Previously, The Substance was released on MUBI’s streaming platform and VOD on October 31, 2024, just one month after its theatrical debut. However, this move to HBO Max marks a wider streaming release for the film. Feeling crushed by impossible beauty standards and society’s hyperfixation on youth is nothing new. But Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” arrives in the wake of the Ozempic era, when a quick shot promises weight loss that seemed impossible to achieve without going under the knife just a few years ago. In my social media feed, the ads offer the chance to “feel like your old self again” and to give it substance abuse group activities a try for cheap and see fast results.
Fargeat shows sympathy for both Elisabeth and Sue’s plights as one might for Frankenstein and the monster he creates. What begins as an experiment towards a new beginning quickly warps with unintended consequences. Perhaps the use of Bernard Herrmann’s “Vertigo” theme feels too on the nose, but it fits thematically in the story and its obsessive mood. The timing is also strategic, as October’s Halloween season increases The Substance’s relevance, which may encourage genre fans to see it.
Production
While Sue lives a confident and hedonistic life, Elisabeth becomes a self-hating recluse. Near the end of one weekly cycle, Sue brings a man home for casual sex; she delays the switch by extracting additional stabilizer fluid, causing Elisabeth’s right index finger to rapidly age. Elisabeth contacts the supplier, who warns that delaying the switching schedule will lead to irreversible, rapid aging of the original body. The Substance is a horror that tackles ageism, beauty standards, and the entertainment industry’s disposability culture in an approach that allowed the film to become incredibly popular, despite its smaller production budget. Now, its boldness, combined with Moore’s performance and Fargeat’s direction, gives The Substance the potential to become a streaming success once again, solidifying its legacy. Now, HBO Max has revealed that The Substance will debut on the streaming platform on October 10, joining next month’s lineup ahead of Halloween.
HBO’s “IT: Welcome to Derry” Feels too Much Like a Sideshow in the Stephen King Circus
“The Substance” works as well as it does because of Moore’s unbridled performance as a woman struggling with self-hatred, society’s treatment of her, and a newfound dependency on a miracle drug. In one particularly heartbreaking scene, Elizabeth stands in front of a mirror, fussing over the final details of her makeup and outfit. Although she looks glamorous as anyone could hope to look, her face betrays a dissatisfied stare as she sees more flaws than beauty before her. It’s a ritual many of us might know too well as we stress over accessories and lip color in the hopes of looking fashionable, carefully adding or subtracting layers of clothes and jewelry to feel good in our own skin. Elizabeth is so displeased with her image, she aggressively wipes the deep shade of lipstick across her face and pulls off the fake lashes from her lids. While it may feel like a cautionary tale for our times, the horrors at the heart of “The Substance” have been with us for many years, and the issues the movie uncovers are so much more than skin deep.
As with her lean-and-mean feature debut “Revenge,” Fargeat writes a tight script focused on very few characters. The Substance is a 2024 body horror film written, co-produced and directed by Coralie Fargeat. The film is noted for its satirical elements and grotesque, hyperrealistic imagery. Demi Moore’s critically acclaimed horror, The Substance, is coming to HBO Max.
A terrifying new drug tests an aging celebrity to her limits
- The Substance premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2024, where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or and Fargeat won Best Screenplay.
- The Substance is a 2024 body horror film written, co-produced and directed by Coralie Fargeat.
- Elisabeth crashes her car while distracted by a billboard of herself being taken down.
- With a Master’s in Creative Writing, a sharp voice and a passion for underrepresented stories, Sophie brings authenticity and insight to every project.
If you purchase through our links, the USA Today Network may earn a commission. While it may not suit everyone’s stomach, those with an appetite for the grotesque will succumb to Demi Moore’s Kafka-esque performance and feast on the bodily horrors of The Substance. The film also performed well during award season, with Fargeat earning five Oscar nominations, including Best Directing, Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture as one of the film’s producers, while Moore was nominated for Best Actress. Demi Moore’s award-winning and critically acclaimed film “The Substance” is set to arrive on HBO Max soon. You can get tickets to see The Substance in theaters in the United States right now.
Design and effects
She convulses as a younger woman named Sue emerges from a slit in her back. The two bodies must switch consciousness every seven days without exception, with the inactive body remaining unconscious and fed intravenously. Daily injections of stabilizer fluid, extracted from the original body, are required to prevent Sue from deteriorating. Sue becomes an overnight sensation after auditioning as Elisabeth’s replacement, and is offered by Harvey to host the New Year’s Eve show.
