Terrifier 3 and Smile 2 are snagging all the horror headlines this month, but neither is poised to become a horror classic. That honor seems reserved for yet another gory and gloriously unhinged film, The Substance, which has somehow flown under the radar. Despite earning glowing reviews and eliciting both guffaws and groans from audiences around the planet, this Demi Moore-starring body horror flick has only $31.4 million under its belt globally after a month in theaters. To which I ask: How? 

*spoilers ahead*

Not to make a tired Stefan reference, but this movie has everything: Cracked fingernails, genetic deformities, French cooking, a boob growing out of Demi Moore’s face… 

It launches with undertones of satire and lands with buckets of camp. You truly have to see it to believe it; merely describing its plot wouldn’t do its justice. That said, if you have seen it, then let’s discuss some of its cultural references.

Carrie 

To sum up this movie in two sentences: Oscar nominee Elisabeth Sparkle (an incredible Demi Moore) gets fired from her job as a TV fitness guru and takes a pill to rejuvenate her appearance. Suddenly, a younger and more lithe version of herself, Sue, erupts from her spine, launching Elisabeth and Sue into an endless cycle of violent self sabotage.

However, by the end of the movie, Elisabeth and Sue fuse into a massively deformed walking tumor à la The Thing, which proceeds to wander onto a live set and spray blood all over some horny 60-year-old Hollywood executives. As “Monstro Elisasue” stands there in a pretty dress, covered in blood, surrounded by people screaming, you realize that you’re watching a version of Carrie, albeit one with a nipple hanging out of her eye.

Barbarian

My boyfriend and I regularly quote the movie Barbarian – specifically the part where The Mother breastfeeds Justin Long and moans, “Buh buhhhhh.” (It’s more romantic when we do it.) Anyway, I couldn’t help but think of that movie’s sympathetically saggy Mother when Demi Moore, disfigured beyond belief, hobbles across her apartment with her four-foot-long wrinkled boobs clapping against her calves. This sounds so offensive as I’m writing it, but I’m literally just describing this movie.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Why shouldn’t The Substance reference literary gothic horror? Just as Dorian Gray saps all his youth from his portrait, Sue saps all her youth from Elisabeth. The main difference is that, in The Substance, the transformation occurs along with sickening, scrunching, sizzling sound design, climaxing in jaw-dropping moments such as when Elisabeth viscerally breaks her own leg. I don’t even remember the last time I had to turn away from a movie. This scene was the first in a long while.

Citizen Kane

There’s a literal reference to Citizen Kane in the snow globe that Elisabeth hurls across her apartment, but there’s also a thematic reference. Just as Kane confronts his own mortality and loneliness, the aging Elisabeth grapples with the pain and isolation of working in a youth-obsessed industry. One of the movie’s most disturbing and poignant moments occurs when Elisabeth starts tearing away at her face, disgusted by her own wrinkles and imperfections, determined to destabilize her life. 

Ozempic

Like, the Substance is for sure Ozempic, right?

Pulp Fiction

Needles play an important role in the lore of The Substance, but a stomach-churning moment occurs when Sue jabs one into Elisabeth’s spine. However, this is also an apparent reference to Pulp Fiction, when Uma Thurman takes a shot of adrenaline to the heart. Incidentally, like Pulp Fiction, The Substance also features several gratuitous shots of female anatomy, though in this case, it’s satirizing the way Hollywood demeans and infantilizes women. In Pulp Fiction’s case, Quentin Tarantino was literally just objectifying Uma Thurman.

The Shining, The Fly, Videodrome, Lost Highway…

But wait, there’s more! The rust-colored hallway at the studio is a reference to The Shining; Sue’s emergence from Elisabeth’s spine is a reference to the backbursters of the Alien franchise; (and, incidentally, the creation of Elisasue echoes the monstrous alien baby at the end of Alien: Romulus). Additionally, the close-ups of lips (and chicken drumstick extraction) are references to Videodrome; the shadowy shot of Demi Moore’s mouth is a reference to Lost Highway; and (*gasps for air*) the extreme close-up of the fly in Dennis Quaid’s drink is a reference to The Fly. The latter, of course, is an indisputed body horror classic, but The Substance is likely on track to become one, too. Even if it takes five years to find its audience, it will happen.