‘The Substance’ (2024)
The picture of Elisabeth Sparkle
‘From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory;
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.’— William Shakespeare, Sonnet 1
I warn you now that my article contains spoilers. A few necessary references to the film are required.
I had seen the trailer — which I must admit did not excite me — for The Substance (2024) written and directed by Coralie Fargeat and knew the story's bare bones. This film has been defined as a “satirical body horror” which it is, but, it is so much more than these limiting definitions suggest.
It is one of the best horror films I have ever watched. It stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid, and follows a fading celebrity who uses a black-market drug that temporarily — for 7 days — creates a much…
