabeth suffers the consequences of her unholy actions. This replicates real life incidents of those who abuse beauty treatments, such as, plastic surgery as well as fillers that migrate and leave its user looking older than before. Thus, the film serves as a warning to those who attempt to tamper with the natural aging process due their warped vision of beauty.
The punishment for ‘playing God’ is further illustrated towards the final act of the movie when Sue uses the remaining activator liquid to create a better version of herself. Instead, a monster is created. This also goes against the ‘single use’ instruction of the drug, however, there is a lot of fluid left. This suggests that the experiment was setting them up to fail from the very beginning by giving Sue the temptation of using the drug again. Therefore, the experience was never intended to function properly as the entire process defies all natural and physical laws.
Conclusion:
In summary, the themes of ‘The Substance’ are represented very clearly throughout. The most persistent is the concept of negative beauty standards, which is present in all scenes. The lengths the characters will go, such as, ‘playing God’ to align with these measures (devised by men) are demonstrated to have severe consequences. This implies a valuable message to the audience of how damaging these standards are. Eternal life cannot be achieved and aging is a natural process that should be respected. Thus, ‘The Substance’ is an extremely important film that hopefully teaches women to reject these conventions and to be content in their already perfect bodies.
Emily Harris 
Leave a comment