All through October, I’ll be posting reviews of the best of the best films in the horror genre released since October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024. As an added bonus, I’ll be adding a secondary review that may be somewhat related to the main review or slightly missed the countdown by inches. Follow along the countdown every day in October. Feel free to agree, disagree, or better yet, give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies of the year. Happy Halloween!

#1 – THE SUBSTANCE (2024)
Released September 20, 2024, and may still be in theaters, but is streaming on MUBI and Working Title Films!
Directed/Written by Coralie Fargeat.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/LNlrGhBpYjc
Aerobics guru and fading Hollywood star Elizabeth Sparkle (played by Demi Moore) turns fifty and loses her job as lead instructor on her once hot TV exercise show “Sparkle with Elizabeth” on the same day. Panicked that she is losing her good looks, Elizabeth happens upon an invitation to try “The Substance”—a process that rejuvenates the body. But there are strict instructions to follow. Elizabeth uses the Substance and becomes Sue (played by Margaret Qualley), a younger, more beautiful, and more vibrant version of herself. But when Sue rises to stardom, she begins playing fast and loose with the rules, with absolutely terrifying results.

THE SUBSTANCE is one of those movies that feels more than a movie. It’s a pure expression of creativity from the performances to the storytelling to the way it is all filmed. From the very beginning, this film feels like a completely well thought out and realized piece of art from start to finish. This leaves me with really nothing bad to say about THE SUBSTANCE. Sure, I’ll get into specifics in a second, but if you want to know how I feel about this one, THE SUBSTANCE is simply cinematic perfection. Not only does it overflow with creativity, but it also shouts a message to Hollywood that sadly, many will be too far up their own ass to hear. Universal Pictures originally was producing this film, but backed out once they realized Fargeat’s vision, and all that does is sing loudly how spineless the modern movie industry really is for not taking this film and supporting it proudly.

THE SUBSTANCE is a scathing comment on modern society’s obsession with beauty. Through the eyes of a fading star (played perfectly by Moore) we see something that is genuinely beautiful turn herself into a monster simply because she sees a few lines in her face. One look at any of the stars over thirty today and you can tell they’ve had some kind of work done. It’s some kind of polite blindness people get when they talk about a Helen Hunt or a Julia Louise Dreyfuss or a Courtney Cox or to be fair, a Steve Martin or a Mickey Rourke, that almost endorses this type of bodily destruction in Hollywood today. While plastic surgery can sometimes transform lives if used to save lives, Hollywood is definitely guilty of exploiting it to the nth degree. All it does is make me sad to see these stars aging and disfiguring themselves to unrecognizable levels.

But Moore and Fargeat envision a scenario where one can understand why Elizabeth would do this to herself. She sees herself not getting the opportunities she once had. No one is calling her anymore. And the time she spends in front of the mirror picking herself apart is growing more and more. That obsession is realized so well in this story of a fading star trying to recapture the light it lost.

Fargeat offered up long sequences without dialog in REVENGE, instead focusing on character and story through action and imagery. She cranks those silent moments up to the max with THE SUBSTANCE. The opening sequence explains quite simply how the substance works and then communicates Elizabeths rise and fall from stardom by charting the life of her star on the walk of fame—from the concrete drying to the concrete cracking and fading through age. This sequence tells it all about how stars rise, fall, and wither away. There are an abundance of subtle and not so subtle sequences like this communicating the same point, but these two at the beginning are the strongest of the bunch.

On top of the quiet sequences, Fargeat zooms in to highlight the grotesque in the most common and banal of things. A fly swimming in a wine glass. Dennis Quaid stuffing shrimp in his mouth. A small scar on the side of one’s belly. All of these tiny imperfections that make us human are zoomed in on and examined as if they are truly oddity. By getting in this close, much like Moore’s character Elizabeth, it forces the viewer to be as obsessive and nit-picky as the vainest of people can be. We literally are placed in the shoes of Elizabeth at times, and while her feelings are very human, these are feelings that are not comfortable to sit with.

