The Substance is an indie masterpiece destined to turn filmmaking on its head overnight with its furious satire, retro techniques and list of B-movie references so long it reminds me of Pulp Fiction, another Franken-movie built out of references to French New Wave, more than anything else. The newer movie is even more Franken, building itself out of ‘80s body horror movies with an injection of gender horror and a snap-back escalation of the practical effects that make these movies so beloved, as if decades of innovation had stretched on unbroken. Like many genre revivals, it immediately enters the conversation for best body horror movie ever made.
Los Angeles- Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), who has an Oscar and a star on the Hollywood walk of fame to help hold onto the distant memory of her career, is suddenly fired from her longtime gig as an ‘80s-era fitness instructor, studio executive Harvey (Dennis Quaid) arbitrarily deciding that she’s too old. Despondent, she is approached by a secret society testing something referred to only as “the substance,” which causes Sparkle to produce an “other self,” an imperfect younger copy of herself with which she shares a consciousness, who introduces herself as Sue (Margaret Qualley).
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Reel Entropy 