A notorious horror movie premiered at this year’s Cannes Festival, causing walkouts and garnering acclaim – it’s called The Substance, and its first teaser trailer is here.
“This year’s goriest, bloodiest, craziest shocker,” one critic wrote. “An absolute onslaught of audacity— sound, imagery, and blood, tackling Hollywood’s obsession with female beauty,” another review reads.
While a third write-up makes a big claim: “We whooped, we gasped, and we clapped. It’s the grossest thing you will see all year.”
The teaser comes with an ominous logline, rather than a synopsis: “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? You. Only better in every way. You’ve got to try this new product. It changed my life.
“It generates another you. A new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect, you. And there’s only one rule: You share time. One week for you. One week for the new you. Seven days each. A perfect balance. Easy. Right? If you respect the balance… what could possibly go wrong?”
From the first wave of reviews, we have a rough idea of the story: Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging actress who takes a mysterious drug to become a younger, ‘better’ version of herself (Margaret Qualley).
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It’s already been hailed as a modern body-horror classic, so without overexplaining, let’s just say the consequences of such a procedure aregrisly.
According to IndieWire, the movie caused“plenty of expected walkouts”, and the response hasn’t been unanimously positive.
For example, Little White Lieswrote: “There’s no compassion here, and certainly no catharsis – just more hagspoiltation and a sense we’ve done this all before.”
The Times was similarly scathing,writing: “It is puerile, pointless and intellectually specious, deploying hollow Beauty Myth rhetoric to justify endless seedy close-ups of Qualley’s bum.”
Cameron Frew is Deputy TV & Movies Editor on Dexerto’s UK team. He’s an action movie aficionado, ’80s obsessive, and Oscars enthusiast. He loves Invincible, but he’s also a fan of The Boys, the MCU, The Chosen, and much more. He has previously written for LadBible, UniLad, and Flickering Myth. You can contact him at: cameron.frew@dexerto.com.
