Audiences wanting to read a detailed breakdown of Demi Moore's latest body horror film, The Substance, have come to the right place.
The film follows Demi Moore's Elizabeth Sparkle, a celebrity reaching the end of their journey of fame and popularity who wants nothing more than to regain everything that time has taken away from them.
Enter The Substance, a mysterious liquid that promises to solve all her problems. Instead, it just introduces a new one: Margaret Qualley's Sue.
Substance Plot Explained
The Substance starts by introducing audiences to the concept of its titular creation. An egg yolk is given a dose of The Substance and very quickly splits into two.
After that, the movie truly begins, introducing audiences to Demi Moore's Elizabeth Sparkle, an incredibly popular and successful Hollywood star who even has a spot on the Walk of Fame.
However, despite her once shining career, it has gone downhill over time, visually paralleled with her star on the sidewalk being slowly weathered and damaged as time passes.
Things get so bad that Elizabeth is fired from her once-highly-rated aerobics show. According to her misogynistic and gross producer, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), they need a new, younger face to get those ratings back up.
Elizabeth is old news. To make matters even worse (somehow), a car accident lands her in the hospital.
It's here where the move starts to pick up. A doctor's assistant in the hospital hands her a mysterious USB and tells her that she is "the perfect candidate."
Once home, Elizabeth places the USB stick into her TV, which shows her an ad for the Substance that promises a new version of herself. At such a mental low, and wanting to do anything she can to recapture her youth and fame, she decides to go forward with the program.
Creating Margaret Qualley's Sue In Horrific Fashion
After a trip to a sketchy location, Elizabeth has what she needs to utilize The Substance—but it comes with clear instructions.
The actress can only use the activator once; she needs to use the stabilizer every day and switch it off every seven days. But what exactly is she switching off from?
Well, that answer is given in a horrific fashion after she injects herself with the activator.
A completely naked, freshly created human being tears itself out of Elizabeth's older body. As her original body lays in a bloody mess on her bathroom floor, with a gaping tear going down the length of her back, audiences meet Margaret Qualley's Sue.
This is the brand new you to which The Substance program referred. The program insists that the two beings are one and not separate.
Yet, each has their own memories and experiences and does not share a conscience.
Elizabeth, thankfully, isn't dead. Sue takes her, sows her up, and attaches the included feeding fluid to keep her other half alive while her seven days are playing out.
Sue Makes It to the Top at a Cost
It does not take long for Sue to get the fame that Elizbeth lost. She is the perfect replacement for Harvey to put on their new show.
Sue is very quickly shot to new heights of fame, as she gets her new show, and even a big billboard of herself right outside of the apartment window.
When it is Elizabeth's turn to come back out, she sees what Sue has garnered in her absence. The billboard outside is a harsh and blunt reminder of everything she wishes she had: youth, fame, adoration, and the world at her fingertips.
In contrast, Elizabeth's life is not so perfect. She is unmotivated, and doing nothing but eating horribly, being a slob, and becoming one with her couch.
This angers Sue, who becomes more impulsive and reckless with how she handles the switches. It gets so bad that, at one point, she stays out longer than her allotted seven days.
The consequences to Elizabeth are severe, as she wakes up with one of her fingers rapidly aging––becoming a decrepit limb. She tries to call the person who gave her The Substance, but he is unable to help her.
At one point, Elizabeth even runs across the doctor who first offered her the Substance. He is now old and decrepit, trying to warn her that her other self will take life from her––a warning that mostly falls on deaf ears.
Angry at how Elizabeth continues to slide downhill, Sue makes the choice to try and be her younger, better self for as long as she possibly can, ignoring the rules entirely.
After all, Sue feels like she needs all the time in the world to get ready for her big gig: The New Year's Eve Broadcast.
Elizabeth's Downfall and the Big Fight With Sue
Leaving Elizabeth to rot in a newly built secret closet in her bathroom, Sue is out partying and enjoying her new life.
Her negligence, however, leads to her running out of stabilizer fluid right before her big New Year's Eve gig, forcing her to reawaken Demi Moore's Elizabeth. She is now unrecognizable, having aged what seems like multiple decades, leaving nearly all her hair behind.
But it's worse than that–she isn't just old. She has started the body-horror transformation into a terrifying-looking creation, the opposite of what Elizabeth was hoping to receive when she first started the program.
In a panic, she calls the number for The Substance and demands to stop the program. They give Elizabeth termination fluid that would end Sue in a safe manner.
Elizabeth drags Sue out into her living room, where she starts to inject the fluid. She gets halfway before looking again at Sue's big billboard outside the window.
Realizing that Sue and her career still embody everything she wanted to get back, she can't bring herself to finish the termination.
To the shock of both Elizabeth and the audience, the partial termination severed their connection, allowing Sue to wake up while her counterpart was still awake.
She sees the leftover termination fluid that Elizabeth was trying to use and snaps. Sue, enraged, goes to attack her former self.
Being young, strong, and at the pinnacle of youth, Sue has a clear advantage over Elizabeth––who can hardly move. In a bloody, violent fashion, Sue beats Elizabeth to death.
The Extreme Body Horror of The Substance's Ending
While Sue thinks she's in the clear, as she prepares for her New Year's Eve Show, her body starts to decay. Sue's teeth are not staying in, an ear falls off, and her fingernails begin to peel off.
Since Elizabeth is dead, Sue feels like she has no better option than to use the activator once again.
In doing so, she is not greeted with a brand new, young, and youthful version of herself. Instead, a monstrous, terrifying version of Sue and Elizabeth is born.
This new creation is truly hideous and disturbing. It looks like something from the Dead Space games or the end creature in Evil Dead Rise.
At this point, the movie leaves behind all subtlety and dives deep into satire.
This monster still decides it is best to go to the show, putting on a fancy dress and earrings and even cutting out a picture of Elizabeth's face to put on itself.
It manages to make it to the theater and onto the stage without being recognized for the monster it has become. From there, it doesn't take long for everyone to see what it has truly become, resulting in terrified screams from the audience.
Despite pleading, "It's me," the audience attacks the monster. It even gets decapitated, which results in the dead growing right back in its place.
Continuously regenerating limbs and new features, blood flies from the monster everywhere throughout the studio, covering every soul in the building. The monster escapes, but after reaching the outdoors, it doesn't take long for her to explode into pieces.
It is not gone, though. A mutated version of Elizabeth's face remains as it attempts to find refuge.
Fittingly, it gets as far as Elizabeth Sparkle's Hollywood Star on the Walk of Fame before dying.
The Substance is now playing in theaters worldwide.
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