I’m into strange films, psychological elements, dramas, and gore, but this movie is complete garbage.

A disaster. It's an insult to the illustrious careers of Demi Moore and Dennis Quaid, who both deserve far better. The film focuses too heavily on the body of Margaret Qualley's character, Sue, at the expense of delivering a meaningful story or message. The gratuitous gore towards the end seems to be an attempt to align with current trends, but it falls flat. Ultimately, Coralie Fargeat failed to deliver a coherent message, making the movie a missed opportunity for everyone involved.

"The Substance" is something of a cinematic mash up. First off, this story is somewhat reminiscent of "Death Becomes Her". The 1992 film starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis. The notion of the fatal conceit in the search for eternal youth amongst the ageing Hollywood set is very much central to the story in both films. That said, the handling is distinctly different. This film is a lot louder, gaudier, brasher, cruder and ruder, than its 90's counterpart by a country mile. There are elements I'd typically associate with Lovecraft too, that are grotesque, monstrous and disturbing. This work is also more a visually clever, as opposed to a compelling narrative based experience. Its messages are conveyed, like Hollywood itself, through larger than life youthful glitz and glamour but also an innate, ephemeral shallowness.A shallowness that becomes a kind of obsessive prison, denying those trapped in it, any meaningful form of human intimacy. My only criticism of what I do feel is a very good film, is it overplays its hand. Its so over the top in the latter part of the film, I felt it partly drowned out the message, it had, up to that point, convincingly conveyed. The closing scenes. in particular, felt crude, clumsy and would have worked considerably better, with more controlled and subtle, handling. In summary, "The Substance" is a rather clever film that uses the eye of the lens to expose how what we see, in Hollywood at least, is more important than who we are. People are shiny commodities to be replaced when the beautiful image they portray starts to wither away. As we see, youth and beauty is everything, no matter the price. I will say too, this is by no means a perfect cinematic experience. It can be over the top, especially in the latter part of the film. That said, there is, on balance, more to like here than not. Definitely worth a look.