There is no future for ageing women: how The Substance uses body-horror in a feminist critique

By Sara Oscar, Senior Lecturer, Visual Communication, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney
Cherine Fahd, Associate Head of School, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney

In The Substance, the career of former actor Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is diminished to daytime aerobics instructor on a television network. On her 50th birthday, she is made redundant by a network executive, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), who tells her “renewal is inevitable”.

There is no future for ageing women.

In her redundancy, Elisabeth has an accident. At the hospital, she is passed a note from a handsome young doctor for a black-market drug known as “the substance” that promises to generate a younger version of a person with a single injection. Desperate for youthful…

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