Aerial footage of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where a new star is being erected, opens the film, which is set in Los Angeles. There is a lot of pomp when it opens to the public, and builders are shown placing it with extreme care.
However, the star that pays homage to Moore’s Elisabeth Sparkle character eventually chips and cracks. It is disregarded and trodden upon. A man walking by spills his burger and smears it with ketchup.
The entire scene barely lasts a minute or two, yet even with its overt allegory, it wonderfully sets the tone for the film’s themes of youth, beauty, and relevance—as well as the lengths people will go to in order to acquire them.
The film then takes a rather sinister turn.
Sparkle, who was fired from a TV show because of declining viewership, goes to tremendous measures to become the ideal version of herself. In the end, The Substance turns into an extreme gory body horror film that has garnered praise and criticism alike.
“It was a completely unique, out-of-the-box script, you could tell it was visually stimulating,” Moore told News. “and at the same time, we had no idea how it would end up, which made it even more risky and juicy.”
