---
title: "The Substance"
year: 2024
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-substance"
fi1m_id: "the-substance"
imdb_id: "tt17526714"
tmdb_id: 933260
wikidata_id: "Q113380226"
fi1m_score: 74
critics_score: 77
critics_reviews: 13
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:58.342670+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Substance (2024)

Directed by Coralie Fargeat · 2h 21m · MPA R · Horror, Science Fiction

## Identity

The Substance

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-substance
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-substance
- **IMDb ID:** tt17526714
- **TMDB ID:** 933260
- **Wikidata ID:** Q113380226
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17526714/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/933260, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q113380226

**Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 77 from 13 reviews

*In a sentence:* Dennis Quaid eating prawns is the most frightening thing in it, and the competition is stiff

> Coralie Fargeat’s horror about a television star who splits herself into a younger model is loud, bright and superbly made, and Demi Moore is remarkable in it. It says one thing many times over 141 minutes. If you can stomach it, it is worth your evening.

## Synopsis

Elisabeth (Demi Moore) has hosted a television aerobics show for years. On her fiftieth birthday the producer, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), decides to replace her, and she overhears him doing it. After a car accident, a nurse slips her a flash drive advertising the Substance, a black-market serum that promises a younger, better version of herself. The rules are strict: the two versions must alternate, one week each, and the balance must be respected. Elisabeth injects it, and Sue (Margaret Qualley) emerges. Coralie Fargeat writes and directs this body horror, released in UK cinemas on 20 September 2024 with an 18 certificate and running 141 minutes.

## Review

Elisabeth (Demi Moore) has hosted a television aerobics show for years, and on her fiftieth birthday she loses it. She overhears Harvey (Dennis Quaid), the producer, saying so on the telephone in the gents, and the word “fifty” comes out of him like a diagnosis. There is a car accident, a hospital, and a nurse who slips a flash drive into her coat pocket. On it is an advertisement for the Substance, a serum that promises a younger, better version of you. The rules are simple: one week each, then switch, no exceptions. She injects it, and Sue (Margaret Qualley) climbs out of her back.

That is the film’s one idea, and Coralie Fargeat, who wrote and directed, spends 141 minutes saying it as loudly as she can. The result is a good horror film, superbly built, often funny and about twenty minutes too long. Moore is the reason to see it.

Fargeat’s previous film, *Revenge* (2017), used wide lenses and a great deal of blood, and *The Substance* uses more of both. Benjamin Kračun puts the camera so close to faces that pores become craters, and he lights Elisabeth’s flat in a hard afternoon white so that every line shows. Stanislas Reydellet gives that flat one enormous window facing a billboard, and the billboard has Elisabeth on it, and then it does not. Emmanuelle Youchnovski dresses Elisabeth in a yellow coat she wears like armour, and Sue in a pink leotard that fits like paint.

Quaid’s Harvey is the film’s cleanest target. There is a lunch scene early on where he eats prawns and talks about ratings, and Kračun shoots it from below with the lens a few inches from his mouth, so we can see the shells and hear them. We laughed, then felt slightly sick, then laughed at feeling sick. Harvey gets three or four more scenes and each is a variation on the lunch.

Moore’s best moment has no dialogue at all. Elisabeth is dressed for a date, and on her way out she catches sight of herself and goes back to the mirror. She adds lipstick, then wipes it away, then adds more, and keeps going until her face is smeared and the evening is gone. Raffertie’s score, which elsewhere pounds like a gym class, drops out, and Kračun holds still. It moved us more than we expected, because nothing pushed us: Moore does it with her hands and her breathing, and she is a star we have been looking at for forty years, in a film that knows we remember.

The trouble is repetition. The switch, with its needle, its stitching and its long split down the spine, is shown again and again, and the three editors, Jérôme Eltabet, Valentin Féron and Fargeat herself, cut each one to Raffertie’s electronics like an advertisement for the product. It is a joke the first twice. By the fifth time we were checking our watch. Qualley is asked to be a surface and is a persuasive one, but Sue has nothing to want except more of the same, and the leotard routines are filmed with the same lingering close-ups on thighs and lips that the film is supposed to be mocking.

