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THE SUBSTANCE MOVIE REVIEW
We’ve never seen Demi Moore like this before. Coralie Fargeat’s, director of Revenge, second feature film The Substance is a wild combination of David Cronenberg’s body-horror and Frank Henenlotter’s exploitation sensibilities. Demi Moore plays Elizabeth Sparkle, whose stardom has faded from Hollywood icon to hosting a tv workout show ala Jane Fonda. Through a severe accident, she is presented a solution to her problems: The Substance. It is a black-market drug that can replicate your cells and creates a younger, better version of yourself. Once Sparkle decides to use the drug through a series of cryptic directions, the metamorphosis into her younger self is horrific to say the least. As older Elizabeth sleeps for the next 7 days, the younger version of her “Sue” is born, played here by Margaret Qualley. Sue then takes over Sparkle’s life and reclaims her identity, but at a weekly cost. Much like other horror films, there are rules to making a deal with the devil. Sue and Elizabeth need to trade places every week or they face gruesome consequences. The TV studio head Harvey (Dennis Quaid), doesn’t make either of their lives any easier by pushing his grotesquely toxic masculinity to darkly humorous effect. Fargeat’s approach is kinetic, disgusting, and often very funny. The Substance is a standout mainly due to Moore and Qualley’s incredible performances; they do not hold anything back. Listen as Wright, Chris, Marco, and Frank discuss if The Substance is the new “no holds barred” horror hit or if its destined to only become a midnight cult classic.
DIRECTED BY: Coralie Fargeat
STARRING: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Gore Abrams, Robin Greer, Tom Morton, Hugo Diego Garcia, Phillip Schurer, Joseph Balderrama
YOUR REVIEWERS
Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss)
Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas in 1992 where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this community of critics. While Brian eventually followed his heart to a new family, Chris continues on with a cast of colorful folks from all over the country (and a few others). You can also check out Chris in his videocast, along with Martin Thomas and Danni Danger, that One Of Us does with our friends at Bell of Lost Souls: Crossover Event. He also regularly guests on the video game website Rage Select. Follow Chris on Twitter and Facebook and check out his Amazon Wish List.
Frank Calvillo (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)
Born and raised in South Texas, Frank currently lives in Austin and has been in love with movies ever since his father showed him some Three Stooges shorts when he was five years old. Today he loves all kinds of film, regardless of era, country, budget or genre. He believes every film has an audience and is at least one person’s favorite movie. After writing for Sight & Sound and Slackerwood, he now writes for Cinapse where his increasingly random taste in all flavors of cinema (from Rashomon to Mars Attacks!) continues to thrive. His ultimate goal is to write a script for his boyhood crush, Michelle Pfeiffer.
Marco Noyola (Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Audio Editor)
By day, Marco is a mild-mannered office worker, but by night he is a mild-mannered movie watcher. He does other mild-mannered stuff too.
“You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody!”
Wright Sulek (Screener Squad, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Trash in the Can, Audio Editor)
Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’. He currently co-hosts with longtime friend, Eric Samaniego, where they talk shop about the grimiest, trashiest, lost gems of movies on their show, ‘Trash in the Can’. Wright also guests and hosts reviews on Screener Squad and Highly Suspect Reviews as well as co-hosts Digital Noise with Chris Cox.
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