Does this shocker overshoot the mark? Demi Moore (61) teaches cinema fans fear with her new film “The Substance”. So much so that many viewers are unable to watch the horror film, which is over two hours long, all the way to the end. They leave the cinema in droves beforehand!
Moore plays the once successful Hollywood star Elisabeth Sparkle. Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has long since faded and no one wants to watch her TV aerobics show anymore. The nasty announcement from the male boss (Dennis Quaid, 70): “It just ends at 50.”
Then Sparkle gets into a car accident – and so the bloody game begins: In the hospital she gets a tip about a mysterious substance that can create a “younger, more beautiful and more perfect” version of the person who consumes it.
The ever-popular Sue (Margaret Qualley) is the younger, more beautiful and better self of Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore, r.)
Photo: AP
Viewers leave “The Substance” performance
In London, according to “Daily Mail“At least 20 people left a screening in Leicester Square saying the film was too “brutal” for them. An eyewitness reported: “Most people covered their eyes with their hands. It was the most graphic film I’ve ever seen.”
A similar picture is said to be emerging in the USA. And in Berlin, where BILD saw the film on Saturday in the Filmtheater am Friedrichshain, spectators also left the hall.
In the film, with the help of a mysterious substance, Moore gives birth to a younger, desirable alter ego who takes over her job
Foto: Universal Studios sal Studios
While her new self, Sue, conquers Hollywood, Elisabeth Sparkle experiences the dreariness of everyday life at home and is consumed by envy and jealousy
Photo: AP
Yes, there are drastic scenes that you see in Demi Moore’s film comeback: You hold your breath as Demi Moore’s back splits to give birth to her new self. You shudder when her younger version sews her up again and later there is a bloody excess of violence.
But you also see an extremely strong Demi Moore – in a role in which you might not have expected her. Desperate. Disfigured. Fighting for her place in life.
Demi Moore at a film screening and Q&A session in London on September 25th
Foto: Dave Benett/Getty Images for MUBI
“I was pushed very much out of my comfort zone,” Moore said of her horror role on The Graham Norton Show. “But it was great to show up and be allowed to look bad!”
Viewers find the film horror – but want Moore
“The Substance is feminist body horror that is actually scary,” commented viewers on X (formerly Twitter).
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“The Substance is such a disgusting and crazy movie” or “I saw the movie last night and I’m still not over it.”
But many people agree on one thing: Demi Moore plays fantastically, she is even considered an Oscar contender.
The film is, among other things, in the preselection for the European Film Prize 2024. Director and screenwriter Coralie Fargeat (48) received an invitation to compete for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. She was honored there for the best screenplay.
video-heading">„Body Horror“Trailer zu „The Substance“
What: MUBI Release16.09.2024
