AS A PAEAN to body horror, Coralie Fargeat’s 2024 MUBI film The Substance savors the conventions of the genre. It’s a movie made for big-screen viewing, satisfyingly evoking revulsion with shots of half-chewed food and smeared makeup as much as with splattered blood and penetrating needles. But the true terror here is deeper and more terrifying than the effects of the unregulated, bile-yellow “Substance” that transforms its users into idealized versions of themselves. The real horror is aging in a woman’s body in a society that would rather see you dead.
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