The Substance (2024) on Netflix
Fired from her aerobics show because of her age, Elisabeth Sparkle injects a black market serum. A younger woman, Sue, comes out through a slit in her back.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.2/10463,021 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
On her 50th birthday, Elisabeth Sparkle is fired from her long-running aerobics TV show by its producer, Harvey, because of her age. She crashes her car. At the hospital, a nurse gives her a flash drive for The Substance, a black market drug that offers a younger version of the user. Elisabeth injects the serum, and a younger woman, Sue, comes out through a slit in her back. The two must switch consciousness weekly, with the resting body fed intravenously, and Sue needs daily stabilizer fluid from Elisabeth to keep from deteriorating.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Substance (2024)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ray Liotta was originally cast as the producer Harvey, but died in May 2022; three months into filming he was replaced by Dennis Quaid.
- Director Coralie Fargeat performed an actual syringe injection of the activator on her own arm, doubling for Demi Moore in the shot.
SPOILER
Filming the theater scenes took nearly three weeks and used around 21,000 L of fake blood and a fire hose; the shots of the audience being sprayed with blood were achieved in one take.- Coralie Fargeat left Demi Moore off her initial list of potential leads, saying "She will never do it", and several actresses declined the role before Moore was sent the script.
- After a contentious Universal test screening where an executive demanded a recut that Fargeat's final cut privilege made impossible, Universal broke off its distribution deal with the director.
- At the Academy Awards, Coralie Fargeat became the first woman nominated for writing and directing a horror film, and the ninth woman ever nominated for directing.
- Margaret Qualley left a dance rehearsal to cry and learned the moves in a private lesson instead; on the day of the shoot her anxiety led her to get "wasted first thing in the morning" on cannabis and tequila.
- Plans to shoot in a real theater were dropped after the venue, initially welcoming a small splattering of blood, became apprehensive at the extent of the blood effects; a producer said, "I don't want to finish in jail."
