The Substance: It Gave Me Nightmares #12DaysofXmas

By notoriouslysinglegirl, December 28, 2024

Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself?

-The Substance

Xmas time is all about being a sloth and binging movies. My movie of choice was The Substance with Demi More. And all I can say is it stuck in my subconscious and gave me nightmares!

The Substance takes us through the life of a TV exercise celebrity named Elizabeth, played by Demi More, who has turned a certain age where a producer, played by Dennis Quaid, terminates her career over lunch while he’s eating sloppy shrimp and olive martinis.

After a crazy car accident ( spoiler alert), Elizabeth meets a mysterious doctor who measures her spine and says she’s perfect. She then gets a mysterious phone call where the caller asks her the ominous question: “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? Younger, more beautiful, more perfect?”

She then learns about “The Substance “ where only one injection unlocks your DNA starting new cellular division that will release another version of yourself. This is the substance you are the matrix.”

The phrase: “Everything comes from you. Everything is you.” Is repeated all throughout the film.

Basically, Elizabeth gets a package where she injects herself with the substance. A new version of her evolves out of her spine. Her name is “Sue” played by Margaret Qualley.

She’s younger. She’s prettier. Basically, she’s a better version of Elizabeth.

The movie also repeats “you are one” reminding the two versions of the same person over and over again because every seven days without fail, the younger version must switch make to the older version in order to replenish the matrix.

What I really loved about this film was the cinematography. The camera angles and colors really made the movie. I also loved how Elizabeth literally lived in a fishbowl. Her narcissism was amplified by a wall sized picture of her old self while looking out of the fishbowl type window into a billboard of her better self “Sue.”

I won’t spoil the movie any further. It’s a must see. However, don’t watch alone before you go to bed on Xmas Eve like I did. It’ll give you nightmares!

I literally was having crazy nightmares of my hands turning into the decrepit hands of an old woman. I also found myself looking into mirrors and seeing Demi More as an old woman.

In my nightmare’s I also kept questioning myself out loud: “How did I age so quickly? I was just looking a certain way and now my hands and face look all gnarled and old?”

In the words of Ferris Buller: Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around every once and awhile you can miss it!