To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video The Substance is the most disgusting film I have ever seen, as a truly gruesome movie that takes body horror to the extreme . With a vomited-up breast and buckets of blood and slimy, naked flesh – to give but a hint of what’s in store – it’s been grabbing headlines since its premiere at Cannes back in May. It also provides a bold and original big-screen comeback for Hollywood star Demi Moore .
She bares all, in more ways than one, in a vulnerable and exposing performance – and while her devastating turn powers the heart of the film, a last-minute fumble at The Substance’s climax left me uncomfortable and questioning its message . Nevertheless, at Cannes it won a prize for its screenplay, and was lauded by gleefully grossed-out critics as ‘demented’, ‘an instant classic’ and ‘the most bats**tf**kinginsane movie of the last 20 years’. I would agree with most of the above as Coralie Fargeat’s film really enjoys spattering the audience with blood, gore and organs as it embraces being a literal body horror.
It’s almost hard to describe how truly graphic it is, so whatever you expect from my descriptions – brace yourself for worse. The Substance follows fading A-list actress Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore) who, after being axed from her exercise segment on a morning show by Dennis Quaid’s hideous TV exec Harvey, takes an experimental substance that .