'Traumatised' film fans give verdicts on Demi Moore's The Substance
by Hannah Mcdonald · Mail Online'Traumitised' film fans today gave their verdicts on Demi Moore's controversial 'body horror' film The Substance - after dozens of cinemagoers walked out in minutes.
TikTokers were united in the belief that the film was gory and stomach-churning, just for some this proved to be an attraction.
The Substance aims to tackle the issue of impossible Hollywood beauty standards and sees Demi play the role of Elisabeth Sparkle.
Unceremoniously sacked as she hits her 50th birthday, Elisabeth discovers a black-market drug which can create a 'younger, more beautiful, more perfect' version of its user - but the drug's strict conditions are gruesome.
Among those reacting to the film was TikToker Kevin Jacobs, who declared himself a fan despite admitting to finding it 'repulsive'.
'This film is disgusting, repulsive and I loved it. It's so so good that it's probably in the mix in Oscar season but it's probably too weird,' he said.
'If you are a freak, this is a film for you. Also, Dennis Quaid - who plays the Harvey character - is so gross. When he eats shrimp, it's one of the grossest things I've seen on film.
'If you love body horror, this is a great entry into the canon but don't bring anybody who's queasy.'
Other TikTokers shared videos of themselves looking happy going into the movie and queasy and disturbed afterwards, while one declared it the 'most traumatising movie of 2024'.
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Many reacted negatively to the movie, with 'crazy.babooshka' questioning the producers' thinking.
'I watched the substance yesterday and have a pit in my stomach. It's also made me scared to age,' she wrote.
'I just found it so sad bar the last 10 minutes where I don't know what the producers thought they were doing.'
Movie reviewer ceryslovesfilm was equally horrified, complaining of the 'medical gore, physical violence' and 'thrown-up organs'.
TikToker such.polina offered a more nuanced take, insisting the film had 'so much to offer' despite being 'messed up'.
'The Substance is a very specific type of messed up,' she wrote in a caption. 'There's body horror, loads of needles, lost of skin opening up, disturbing depictions of aging and A LOT of blood and visceral sounds, however if you're able to get past that, this film has SO much to offer.
'Between the stunning cinematography, amazing soundtrack and stellar performances The Substance really has it all, but only if you can handle it.'
At least 20 people are understood to have walked out of a screening in Leicester Square in London before the movie finished, branding it 'brutal' - while American viewers have also told of people quitting their seats in dismay.
One cinema-goer at the showing in central London said: 'At least 20 people walked out of my screening in Leicester Square before the end. It was brutal.
'Most people watched it through their hands. It was the most graphic film I've ever seen.'
X users also shared comments about just how 'gory' and 'disgusting' they found the film - though with many praising it and Moore's performance in particular.
Comments have included calling the film 'a raw, gory, grotesque, WILD depiction of the effects of ageism and the beauty standards set on women'.
One X user cautioned cautioned: 'Be warned: Very gory & disgusting imagery.'
Another, from the US, wrote: 'Ya shoulda seen the faces on the two women who walked out of the theater behind me. I guess they thought they were going to see a nice new Demi Moore movie.'
A separate poster wrote: 'The Substance: not entirely sure what I just watched. Felt faint. Almost walked out. But also still enjoyed? Ageism is real. And despite at times feeling overly sexualised, it highlights that we can try to stop it - it's impossible. Demi Moore is a force!!!'
Another said: 'Three people walked out at my showing (which was quite full), each one during different scenes that were increasingly more graphic.'
Demi discussed the film and her character on her first ever appearance on The Graham Norton Show on Friday.
The Ghost star was joined on the show by her canine companion Pilaf, a chihuahua who attends many of her public events with her.
Her little dog proved to be an instant hit with Lady Gaga, who was also on the show alongside Colin Farrell and Richard Ayoade.
Talking about the critically acclaimed film, she said: 'It is almost impossible to fully describe because it is dealing with some serious subject matters.
'The best way I can sum it up is that it is like The Picture of Dorian Gray meets Death Becomes Her meets a Jane Fonda workout video.'
Asked whether it was liberating not to worry about what she looked like for the role, Demi said: 'I was very much pushed out of my comfort zone, but it was great to show up and be allowed to look bad!'