The last half hour goes further than we thought a film with this certificate would go, and we will not describe it. We can say that the prosthetics are practical and extraordinary, that we were horrified in the way Fargeat meant us to be, and that the film stops arguing and starts throwing things. Set beside David Cronenberg’s [*The Fly*](https://film.one/film/the-fly) (1986), the standard for this sort of thing, it has the same appetite for flesh and much less interest in the person inside it. Elisabeth has a flat, a show and a mirror, and no friends, books or history that we hear of, and so for two hours and twenty minutes we are watching a woman we are told about rather than one we know.

See it in a cinema if you can, with an audience, where the noise and the flinching are part of the evening. At home it becomes smaller and slightly silly. Do not eat first.

*Fi1m score 74, published 9 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics take to The Substance with relish, and the praise clusters in two places: Demi Moore, whose performance is called fearless in nearly every review, and the practical effects, which are found revolting in exactly the way intended. Margaret Qualley is regularly named alongside her. Many reviews also credit Fargeat’s editing and visual style, though several treat that style as both the film’s strength and its limit.

The reservations follow a pattern: a number of otherwise warm notices find the satire unsubtle, the plotting thin and the characters shallow, and a few wonder whether the camera’s extremes end up repeating the objectification the film attacks. The dissent is sharp rather than mild. Little White Lies calls it an ugly screed that blames women for the standards it critiques, Film Comment finds the metaphors tangled and the shocks reinforcing prejudice, and The Times dismisses it as sleaze dressed in feminist rhetoric. The spread is wide, but the weight sits firmly at the enthusiastic end.

## Straight answers

**Is The Substance worth watching?**

*The Substance* is worth watching for anyone with a strong stomach and an interest in body horror, and we scored it 74. Demi Moore is the reason to see it, and the film is superbly built and often funny, but it says one thing many times over 141 minutes and repeats its central transformation until the joke wears thin. It plays best in a cinema with an audience.

**How long is The Substance, and what is it rated?**

*The Substance* runs 2h 21m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a horror and science fiction film.

**Where can I watch The Substance in the US?**

*The Substance* is streaming on HBO Max, MUBI, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, The Roku Channel and Apple TV in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from $5.99. It leaves HBO Max on 1 October. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is The Substance, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Substance* is an 18 certificate body horror and is not suitable for children or younger teenagers. It contains needles, stitching, a long split down the spine shown repeatedly, a great deal of blood and prosthetic gore, and a last half hour that goes further than we expected a film with this certificate to go. The squeamish should not eat beforehand, or should give it a miss.

**How does The Substance compare to Sunset Boulevard?**

*The Substance* takes the faded star of [*Sunset Boulevard*](https://film.one/film/sunset-boulevard) and makes her fear literal, with blood, needles and practical prosthetics where Billy Wilder used a mansion and a monologue. The older film is the sharper and more humane of the two, more interested in the person than the flesh. Fargeat's is louder and funnier in bursts, and the choice for anyone who wants their horror shown rather than implied.

**What should I watch after The Substance?**

After *The Substance*, try [*Sunset Boulevard*](https://film.one/film/sunset-boulevard) (1950, Fi1m 91): The original faded star in a mansion, and still the sharpest about it. Then [*The Fly*](https://film.one/film/the-fly) (1986, Fi1m 88): Body horror that remembers there is a person inside the body; and [*Death Becomes Her*](https://film.one/film/death-becomes-her) (1992, Fi1m 76): Two women, one youth potion, and the same joke played for laughs.