Streaming details for The Substance on Amazon Starz + Amazon HBO Max
However, Elisabeth, still craving Sue’s celebrity status, stops before fully injecting the serum and resuscitates Sue, leaving both of them conscious. Realizing Elisabeth’s initial intent, Sue beats Elisabeth to death before leaving to host the New Year’s show. As Sue, Qualley is reimagined into the sexpot-next-door with an idealized hot body who has a fondness for neon workout clothes, lip gloss, big earrings, and boys.
As far as mustache-twirling villains go, Quaid may not have the facial hair, but he has a maniacal laugh and heartless persona to match Harvey’s ostentatious suits. He looks to be having a field day behaving badly as the personification of the cruelty women experience in the industry. It’s easily Quaid’s best acting in recent memory, and it’s not even the best one in the movie.
- This could further widen the film’s reach, potentially increasing its cultural impact and long-term viewership.
- This results in the creation of a grotesque mutated body, “Monstro Elisasue”, with both Elisabeth and Sue’s faces.
- The film was also a box office success, grossing $77–82 million against its $18 million production budget, becoming Mubi’s highest-grossing film.
- Elisabeth contacts the supplier, who warns that delaying the switching schedule will lead to irreversible, rapid aging of the original body.
Elisabeth’s original face detaches from the gore, crawling onto her neglected star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She smiles as she hallucinates being admired before melting into a puddle of blood, which is cleaned up by a floor scrubber the next day. On her 50th birthday, now-faded Hollywood film star Elisabeth Sparkle is dismissed from her long-running aerobics TV show by its producer, Harvey, due to her age. Elisabeth crashes her car while distracted by a billboard of herself being taken down.
At the hospital, a young male nurse gives her a flash drive advertising “The Substance”, a black market drug that promises a “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” version of oneself. Sophie is a poet, screenwriter, and Senior Writer, who has been writing for ScreenRant since 2024. With a Master’s in Creative Writing, a sharp voice and a passion for underrepresented stories, Sophie brings authenticity and insight to every project. Whether writing poetry and scripts in her spare time or news articles, her work is crafted with care, clarity, and a deep understanding of what connects with audiences.
The parallels between GLP-1 weight-loss drugs to the movie’s aforementioned substance end there. But Fargeat, who wrote and directed the film, twists the search for a “fountain of youth” shot into a blood-and-neon drenched spectacle. Following a particularly destructive episode as Elisabeth, Sue stockpiles stabilizer fluid and refuses to switch back. Three months later, on the day before the New Year’s Eve show, Sue runs out of stabilizer fluid and contacts the supplier, who informs her she must switch back to replenish the fluid. When they switch, Elisabeth finds herself transformed into a deformed, hag-like hunchback. To stop Sue aging her further, Elisabeth orders a serum designed to terminate her.
When will ‘The Substance’ be available for streaming on HBO Max?
It won Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the 97th Academy Awards, along with numerous other accolades. Moore’s performance won her a Golden Globe Award, Critics’ Choice Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. HBO Max releasing The Substance is a win for both the film and the streamer. It will allow viewers to approach the movie on their own terms, while the October release date only prepares them for what is to come in a month centered on horror. However, the film’s strengths lie in its deeper statements, making it a standout. The Substance, also starring Dennis Quaid, was released in theaters on September 20, 2024, and garnered a strong critical reception, holding a Certified Fresh 89 % Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Substance premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2024, where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or and Fargeat won Best Screenplay. The film was theatrically released in the United Kingdom and the United States on September 20, 2024, and in France on November 6, 2024, to critical acclaim, with particular praise for the special effects and Moore’s performance. The film was also a box office success, grossing $77–82 million against its $18 million production budget, becoming Mubi’s highest-grossing film.
Motivated by societal pressures on women’s bodies and aging, Fargeat wrote the screenplay in two years, assembling a production team spanning France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Principal photography began in France in August 2022 and concluded in October, lasting 108 days. It extensively used prosthetic makeup and other practical effects, including suits, puppetry, dummies, insert shots, and approximately 21,000 liters (5,500 U.S. gallons) of fake blood to portray Elisabeth’s drug-induced transformation. Originally set to be distributed by Universal Pictures, studio executives demanded changes to the film, but Fargeat refused as it would go against her contractual final cut privilege. Universal broke off their distribution deal with Fargeat and the rights were acquired by Mubi.
