The Substance star Margaret Qualley has taken to social media to share some new behind-the-scenes photos from her time working on Coralie Fargeat’s new body horror satire, and one of them is pretty revealing.
The film - particularly the last 30 minutes or so - contains some extremely surreal and repulsive moments, which culminate in a truly grotesque transformation.
The story focuses on an acclaimed actress turned celebrity host of a daytime exercise program (Demi Moore) who gets replaced by a younger star, sparking a confrontation between the two women that ultimately turns violent.
That's the basic outline. If you want the very gory details, spoilers will follow.
Moore's character, Elizabeth Sparkle, makes use of a secret cell replicating procedure and the titular substance to produce a younger, "more perfect" version of herself, Sue, played by Margaret Qualley.
Essentially two halves of the same person, Elizabeth and Sue soon become rivals, and end up breaking the "week on, week off" rule. Sue gets a taste of fame and decides not to wake Sparkle up, but continues to extract the serum from her older self's body needed to maintain her survival. Elizabeth begins to age rapidly, ultimately becoming a decrepit husk.
When the serum dries up, Sue begins to fall apart (literally), and is forced to wake Liz, resulting in a brutal fight.
Sue is able to kill her older self in vicious fashion, but with no more serum, she takes the drastic measure of injecting what remains of the one-use-only Activator. This creates a monstrous "Ellie-Sue" hybrid mutant, with protruding limbs and Sparkle's face left fused into its back in a permanent scream.
We've seen some leaked screenshots of Ellie-Sue already, but Qualley has now shared a look at herself in the full prosthetic suit (minus the face, which has been torn off) along with false teeth.
"Have you ever dreamed of a better version of yourself? You should try this new product: The Substance. It changed my life. With The Substance, you can generate another version of yourself: younger, more beautiful, more perfect… Just share the time. One week for one, one week for the other. A perfect balance of seven days. Easy, isn’t it? If you follow the instructions, what could go wrong?"
The Substance is now showing in theaters, and will soon be available to purchase on Digital platforms.