The Substance (2024) movie poster

The Substance (2024)

"Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself?"
ThumbScore
👍 71%Google users liked it ⓘ
Critics Score
🎬 84%
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Where to Watch

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Subtitles on OpenSubtitles.org: English · Español · Español (Latinoamérica) · Español (España)
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Director
Runtime
2h 21m
Rated
R
Country
France, United Kingdom, United States of America
Language
English
TMDB Rating
7.1/10 (5,766 votes)
Rotten Tomatoes
89%
Metacritic
78

Cast

Demi Moore as Elisabeth · 68% avg
Margaret Qualley as Sue · 62% avg
Dennis Quaid as Harvey · 70% avg
Edward Hamilton-Clark as Fred
Gore Abrams as Oliver
Oscar Lesage as Troy
Christian Erickson as Man at Diner
Robin Greer as Male Nurse

Is The Substance good?

Most people think so. 71% of audiences gave it a thumbs up, by Google's archived audience score. Critics gave it 84%.

Where it ranks on ThumbScore

Rank in its genre
#653 / 1168 · Horror
Rank in its year
#62 / 163 · 2024

By audience score, among films with 500 or more votes.

Overview

A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself. Wikipedia ↗

About the Film

The Substance is a 2024 French body horror satire directed by Coralie Fargeat. Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading Hollywood star and fitness instructor who, upon being fired on her 50th birthday, discovers a black-market drug called "The Substance" that creates a younger, more beautiful version of herself — Sue, played by Margaret Qualley — from her own body. The catch: they must alternate lives, switching bodies every seven days, and the balance between them must be maintained precisely.

When Sue begins taking more than her allotted time, Elisabeth's body deteriorates grotesquely, and the consequences of their imbalanced arrangement escalate into body horror of extraordinary extremity. Coralie Fargeat crafted one of the most visually audacious and thematically pointed horror films of the decade, using increasingly graphic body horror as a metaphor for the beauty industry's consumption and disposal of women. Demi Moore delivered the bravest performance of her career, appearing in states of extreme physical vulnerability that directly confronted Hollywood's treatment of aging actresses.

The Substance earned over $80 million worldwide on a $17.5 million budget.

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