### Reviews we read (24)

- **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (5/5): The critic hails it as a magnificent, wildly entertaining shocker and the birth of a new horror maestro, praising its extreme, disgusting, and thoughtful take on pressures on women along with strong performances. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-substance-review-2024)
- **Evening Standard**, Nick Howells (95/100, inferred): The review hails the film as the best and maddest of the year so far, an instant classic that amps up Cronenberg-style gore into a delirious, entertaining blitzkrieg with brilliant, bold work from Moore. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-substance-review-demi-moore-margaret-qualley-b1182394.html)
- **The Guardian**, Wendy Ide (85/100, inferred): The film offers a refreshing female perspective on the female body in horror, focusing on the emotional and physical turmoil of menopause rather than reproduction. Demi Moore delivers a fearless, exposed performance as the lead in this excessive, blood-soaked satire. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/sep/22/the-substance-review-demi-moore-is-fearless-in-visceral-female-body-horror-coralie-fargeat)
- **Variety**, Owen Gleiberman (Critics Pick): The critic hails the film as a visionary, cathartically fun extreme feminist body-horror work with garish accessibility and primal vision, praising Fargeat's stylized aggro voice and fusion of influences into something original, along with Moore's fearless, rippled performance and Qualley's magnetic confidence. The grotesque climax and metaphors of cosmetic enhancement are singled out as resonant and ambitious. [Read](https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/the-substance-review-margaret-qualley-demi-moore-dennis-quaid-1236009235/)
- **Empire**, Laura Venning (80/100, inferred): The critic finds Fargeat's follow-up a perversely enjoyable if unsubtle body horror that revels in grotesque excess and delivers gory mayhem to grimly funny effect. Moore's performance is highlighted as a gleeful middle finger to ageing gracefully. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/the-substance/)
- **The i Paper**, Christina Newland (80/100, inferred): The critic praises this unsubtle, gross-out body horror as a glorious takedown of anti-ageing and beauty culture, with pleasurably disgusting effects that effectively satirise the pressures on women while escalating the horror to hysterical extremes. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/the-substance-review-demi-moore-3281772)
- **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (2/2/2): The critic finds the film an unpleasant and ugly screed that places blame for impossible beauty standards on women and offers nothing novel, becoming as shallow as what it critiques despite its showy third act. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-substance)
- **Film Comment**, Miriam Balanescu (35/100, inferred): The film fails to move beyond its stylistic trappings of body horror to deliver substantive critique, instead tangling in its own metaphors about ageism, self-hatred and beauty standards while relying on shock and grotesque imagery that ultimately reinforces rather than challenges prejudices. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/bad-blood-the-substance-review/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Amy Nicholson: The critic praises the fearless, ferocious performances by Moore and Qualley and Fargeat's flair for high-energy editing, bold visuals, and grotesque shocks, but finds the film superficial with recycled dialogue, no character depth, and a heroine lacking layers or interests beyond superficial ambitions. The visual style and influences are singled out as both a strength and limitation. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-09-19/the-substance-review-demi-moore-margaret-qualley-dennis-quaid-coralie-fargeat)
- **Screen Daily**: The critic praises the potent body horror executed with skill and compassion, excellent performances from Moore and Qualley, and its fresh insights into how the entertainment industry traumatises women, while noting it occasionally risks overplaying its hand. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-substance-cannes-review/5193756.article)
- **Sight and Sound**: The critic calls the film a thrilling watch with strong visual style and a committed performance from Demi Moore, but finds its ideological ambitions slight and its argument about the politics of ageing confused and hollow. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/substance-thrilling-ultimately-hollow-body-horror)
- **Slant Magazine**, Chuck Bowen: Fargeat delivers an exhilarating feminist body-horror freak show that holds the viewer despite being unwieldy. The critic singles out Moore's naturalistic, career-best performance and the film's bold stylistic homages for praise. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-substance-review-demi-moore-margaret-qualley/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Lovia Gyarkye: The critic finds the film an uneven genre offering boosted by formal ambition and Demi Moore's performance. She praises Moore's visceral desperation while noting thin plotting that strains under its runtime and repetitive scenes. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-substance-review-demi-moore-margaret-qualley-1235903533/)
- **The New Yorker**, Justin Chang: The critic views the film as a bold body-horror satire on the pursuit of eternal youth and Hollywood ageism, calling it a feminist cri de coeur with a spectacularly sanguinary climax, but faults its scattershot dualism and questions whether its visual extremes reinforce objectification. Moore's desolate mirror scene is singled out as the most shattering moment. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/23/a-different-man-movie-review-the-substance)
- **The Times** (★★☆☆☆): The story of a woman undergoing a procedure to regain youth is puerile and intellectually specious, using hollow feminist rhetoric to justify seedy close-ups and exploitation. It deploys leaden messaging around beauty standards while indulging in sleaze-sploitation. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-substance-film-review-demi-moore-kwr0sn82l)
- **Vulture**: The film is disgusting, twisted, and darkly funny, with graphic body horror and strong performances from Moore and Qualley. The critic notes its divisive reception at Cannes and highlights its memorable, revolting imagery and satire on aging and objectification. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/review-the-substance-is-disgusting-twisted-divisive.html)
- **NME**, Nick Levine (5/5): A bombastic, sickening satire of society’s obsession with youth and beauty featuring brilliant and heartbreaking performances, grotesque prosthetics and visual nods that make it a future cult classic packing a real punch. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/the-substance-review-horror-demi-moore-3794927)
- **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (9/10): The critic hails it as a bloody, brilliant, bonkers body horror masterpiece with an impossible-to-miss message about women's struggles under rigid beauty standards, delivered through fearless performances and a farcical, shocking freak show. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1666083/the-substance-body-horror-movie-review/)
- **Den of Geek**, David Crow (4/5): Demi Moore gives the performance of her career in this original, pitiless body horror that subverts the male gaze with its honest and non-titillating depiction of flesh, excess and the pressures on women. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-substance-review-horror-movie-you-need-to-see/)
- **Collider**, Caleb Hammond (7/10): The critic finds the body horror stylish and the finale bonkers and effective but notes the visual maximalism overwhelms character development and prioritizes style over substance. [Read](https://collider.com/the-substance-review-demi-moore/)
- **HeyUGuys**, Ben Robins (70/100, inferred): The critic describes it as a blunt, garish, and excessively nasty yet undeniably entertaining body horror that thrives on over-the-top camp and practical effects excess. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/the-substance-review/)
- **Deadline**, Damon Wise: The critic hails the film as a riotous, dreamlike horror-thriller that skewers ageism and sexism with over-the-top body horror. Moore and Qualley deliver dynamic, committed performances in a gory, visually inventive spectacle. [Read](https://deadline.com/2024/05/the-substance-review-demi-moore-margaret-qualley-1235923616/)
- **Film Stories**, Maria Lattila: The critic calls it a shocking, darkly hilarious body horror that exceeds expectations from Fargeat's Revenge, praising Demi Moore's towering, fearless performance and the film's visual flair and fury in addressing beauty standards and self-hatred. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/the-substance-review-coralie-fargeats-body-horror-is-outrageously-good/)
- **The Wrap**: The critic finds the film a lurid, loud and lewd body horror that turns beauty standards inside out with gleeful excess. It is praised as great fun and boldly stark, with strong work from Moore and Qualley amid escalating grotesque effects. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/the-substance-review-cannes-margaret-qualley-coralie-fargeat/)

