As a horror fan, a specifically body horror fan and an even more specifically Coralie Fargeat STAN – it brings me great joy to see The Substance dominate cinemas. And just as much joy does it bring me to see memes from The Substance take over Twitter and barely leave the cultural conversation or show any signs of slowing down. I absolutely love it. The thing is though, horror is not for everyone – but that doesn’t mean you might not want to know exactly what happens in the plot of The Substance, fully explained.
I’ve had mates who can’t hack horror or gore who need to know what actually happens in the plot who can’t hack going to the cinema for it, and the memes have explained nothing. I’ve got you covered.
The Substance: EXPLAINED
The Substance starts with an egg being injected with a … substance … and the yolk splitting into two. The next shot is of The Hollywood star of Elisabeth Sparkle, a successful actress. Through time passing, we see the star slowly get neglected. When we then cut to Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), she is now the host of a successful aerobics TV show. She is sacked on her 50th birthday by Harvey (Dennis Quaid), for being too old.
On her way home from the sacking, Elisabeth sees a billboard of herself being ripped down – and whilst distracted, crashes her car. When she’s recovering in the hospital, a doctor slips her a card which you can call to acquire ‘The Substance’. When a curious Elisabeth, who is at a loss and feels inadequate, calls up the number she is informed it will create a “younger, more perfect” version of her. After going to their weird HQ and acquiring her box, she goes home.
In her bathroom, Elisabeth uses the single-use activator and goes through horrific agony as her back rips open and out pops Margaret Qualley. Qualley plays the as advertised “younger, more perfect” – and calls herself Sue. The rules of The Substance are the two must switch consciousness between each body. You get seven days in each, and can’t go over the seven days. When one is conscious, the other remains left on the floor. Sue must use “stabiliser fluid” taken from an injection in Elisabeth’s spine every day to maintain herself. Sue can’t exist without Elisabeth.
Sue instantly snaps up Elisabeth’s old job with Harvey and becomes extremely famous. As Sue gets more famous, she enjoys a wild party life whilst Elisabeth becomes a recluse – resenting the time she has in her original body. Sue brings a lad back one night, and refuses to switch back so she can sleep with him – extracting some extra fluid from Elisabeth. When she does switch back, Elisabeth is horrified to see one of her fingers has aged and withered drastically.
When she rings up Substance HQ to lodge a complaint, they tell her it’s the rule and irreversible. To prevent it ever happening again, Sue needs to play by the rules. Despite the fact they can’t exist without each other, Sue and Elisabeth begin to despise each other. Elisabeth binge eats and leaves the apartment in a state to spite Sue. Sue meanwhile gets offered to host Harvey’s network’s esteemed New Year’s Eve special. After a big chaotic binge from Elisabeth, Sue snaps and refuses to switch back and extracts enough fluid to remain in her young body for three months.
New Year’s Eve filming day for the special rolls around, and Sue is out of fluid. When she rings the company, they tell her the only way to get more fluid from Elisabeth its to switch back so it can regenerate. When she does, Elisabeth is extremely old and hunchbacked. Elisabeth decided to put a stop to it all, and acquires the injection that will terminate Sue forever. In the middle of terminating Sue, Elisabeth has a change of heart – still longing for youth and success. Because she only half commits to the process, Sue doesn’t die but reanimates and the two exist for the first time together. When Sue clocks what Elisabeth was trying to do, she brutally murders Elisabeth in a fit of rage.
The Substance final plot showdown explained:
Sue sets off to film the NYE show, but without Elisabeth’s host body alive she deteriorates incredibly fast, losing an ear and teeth. In a panic, Sue rushes home and breaks the rule by injecting herself with The Substance activator. This creates utter mayhem against the rules, and emerges as Monstro Elisasue – a harrowing mutated monster that is a fusion of both.
She sets off back to the NYE taping with an Elisabeth Sparkle paper mask on, and starts the show. When the mask falls off, the audience react in utter horror at the monster and chaos ensues. Monstro Elisasue gets literally decapitated and one of the bloodiest sprayings of fluid to hit an audience ever goes down. Truly blood soaked madness.
What remains of Monstro Elisasue escapes the studio and collapses into a bloody mess of gore on the floor. Elisabeth Sparkle’s original face emerges from the viscera, and she scrapes herself to her Hollywood star. In her final moments, she looks up at the stars and smiles, before melting into the ground – forever a star. What remains of her is nonchalantly wiped away by a cleaner in the morning.
What. A. Film.
Think you can hack it now you’ve had The Substance explained? Catch The Substance starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley is in cinemas now. For more like this on The Substance plus all the latest news, drops, quizzes and memes, like The Tab on Facebook.
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• The wildest moments from horror film The Substance that caused major cinema walk outs
