The Substance is hailed an 'instant classic' as critics brand the 'disgusting and dread-inducing' body-horror a 'sledgehammer parable for the Ozempic generation'

A blood-soaked dystopian satire of the male gaze, The Substance takes a VERY graphic approach to speaking truth to power. A blood-soaked dystopian satire of the male gaze, The Substance takes a VERY graphic approach to speaking truth to power - but it's the film's 'deliciously unhinged and dread-inducing' levels of gore that have really commanded the critics' attention Starring Hollywood's highest paid actress Demi Moore, The Substance tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show The film sees Elisabeth dealt a devastating blow on her birthday when she is fired by ruthless executive, played by Dennis Quaid. The Independent Rating: Clarisse Loughrey writes: 'The Substance's final stretch descends into a full-blown, blood-fountain homage to gross-out cult classics like Brian Yuzna's 1989 horror film Society. The one rule of using the drug to follow is that Elisabeth and her better self Sue must trade places every seven days But the allure of youth and a made-for-TV butt proves too strong to resist that she tests the boundaries to see what the worst that can happen is if she squeezes an extra day or two in 'Yet for all its dystopian grisliness, Oscar Wilde would have recognised this story, which echoes The Picture Of Dorian Gray, but of course has particular resonance in today's looks-obsessed society.' While Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent noted: 'The Substance's final stretch descends into a full-blown, blood-fountain homage to gross-out cult classics like Brian Yuzna's 1989 horror film Society.