Elsewhere in the conversation, she reminisced about being nude on the cover of Vanity Fair when she was seven months pregnant with daughter Scout.
She said: 'It really was taken just for me but then I got the call to say they would like to use it. I said yes, never thinking it would have the impact it did.'
The Substance has been hailed by critics for what has been dubbed its 'deliciously unhinged and dread-inducing' levels of gore, with one describing it as 'a shocking assault on the senses'.
The film sees the character Elisabeth dealt a devastating blow on her birthday when she is fired by a ruthless executive played by Dennis Quaid.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Elisabeth learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to turn the user into a 'younger, more beautiful, more perfect' version of them self.
Though Elisabeth initially tosses the phone number in the bin, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that Elisabeth and her better self Sue (Margaret Qualley) must trade places every seven days.
So for one week at a time, she is forced again to live as her 50-year-old self.
But the allure of youth and a made-for-TV butt proves too strong to resist that she tests the boundaries to see what the worst that can happen is if she squeezes an extra day or two in.
Earlier this month, Demi's new film was described as the 'most disgusting film ever' by some viewers after it debuted on global streaming platform Mubi, having been generating buzz since its Cannes premiere in May.
It picked up the prize for best screenplay at the prestigious French film festival, as well as critical acclaim, with reviewers branding it 'demented' as well as 'the most bats*** f****** insane movie of the last 20 years'.
Of course this chatter related to some of the movie's unsavoury practices - which include 61-year-old Moore's character Elisabeth Sparkle going as far as injecting herself in the spine.
This is all in a bid to stave off the physical effects of ageing by using a protocol described as 'the substance' - but leads to some unexpected outcomes, including a scene described by some as 'boob vomiting'.
Following its Cannes premiere The Substance received positive reviews and, at the time in May, had a 92 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Body positivity is just one of the things that had critics raving about The Substance - in which Demi and Margaret's characters have a nude bloody fight - which received a 13-minute standing ovation at the festival.
Tim Robey, reviewing the movie for the Daily Telegraph, said: 'It's the casting of Moore and her willingness to denude herself at 61 – emotionally, as well as physically– that gives The Substance a startling connection with its themes.
'Not for 30 years has she owned a film with anything like this certitude.'
Other critics have praised Qualley, Quaid and Fargeat's direction.
'[Coralie Fargeat] draws on much of the hyperbolic flamboyance that's come to define megaplex horror,' wrote Owen Gleiberman for Variety.
'But unlike 90 per cent of those movies, The Substance is the work of a filmmaker with a vision. She's got something primal to say to us.'
Not all critics were fond of The Substance - with Kevin Maher of the Times calling it 'puerile, pointless and intellectually specious' in his review.
Hannah Strong, for Little White Lies, wrote: 'The Substance's execution of its supposed themes is as shallow as the very thing it's critiquing, a stab at feminism without actually saying anything other than 'women are held to excruciating beauty standards'.
'There's no compassion here, and certainly no catharsis – just more and a sense we've done this all before.'
Speaking to BBC News, Moore herself said: 'It was a completely unique, out-of-the-box script - you could tell it was visually stimulating and at the same time, we had no idea how it would end up, which made it even more risky and juicy.
'I felt like that was why I wanted to do it, in a way. Part of what made it interesting was going to such a raw, vulnerable place, to really kind of peel away. And it was quite liberating in many respects.'
After taking the experimental 'substance', a new version of the actress - played by Margaret Qualley - bursts out of Sparkle's body.
There are then two versions of Sparkle, who have to hide from the public, to keep their secret - which, if discovered, will result in grotesque consequences for both of them.
And while Sparkle and her 'alter-ego' who calls herself 'Sue' live in separate bodies and lead separate lives, they have to 'stabilise' every day. They are connected by Sparkle, who is the 'matrix'.
Every day, they must inject themselves with spinal fluids via a nauseating process.
They each enjoy freedom every week on an alternative basis - so while one of the two characters is out living her life, the other is comatose locked in a bathroom.
The rule that they must never take more than their seven days each in the real world is emphasised - and so when the two inevitably so, the other becomes increasingly frustrated, leading to a vicious physical fight in Sparkle's apartment.
