The Substance (2024)

‘The Substance’ Takes Body Horror to a Whole New Level and Meaning. Demi Moore gives the performance of her career in ‘The Substance,’ a gruesome horror epic that wickedly skewers our standards of female youth and beauty. Opening in theaters September 20 is ‘The Substance,’ directed by Coralie Fargeat and starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid.

Coralie Fargeat’s 2017 feature debut, 'Revenge,' was supposed to be a feminist spin on the well-worn rape-revenge horror tropes so common in genre fare – and handled with varying quality -- from 'I Spit on Your Grave' to 'The Nightingale.' But 'Revenge' didn’t so much subvert those tropes as rehash them once again, as if shifting to a female gaze could somehow absolve the film of the film’s still exploitational imagery.