Demi Moore’s crazy comeback film traumatises with blood, nudity and a vomited-up boob-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

You may have thought cinema reached peak shock value when Barry Keoghan had sex with a grave in Saltburn – but Demi Moore’s outrageously grotesque new film is here to tell you otherwise.

The Cannes Film Festival has premiered some of its most eyebrow-raising movies during this year’s edition – everything from Emma Stone’s gang bang in Kinds of Kindness to the controversial Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice and David Cronenberg’s death-obsessed latest, The Shrouds, which is filled with decaying corpses.

But The Substance surpasses these in terms of challenging, unexpectedly gross content on the big screen, alongside full-frontal nudity from its leading lady, 61, in her highest-profile film role in years.

It is, without doubt, the most revolting movie showing at Cannes this year, really spattering the audience with blood, gore and organs as it embraces being a literal body horror.

Coralie Fargeat’s film follows fading A-list actress Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore) who, after being axed from her exercise segment on a morning show, takes an experimental substance that ‘generates a new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect, you’ (enter: Margaret Qualley).

The way in which Qualley bursts from Moore’s body is just the start of the explicit nudity, as well as the gruesome and squelching secrets both must hide as they attempt to continue glossy Hollywood lives, one week each at a time.

Demi Moore is stripping off and stepping back into the spotlight for body horror The Substance (Picture: Christine Tamalet)

That’s the cardinal rule and the horrendous consequences after it’s broken lead viewers to a climax so nauseating you may well lose your lunch.

‘This one is for the sickos,’ enthused critic Josh Parham after the film’s premiere, while David Ehrlick wrote: ‘The Substance is absolutely f**king insane and by far the best film in Competition so far. An instant body horror classic, equal parts Freaky Friday and The Fly, Demi Moore going full demented. Loved.’

Beyond Fest also praised it as ‘the most bats**tf**kinginsane movie of the last 20 years’, adding: ‘It is on such a freakish level that it’s impossible to believe it exists. Demi Moore goes there and @coraliefargeat has carved a contemporary horror unlike anything you’ve seen.’

The Substance is also sitting on an impressive rating of 92% on reviews aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, although it has been hit with criticism for its depiction of the pressure women are put under to be perfect, meaning only thin and gorgeous.

Coralie Fargeat’s film is about an experimental medical substance that spawns a ‘younger, more beautiful, more perfect, you’ (Picture: MUBI)

The body horror movie does not hold back in its depiction of flesh, blood and monstrous transformations (Picture: MUBI)

Without giving too much away, the body horror aspect of The Substance truly has to be seen to be believed, and as you read on, I hope you’ll be grateful for what I just put myself through to bring you the titillating teases in this report.

The way that Elisabeth and Sue (what Qualley’s character dubs herself) operate is that, despite enjoying separate lives and bodies, they are connected by Elisabeth as ‘the matrix’ and must ‘stabilise’ every day by injecting spinal fluid. While one is out living their life for a seven-day run, the other is locked away in the bathroom, being fed nutritional goo through a tube.

Of course it is emphasised that they must never go beyond seven days each, and of course they do, in rules you know are made to be broken – just like never feeding a Mogwai after midnight otherwise you’ll end up with a gremlin.

Moore’s gremlin form is a sight to behold, reminiscent of the stomach-turning Grand High Witch’s unveiling in the 1990 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Witches.

But The Substance doesn’t stop there – there’s still a viciously violent fight to come between Qualley and Moore that involves heads being repeatedly smashed into mirrors until faces are covered in a sheen of blood, and bodies being kicked clear across the room.

Margaret Qualley is Moore’s character Elisabeth’s ‘other half’, so to speak (Picture: Festival de Cannes)

They each get to live seven days at a time, taking it in turns (Picture: MUBI)

And if you wanted to imagine what it would be like to pull a chicken drumstick out of your navel? Well, you’re in luck, The Substance is here to grant that wish!

However, the third act unveils a truly monstrous, malformed creation of arms, teeth, faces, slime and flesh – a nightmarishly impressive creation of the special effects department that truly embraces the high-camp drama and ridiculousness of this horror film.

This is when the boob vomiting comes in, but do stay for the hosing of blood, explosions of body matter and other vile situations.

The film’s final few moments are almost entirely played for laughs too – if you’ve not been put off by what came before – with the creature that next crawls forth like something that slipped off Dr Frankenstein’s operating table.

The film serves incredibly grotesque horror to its hungry horror audience, but stumbles when it comes to its messaging (Picture: MUBI)

After all that, it goes without saying that The Substance will serve well the portion of its body horror fanbase who want to be entertained and grossed out by its descent into disgustingness.

However, by the outrageous climax, it does feel uncomfortable to laugh at a woman and the pains she’s gone to, to try and conform to society’s ideals of perfection – namely beauty, thinness, and youth.

It’s also not adding anything to the discourse around the insane pressure put on women, other than the usual, non-gender-specific moral of be careful what you wish for. It’s certainly critical of it – that’s where Dennis Quaid’s hideous TV exec Harvey (it’s not subtle) comes into play as the man who fires Elisabeth, hires Sue, and is always off-putting whenever he opens his mouth.

Dennis Quaid, 70, stars opposite Moore as a horrifyingly gross TV exec (Picture: JB Lacroix/FilmMagic)

Quaid commented at the film’s Cannes press conference: ‘People say [Fargeat] hates men. No, she hates a**holes. But a**holes are so fun to play.’

He also revealed he was delighted to be taking part in ‘the beginning of an incredible third act’ for Moore’s career – and it’s undeniable that she’s back with a bang (and a splatter).

The Substance premiered at Cannes Film Festival on May 19. It has been acquired by MUBI for distribution, with a release date yet to be announced.

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