The Substance

A friend recommended The Substance to me and also sent me the trailer, which is usually something I avoid because I feel like trailers spoil way too much. This one surprisingly did not. It did not tell me what was going to happen, but it immediately showed me that this was exactly the kind of movie I would be obsessed with.

And I was.

Throughout the entire movie, I absolutely adored the cinematography, the camera work, and especially the sound design. There are so many extreme close-ups and these really intense, almost aggressive shots where everything feels too close, too loud, too detailed. It is uncomfortable, but in such a satisfying way. The sounds make you want to look away, but the visuals make it impossible to stop watching.

I just love this kind of filmmaking.

I honestly think the filmmaking itself played a huge part in how much I enjoyed the movie. Even if you removed the story, I probably would have still been entertained just watching how every scene was shot and edited. Everything feels intentional, exaggerated, disgusting, polished, and beautiful at the same time.

But I also think the actual concept is really good.

I did not feel bored at any point. I was genuinely interested in seeing where it was going, and the movie kept making turns that I did not fully expect. The ending especially was not what I imagined at all, but I think it ended on a high note. Or maybe a completely insane note, but still a high one.

To me, the movie almost has the message that every good thing comes with something bad. It is basically the opposite of the saying that there is something good in every bad situation. Here, even the thing that seems perfect, this opportunity to become younger, more beautiful, and more desirable, has something rotten inside it from the beginning.

It is also a movie about self-abuse in a very literal way.

It shows how someone can destroy themselves just to fit in, to stay relevant, to keep a career, or to be accepted by people who will eventually replace them anyway. Elisabeth is technically being abused by another version of herself, but that other version is still her. She is hurting herself to become the person she thinks everyone else wants her to be.

And I think that is one of the most disturbing parts.

You can completely lose yourself while trying to improve yourself. You can keep pushing and changing and sacrificing parts of yourself until there is barely anything left. You become so focused on being better, younger, more successful, or more beautiful that you stop seeing yourself as a human being.

The movie is also a great reflection of how far people are willing to go for beauty and how much pressure there is to conform to social standards. Everyone wants to be better than everyone else. Everyone wants to look more perfect, more desirable, more youthful.

Even though you are already beautiful the way you were born.

Born this way, baby, as Lady Gaga said.

I also find the name The Substance kind of funny because it is so generic that it almost sounds boring. It sounds like a placeholder name. Like they could not decide what to call the mysterious product, so they just called it the substance.

But it works.

The company behind it also gave me very strong Apple vibes. The packaging, the typography, the instructions, the clean design, the complete lack of emotion. Everything is extremely polished and minimal. It looks expensive, futuristic, and trustworthy, even though the product is obviously horrifying.

And I really like that complete lack of emotion, because the product itself is completely emotionless. It does not care about Elisabeth, Sue, or what happens to either of them. It just gives instructions and repeats that they are one. Meanwhile, the actual story, the characters, and basically the entire movie are overflowing with emotion. There is jealousy, shame, desperation, ambition, resentment, self-hatred, and fear, all surrounding this cold and perfectly packaged product.

It is like if Apple released a product that could slowly destroy your body.

The movie gradually becomes more intense, more disgusting, and more openly horrifying. It starts with this almost clinical, controlled feeling, but by the final act, all of that control is gone. Everything that Elisabeth and Sue have done to themselves finally comes together in this creature standing on a stage in front of everyone.

It is basically the physical result of all that self-hatred, ambition, beauty obsession, and abuse.

And then everyone finally gets to see the true skin underneath the perfection they were demanding.

I watched this a couple of months ago, so it is difficult to fully remember exactly what I was feeling in every moment, but I do remember how much I loved experiencing it. It was visually satisfying, deeply uncomfortable, completely ridiculous at times, and genuinely entertaining.

I think The Substance is a really great watch, especially if you enjoy movies that are not afraid to become disgusting, exaggerated, and completely unhinged to make their point.