Summary
The full trailer forThe Substancehas arrived. The upcoming horror movie is the follow-up feature from French director Coralie Fargeat, who burst onto the scene with the visceralRevengein 2017. Demi Moore stars as an aerobics star who is fired after turning 50 who receives an offer to inject herself with an unknown substance that promises to turn her into her best, youngest self. EarlyThe Substancereviewsout of the movie’s Cannes premiere have earned the movie a solid 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
MUBIhas nowshared the first official full trailer forThe Substance. Check it out below:
In addition to introducing the main characters played by Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid, the beginning of the trailer sets up the ways that Moore’s character Elisabeth Sparkle feels old and forgotten, including watching a billboard of her face being torn down. However, her use of the titular substance quickly turns from a dream to a nightmare as body horror imagery flashes across the screen, including an eyeball with multiple pupils and a stitched-together spine.
The Substance Seems Like A Worthy Follow-Up To Revenge
Coralie Fargeat’s Themes And Vision Are Expanding
WhiletheSubstancetrailerstill does not give too much away about the goings-on of the movie, it offers a much closer glimpse as to what can be expected from Fargeat’s sophomore feature. The movie is a long time coming, asit arrives seven years after the director’s debut feature. In between, she has only helmed a single episode of the Netflix showThe Sandman, which she did not write, so her singular vision as a writer-director has not been put to the test for a second time since 2017.
Before helmingRevenge, Coralie Fargeat wrote and directed three short films between 2003 and 2014.
Revengewas Fargeat’s take on the exploitation subgenre of the rape-revenge movie, deftly weaving in modern feminist themes while remaining in conversation with the brutality and grotesquerie of 1970s grindhouse cinema. From this trailer,The Substanceseems to be doing much of the same whileexpanding the scope of her themes to a much broader view of the way society treats women’s bodies. This broader scope is also being applied to the genre elements, as the body horror elements seem to be being pushed far beyond the normal limits of what can happen to a human body.
Revenge: Ending & What Happened To Jen Explained
A closer look at Revenge’s heroine Jen, her bloody route to vengeance, her fight to survive and the meaning of her fate.
It remains to be seen exactly what happens to Elisabeth Sparkle and those in her orbit inThe Substance, but it seems very likely to be both horrible and compelling. With so many incongruous images presented together in a single trailer, the way that they are linked together by a single narrative throughline should present a twisty, uncomfortable thrill ride. However, with Demi Moore holding everything together with what looks to be one of her most committed and compelling performances, the movie could very well be an instant genre classic.
The Substance
Cast
Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading celebrity, turns to a mysterious drug that promises to restore her youth by creating a younger, more beautiful version of herself. But splitting time between her original and new body leads to horrifying consequences as her alternate self, Sue, begins to unravel her life in a disturbing body-horror descent.
