Featured Image Credit: Mubi
Topics: Horror, Film and TV, News, Reviews, Review
Niamh Shackleton
People are raving about Demi Moore's new movie despite labeling it as 'grotesque'.
Grosteque isn't typically a word you'd find in a good movie review, but it seems to be a common theme with those who have already seen the new film, which hits cinemas today (September 20).
Not only does Hollywood veteran Moore star, but so does Dennis Quaid and Maid actress Margaret Qualley.
But what is the film, I hear you ask? That would be The Substance.
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Moore stars as a 'fading celebrity decides to use a black-market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself'.
The Substance is French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat's second film, with her previous directorial debut being 2017's Revenge.
The film falls into several different genres: comedy, horror and drama.
While the movie has only just come out today, people are already flocking to social media to share their reviews.
One person said: "The Substance is *the* hardcore film of 2024. A furious dose of body horror that slowly eats away at duplicitous beauty standards until blood flows, guts spill, and only disfigured body parts remain.
"Utterly grotesque existentialism driven by a definitive Demi Moore performance."
Another wrote: "THE SUBSTANCE is a B-movie mixed with The Fly and painted with Barbie’s candy coat. Don’t take it too seriously and let it rip your brain out. Career sh*t from Demi Moore. Gonzo third act that declares exactly what it is. Had a ball, wanted to gag."
Meanwhile another went as far as hailing Fargeat as a 'genius', writing: "Coralie Fargeat is a wild genius with this demented body horror twisting beauty standard narrative.
"Demi Moore is perfectly commanding while Margaret Qualley is a destructive counterpart. Gross, hysterical, in your face & one of the year's best theater experiences."
A different film fan described The Substance as 'stunningly grotesque exploration of aging and self-hatred with a breathtaking final act'.
Echoing people's positive reviews, at the time of writing the movie has an 87 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer.
A notable theme of The Substance is Hollywood's beauty standards of women in particular.
Speaking on this, director Fargeat told BBC News: "It's about what women look like, and how everything that is projected on them, from a young age, shapes their state of mind."
She continued to reflect: "From the self-hatred and feeling that they're never good enough, beautiful enough, thin enough, young enough.
"At each age, there is something that can make you feel like you're not right."