Why Does The Substance Look Like That?

Comments · 819

• LE

  @leightonpetty4817 · 1 year ago

  The thing that always sticks out to me in this movie is how <i>empty</i> it all manages to feel, even when realistically it should be bustling with people. The impossibly long hallways of a studio, but not a single employee to be seen. The empty streets. The starkness of the locker room, where you can see only one other human being is in the same situation as her. <br><br>And part of that is cause The Substance is made on a very modest budget lol, but it also goes to show part of why Elisabeth was susceptible to the allure of the drug (and the addiction) in the first place. And it’s the same reason so many fall to addiction—she is <i>alone.</i> Elisabeth has no family, no friends, she seems to show no desire for any real social interaction, she has absolutely no support group.<br><br>And so, her worth in life isn’t defined by any meaningful connections, it’s the ability to have a crowd love her. And once that becomes inseparably linked to a chemical in a needle, her worth in life has now been defined as use of that drug.

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• JO

  @josepheridu3322 · 1 year ago

  The easy way she built a dark room in the bathroom just reiterates the world as a set. She hid her other self behind the set.

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• EE

  @EepsayYukay · 1 year ago (edited)

  The world of the Substance feels almost like it&apos;s a stage play; it&apos;s like a universe that revolves around its main cast, seen in how so many locations are sparsely populated by a few important characters or completely empty (think the bathrooms, the streets or the locker rooms). In other films it&apos;s something I usually rag on, but for some reason it feels more appropriate for a movie all about how the mass perception of beauty affects a single person&apos;s life: it&apos;s all about YOU.

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• RA

  @radred609 · 1 year ago

  I think one of my absolute favourite moments in The Substance was when she finds the drop box location and the door refuses to open properly. That awkward moment when she has to awkwardly duck under the rolling door and walks through that suddenly very real feeling corridor that is filled with trash makes her decision to cross that threshold feel like such a pivotal decision.<br><br>Her fleeting interactions with the old school friend feels similarly important. The way that the movie is framed right at those moments pulls the away from the hyper-reallity just enough to make it feel like &quot;the real world&quot; is barely within reach... which makes it all the more impactful when she can&apos;t reach out and break through to the real world.

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• MA

  @manwhoismissingtwotoenails4811 · 1 year ago

  As someone who had an eating disorder body horror always resonates so heavily with me. First hand having to feel your hair fall out, seeing each bone poke through with each passing week, seeing your nails chip, your teeth ache, having nightmares of gaining weight and the a visceral fear of food all together it makes for a very distressing reality so whenever movies like the substance portray it I feel disturbed but in a good way.

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• BL

  @blind8608 · 1 year ago

  i ate dinner watching this movie, big mistake.

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• LI

  @lilmane1070 · 1 year ago (edited)

  I can’t overstate how — when this movie <b>wasn’t</b> being actively putrid and agonizing to watch — it was GORGEOUS. The colors, the contrast, just how <b>lively</b> it all looked is such a relief in light of the drab desaturation that movies — and especially TV — nowadays are obsessed with. It’s not just the colors either, but I don’t know the official terminology of other details within cinematography lol<br><br>Side note, it’s so rewatchable somehow. Like I find Hot Fuzz <b>incredibly</b> rewatchable, but it makes logical sense to me why that is. But this one — where there’s not all <b>that</b> many hidden details/angles to catch, where the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvZGrF1hSbY&amp;t=140">2:20</a> hr runtime is no walk in the park, where much of the movie makes me squirm and look away, it doesn’t really make sense how much I still enjoy seeing it

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• SH

  @shamar_qc · 1 year ago

  I always been drawn movies like the Substance, the Lighthouse, Blade Runner, Sorry to Bother You, Midsommar, etc because they all have that otherwordly tone to them but I never knew the right word for it. Thanks for teaching me today I love neo-expressionism!

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• CH

  @Chuuzus · 1 year ago

  Really hope Demi Moore’s performance in this movie isn’t overlooked by the Oscars even though the Oscars tend to overlook horror films. Like Toni Collette, Lupita Nyong&apos;o and Mia Goth are perfect examples of Oscar snubs because they were in a horror film.

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• MA

  @master-of-mind5881 · 1 year ago (edited)

  This wasn’t a film. It was an experience. I was thoroughly engrossed. A great piece of art that is expressionistic, vivid, visceral and nuanced. Exquisite directing and Demi Moore was amazing. Definitely a career best performance.

  388

• BI

  @bimblaq · 1 year ago

  When you asked “Doesn’t it remind you of something?” My first thought was “The Shining” because of the long corridors, white &amp; red rooms..

  185

• HA

  @haley_th · 1 year ago

  This genre resurgence makes me so excited for Nosferatu. <br>The Substance was so wonderfully visceral even when it wasn’t explicitly gore; focusing on the way certain parts of Sue’s body jiggled during the work out scenes, just the entire way Dennis Quaid was filmed, etc

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