In more recent reviews, the Evening Standard's Nick Howells described it as the 'best and maddest film of the year so far' as he gave it five stars.
He added: 'Caveat: as long as you like a full portion of body horror and are happy to be spattered head to toe in blood and mutant body parts.
'It all climaxes way beyond where you could dare imagine it might end, in a riotously hilarious torrent of blood the likes of which you might never have witnessed before.
'A sledgehammer parable for the Ozempic generation, The Substance, with all confidence, is an instant classic.'
Meanwhile, Krysta Fauria of AP described it as 'disgusting and deranged' as she wrote: 'The film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarising third act is what makes it unforgettable.
'What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie.'
For the Mail, Brian Viner wrote of the film's 'snapping, bursting, oozing and squelching' in his three-star review.
He said: 'There's plenty of popping in The Substance. Popping, in fact, might be the least of it, alongside snapping, bursting, oozing and squelching, in a grotesque body-horror satire that isn't for the squeamish but might be for the ticklish, if you can find the funny side.
'Yet for all its dystopian grisliness, Oscar Wilde would have recognised this story, which echoes The Picture Of Dorian Gray, but of course has particular resonance in today's looks-obsessed society.'
RTE's Bren Murphy added: 'Coralie Fargeat, the French director of 2017's powerfully violent Revenge, returns with The Substance, and when it comes to delivering more shocking visceral images with a message, she's not holding back.
'Darkly funny, intense, and extremely graphic, this is a shocking assault on the senses, in a good way - on second thoughts, in a masterful way.'
However two critics weren't entirely sure its critique of the male gaze had landed.
Financial Times journalist Danny Leigh said: 'The longer the movie plays, the more you find other flaws. How gross beauty standards are, we are told, while for reasons that would be a spoiler, also being invited to shudder at elderly women's bodies.
'A satire of the male gaze this filled with young women twerking, they said, can look a lot like what it is meant to be satirising.'
While Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent noted: 'The Substance's final stretch descends into a full-blown, blood-fountain homage to gross-out cult classics like Brian Yuzna's 1989 horror film Society.
'It turns the body into a public spectacle and invites the audience in, a little too eagerly, to gawk at what has elsewhere been presented as such intimate, secret disgust.'
The Substance: The critics' thoughts
Rating:
Nick Howells writes: 'The Substance is the best and maddest film of the year (so far). Caveat: as long as you like a full portion of body horror and are happy to be spattered head to toe in blood and mutant body parts.
'It all climaxes way beyond where you could dare imagine it might end, in a riotously hilarious torrent of blood the likes of which you might never have witnessed before.
'A sledgehammer parable for the Ozempic generation, The Substance, with all confidence, is an instant classic.'
Rating:
Clarisse Loughrey writes: 'The Substance's final stretch descends into a full-blown, blood-fountain homage to gross-out cult classics like Brian Yuzna's 1989 horror film Society.
'It turns the body into a public spectacle and invites the audience in, a little too eagerly, to gawk at what has elsewhere been presented as such intimate, secret disgust.
Rating:
Brian Viner writes: 'There's plenty of popping in The Substance. Popping, in fact, might be the least of it, alongside snapping, bursting, oozing and squelching, in a grotesque body-horror satire that isn't for the squeamish but might be for the ticklish, if you can find the funny side.
'Yet for all its dystopian grisliness, Oscar Wilde would have recognised this story, which echoes The Picture Of Dorian Gray, but of course has particular resonance in today's looks-obsessed society.'
Danny Leigh writes: 'The longer the movie plays, the more you find other flaws. How gross beauty standards are, we are told, while for reasons that would be a spoiler, also being invited to shudder at elderly women's bodies.
'A satire of the male gaze this filled with young women twerking, they said, can look a lot like what it is meant to be satirising.'
Krysta Fauria writes: 'The film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.'
'What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie.'
Bren Murphy writes: 'Coralie Fargeat, the French director of 2017's powerfully violent Revenge, returns with The Substance, and when it comes to delivering more shocking visceral images with a message, she's not holding back.
'Darkly funny, intense, and extremely graphic, this is a shocking assault on the senses, in a good way - on second thoughts, in a masterful way.'