By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Be careful what you wish for is the sentiment that comes to mind as Demi Moore’s faded celebrity Elisabeth Sparkle is dismissed from the aerobics TV show she hosts on her 50th birthday.

• Read on for reasons including how this has an over the top climax that seems apt given the madness that has preceded it

She finds herself in hospital after a car crash when she was distracted while driving by a billboard of herself being taken down.

At the hospital a young male nurse preoccupied with her back gives her a flash drive advertising a black market serum called the titular Substance which promises a ‘younger, more beautiful, more perfect’ version of oneself, she takes it and a much younger version of herself emerges from a slit in her back.

Coralie Fargeat wrote, directed, co-edited and co-produced this satirical body horror flick which sees Margaret Qualley as Sue emerge from Sparkle and take her place on the TV show becoming such a success she is offered the opportunity to host the channel’s prestigious TV New Year’s Eve celebration.

The twist is that Sue and Sparkle cannot co-exist and have to alternate interacting in real life each week with unfortunate consequences for the other’s body if the week is extended.

Fargeat won Best Screenplay at Cannes for only her second feature after 2017’s Revenge and it’s not difficult to see why because it offers a new spin on themes of ageism particularly against women but also the unhealthy desire to maintain youth through intervention which seem very now.

Qualley’s Sue and Moore’s Sparkle begin to resent each other and seek to elongate their weeks with a final act that draws on horror classics such as The Elephant Man and Carrie as a disfigured Sparkle seeks to quite literally rain on Sue’s parade at the New Year’s Eve show.

Look out for Dennis Quaid who is especially oily as the TV exec who fires Sparkle and hires Sue.

The denouement of The Substance is ridiculous and over the top but it’s a conclusion that seems apt given the madness that has preceded it.

Moore is especially good in an unglamorous role but it is the writing and direction of Fargeat that lingers longest in the memory.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy The Substance
• Have you seen The Substance and what did you think of it? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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