If Coralie Fargeat's (Revenge) upcoming body horror The Substance isn't already on your radar as one of 2024's most anticipated horror movies, it will be after today's bold and bodacious new trailer.
Starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, MUBI's The Substance will release exclusively in theaters on September 20, after premiering at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it won Fargeat the Best Screenplay Award and a ton of critical acclaim.
In The Substance:
Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself?
You. Only better in every way.
You’ve got to try this product: The Substance.
It changed my life.Demi Moore gives a career-best performance as Elisabeth Sparkle, a former A-lister past her prime and suddenly fired from her fitness TV show by repellent studio head Harvey (Dennis Quaid). She is then drawn to the opportunity presented by a mysterious new drug: THE SUBSTANCE. All it takes is one injection and she is reborn – temporarily – as the gorgeous, twentysomething Sue (Qualley). The only rule? Time needs to be split: exactly one week in one body, then one week in the other. No exceptions. A perfect balance. What could go wrong?
Early reviews of the Rated-R The Substance have called it “an instant classic“, and an “outrageously indulgent piece of gonzo body-horror comedy“, with Moore “ripping into her best big-screen role in decades.”
Just one look at this new trailer and it's not hard to see why – this thing looks totally bonkers, and we can't wait.
In an interview with Empire, Moore spoke about what attracted her to The Substance and its important comments on the way women are treated in the media:
It’s such a unique way to explore the issue of ageing, and the male perspective of the idealised woman that we’ve bought into […] Not what’s been done to us, but the part we’ve played in doing it to ourselves.
If you're heading to London's FrightFest next week, you can see The Substance playing as the closing night film on August 26.
Here's today's brand new trailer, courtesy of MUBI:
