‘The Substance’: What to know about Demi Moore’s powerhouse new film

(CNN) — Unless you’re already into genre films, it might be easy to dismiss “The Substance,” at first glance, as a too-gory entry in the body horror category.

But upon deeper inspection, this sophomore effort from French writer-director Coralie Fargeat (whose first feature, 2017’s “Revenge,” was adored by critics) is a firmly self-aware and feminist fable that warns – quite graphically – of the pitfalls of blindly chasing youth.

The premise and plot of “The Substance” are simple: celebrated actress and fitness guru Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore, in a scenery-chewing performance) has a star on the Walk of Fame and a popular exercise show. At the top of the movie, she is celebrating her 50th birthday and discovers that she is being fired by her boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid), a vile and crude entertainment executive.

From there, an increasingly distraught Elisabeth comes to learn of a mysterious black market drug known as the Substance, which promises to deliver her a younger and more vital version of herself – with certain caveats. Enter Sue, played by Margaret Qualley, a voluptuous and vivacious younger “self” who plots to reclaim Elisabeth’s former glory. The pair just have to follow a few simple but non-negotiable rules, as dictated by the shadowy company that provides the Substance. Of course, that equilibrium doesn’t last very long.

Without giving too much away, what follows is a madcap look at Elisabeth’s desperate attempt to remain on top, matched with Sue’s growing addiction to the admiration she elicits from everyone around her. It all culminates in a final act that brings new meaning to the term “bloodbath.”

Fargeat recently told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that as she herself aged into her 40s, she “started to have these crazy, violent thoughts that my life was going be over, that no one would be interested in me anymore, that I wouldn’t have any value. And I really realized how violent and powerful those thoughts were.”

The director continued to note that she “wanted the movie to express the violence” in how society treats and depicts women, which gave rise to the graphic nature of the content. “I really wanted to push the limits, and not be shy. This is how we are led to internalize so much violence. This is how gross it is, this is how extreme it is.”

It’s a sentiment that Moore has also touched on when speaking about how “The Substance” not only uncovers what society and the world inflict on aging women, but what women, and men, inflict upon themselves as well.

“There was a more extreme standard of beauty that existed, and I did … personally experience being told to lose weight on quite a few films before I ever even had my children,” Moore recently recalled in “The Interview” podcast from The New York Times.

“Those were humiliating experiences, but the true violence was what I was doing to myself, the way in which I tortured myself, did extreme crazy exercise, weighed and measured my food because I was putting all of my value of who I was into how my body was, how it looked, and giving other people’s opinion more power than myself,” she added.

As Elisabeth and Sue set out to seek balance – yet ultimately find themselves in a crazed bout of conflict toward the end of the movie – Fargeat said that she wanted the two characters “to represent for real all the voices that we have in ourselves that can be super violent and conflictual and whispering all the time, ‘You’re not good enough, you’re not beautiful enough, you’re not sexy enough,’ because that’s what we hear all day, and see all day all around in society.”

Moore also commented on the film’s nude scenes, which never feel gratuitous. “Going into it, it was really spelled out…the level of vulnerability and rawness that was really required to tell the story,” she said. “And it was a very vulnerable experience and just required a lot of sensitivity and a lot of conversation about what we were trying to accomplish.”

The slick mail-order packaging for the Substance – which involves a series of injections – speaks to the quick-fix quality of currently trending fads like Ozempic, and calls to mind the now-classic dark comedy “Death Becomes Her” from 1992, which starred Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, soon hitting Broadway as a musical.

“The Substance” might also remind of some other well known titles that nonetheless don’t detract from how original it feels: there are notes of “All About Eve” and the classic Oscar Wilde tale “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” with John Carpenter’s “The Thing” thrown in for ick-factor.

It’s a rather self-contained film, and supporting players Qualley – whose mother, Andie MacDowell, has often commented on the pressures of aging in Hollywood – and Quaid are superb.

“The Substance” was lauded upon its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it was up for the Palme d’Or and won the best screenplay award. Earlier this month, it took home the Midnight Madness people’s choice award at the Toronto International Film Fest.

“The Substance” is currently playing in theaters.

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