The biggest talking point about THE SUBSTANCE is going to be the extreme body horror that occurs. It is ballistic and intense, not because it isn’t something done before, but because it is being done to these two characters that we have gotten to know so intimately. Both Qualley and Moore bravely do much of THE SUBSTANCE completely nude—something Qualley seems eager to do these days after this and her appearance in KINDS OF KINDNESS, but it is Moore who is still absolutely breathtaking at 61 and bares all, and I mean it all for all to see. Brave and stunning are adjectives too often thrown around, but Moore offers up a performance that deserves an Oscar. The metamorphosis not only of her body but her character is beyond what most actresses would ever do at any age.

But despite its thematic weight, beautiful camerawork, and performances that are Qually and Moore’s career best, this isn’t the movie that will receive any kind of acknowledgement like that. Due to the absolutely grueling body horror, this is not a movie many will be able to stand, let alone praise. But most people are not horror fans. And for us horror fans, to know that there is a talented filmmaker like Fargeat out there still taking storytelling to dangerous and extreme levels it makes me think this genre with all of its sequels, reboots, and rip-offs, might just still have some spark left in it. I am still in shock and awe at what I saw happen in the last act of THE SUBSTANCE. It’s one of those films that you cannot predict and just when you think, “Surely, they’re not going to go there.” That’s exactly what THE SUBSTANCE does.

In REVENGE, we got a peek at Fargeat’s unique and creative cinematic eye. THE SUBSTANCE shows us Fargeat off the rope, just spewing creative beauty and ugliness in all directions like a blender with the lid off. THE SUBSTANCE is a satire dealing with the most intimate of feelings we get and are too afraid to admit when we look at ourselves in the mirror. That layer of fat. That scar. That hair growing where it shouldn’t or bald spot where hair should be. It grabs that human insecurity in all of us and grounds this fantastic and balls out crazy movie with it. Some might not be ready for that, but THE SUBSTANCE is a film that kicks down the door and tells it to you anyway. No excuses. See. This. movie.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2023-2024
#31 – HERE FOR BLOOD (DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS)
#30 – THANKSGIVING (THE SACRIFICE GAME)
#29 – MILK & SERIAL (LOWLIFES)
#28 – PROJECT SILENCE (FROGMAN)
#27 – THE SEEDING (DARK HARVEST)
#26 – BEEZEL (THE FRESH HELL TRILOGY)
#25 – ABERRANCE (COLD MEAT)
#24 – OUT OF DARKNESS (ALL YOU NEED IS DEATH)
#23 – ARCADIAN (A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE)
#22 – YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME (GHOSTS OF THE VOID)
#21 – NEVER LET GO (LOVELY, DARK, & DEEP)
#20 – ABIGAIL (BLACKOUT)
#19 – SPEAK NO EVIL (EIGHT EYES)
#18 – BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (LISA FRANKENSTEIN)
#17 – MAXXXINE (SHERYL)
#16 – CUCKOO (AMELIA’S CHILDREN)
#15 – 15 CAMERAS (MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW)
#14 – DO NOT DISTURB (KILL YOUR LOVER)
#13 – WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS (HELL HOLE)
#12 – ALIEN: ROMULUS (INFESTED)
#11 – HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR (V/H/S/85)
#10 – STOP MOTION (MONOLITH)
#9 – IN A VIOLENT NATURE (HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS)
#8 – THE COFFEE TABLE (HANDLING THE UNDEAD)
#7 – THE FIRST OMEN (IMMACULATE)
#6 – ODDITY (EXHUMA)
#5 – LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL (I SAW THE TV GLOW)
#4 – WHEN EVIL LURKS (THE DEMON DISORDER)
#3 – LONGLEGS (LOVE LIES BLEEDING)
#2 – STRANGE DARLING (SASQUATCH SUNSET)
#1 – THE SUBSTANCE

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