## Details

- **Director:** Coralie Fargeat
- **Director:** Coralie Fargeat
- **Writer:** Coralie Fargeat
- **Cinematography:** Benjamin Kračun
- **Editor:** Jérôme Eltabet, Coralie Fargeat, Valentin Féron
- **Music:** Raffertie
- **Production design:** Stanislas Reydellet
- **Costume design:** Emmanuelle Youchnovski
- **Producer:** Coralie Fargeat, Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan
- **Cast:** Demi Moore as Elisabeth; Margaret Qualley as Sue; Dennis Quaid as Harvey; Edward Hamilton-Clark as Fred; Gore Abrams as Oliver; Oscar Lesage as Troy; Christian Erickson as Man at Diner; Robin Greer as Male Nurse
- **Runtime:** 2h 21m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 20 September 2024
- **Genres:** Horror, Science Fiction
- **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2024); [Golden Globe Best Musical or Comedy winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-comedy.md) (Nominee, 2024)
- **Budget:** $18 million
- **Box office:** $77 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR5nlovVgvQ

## Where to watch in the US

- HBO Max: streaming, uhd, leaving 2026-10-01
- MUBI: streaming, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Hulu: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-10-01
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-10-01
- Apple TV: add-on, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $5.99, hd
- Apple TV: rent $5.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, ES, FI, FR, GB, HU, IE, IL, IN, IT, KR, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, RO, SE, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2025: Best Makeup and Hairstyling (nominated); Best Picture (nominated)
- Golden Globes 2025: Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (won)
- Best Screenplay Award 2024: Best Screenplay Award (won)
- European Film Award for Best Film 2024: European Film Award for Best Film (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Sunset Boulevard* (1950), Fi1m 91: The original faded star in a mansion, and still the sharpest about it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/sunset-boulevard.md)
- *The Fly* (1986), Fi1m 88: Body horror that remembers there is a person inside the body. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-fly.md)
- *Death Becomes Her* (1992), Fi1m 76: Two women, one youth potion, and the same joke played for laughs. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/death-becomes-her.md)
- *Titane* (2021), Fi1m 74: French, metallic and merciless; Fargeat’s nearest neighbour in appetite. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/titane.md)
- *Revenge* (2017): Fargeat’s first film: wide lenses, a desert, and a great deal of blood.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-substance