HALLOWEENTOWN, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Every day this month, resident horror movie enthusiast and 828newsNOW staff reporter Pruett Norris is recommending a Halloween film for your macabre amusement.
Whether they be monster movies or fearsome family films, demonic possessions or slasher sensations, this exercise hopes to encourage spooky seasonal “scream”ings at home or in cinemas.
As the old saying goes, “trick or treat, trick or treat, give me something good to…watch.”
Day 4: THE SUBSTANCE (2024, 141 min., directed by Coralie Fargeat)
The best horror movie of the year is a loud, bloody, completely uncompromising takedown of what it takes for aging women to remain in the Hollywood limelight. “The Substance” is about the lack of anything but in a youth-obsessed culture.
Demi Moore is center stage as Elizabeth Sparkle, an aging Hollywood starlet ousted from her popular TV show on her 50th birthday. Increasingly desperate and depressed, she is led to a black market drug, the titular Substance – in the film’s heightened vision of Los Angeles, the neon green Substance is collected in a pristine white room disguised by a dilapidated, back alley shell. Subtlety is not what this film is aiming for – that promises to transform her into a younger, more “perfect” version of herself.
What transpires next is relentless, maximalist body horror. The film at its tamest finds Margaret Qualley as Sue, Sparkle’s younger self, crawling out of her elder’s back in a twisted birth sequence. “The Substance,” in big bold flashing letters, is not a movie for the faint of heart: Director Coralie Fargeat lubricated her slick, caustic film with gallons of blood.
For anyone who has ever resented growing older, wincing at grey hairs or new wrinkles, “The Substance” is a fierce defense of the other side. It is gross as it is glorious.
“The Substance” is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Looking for more October movie recommendations? Read the rest of the 828boosNOW archive: