The Substance | 2024 | R | – 8.10.7

Why is “The Substance” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong bloody violent content, gore, graphic nudity and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of implied sex scenes, many scenes of fully nude women in non-sexual settings, many discussions of the need for beauty in order to be successful, many scenes of injections and fluid extractions from two women that include squishing sounds, a scene of a character breaking to pieces and spraying a large audience of people with torrents of blood, scenes of transfers between two women that leave one woman unconscious and the other gasping as she revives, many arguments over the phone, and about 20 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When a celebrity (Demi Moore) realizes her youth is fading, she discovers a way she thinks will create a younger, better version of herself, using a cell-replicating substance. However, after she undergoes the transformation, she encounters horrors beyond belief. Also with Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Gore Abrams, Oscar Lesage and Robin Greer. Directed by Coralie Fargeat. [Running Time: 2:20]

The Substance SEX/NUDITY 8

 – After a second woman emerges from a woman’s back (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details) she stands in front of a mirror stretching and posing and we see her bare breasts, abdomen, buttocks, back, pubic hair and legs. A woman stands fully nude in front of a mirror in a bathroom and her bare breasts, buttocks, pubic region, back, abdomen and legs are shown (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). Two women are shown fully nude in numerous scenes during their transfers and transformations. A woman showers in several scenes and we see her bare breasts from an overhead view.
► A man and a woman kiss passionately and the woman pushes the man back onto a sofa, where they continue to kiss; the man removes his shirt and we see his bare chest and abdomen, begins to unzip the woman’s top, her nose bleeds and she quickly leaves the room (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details); when she returns they continue to kiss and sex is implied. A man wearing boxer briefs (we see his bare chest, abdomen, back and legs) holds a woman around the waist from behind and asks her to come to bed (sex is implied).
► A woman throws a kiss at the camera and winks a few times.
► A man says of a woman after an audition, “It’s too bad her boobs weren’t in the middle of her face instead of that nose.” A man tells a woman, “I got a big hammer,” when he offers to help her with construction in her apartment. A man tells a woman that she is still the most beautiful girl in the whole world and asks her to go out for a drink with him. A man knocks at a woman’s door and asks her for a drink. A woman invites a man for a drink over the phone and he accepts. A man tells a woman, “Pretty girls should always smile.”
► Dancers on a TV stage are shown topless with bare breasts and bare buttocks exposed. Dancers wearing skimpy outfits perform exercise moves that are suggestive as the camera focuses in close up on their bare buttocks, cleavage and abdomens; they do splits and thrust their hips several times. A woman wears a skintight, form-fitting outfit with high heels. Women wearing leotards and flesh-toned tights do exercises on TV in several sequences. A server in a restaurant bends over and her short skirt lifts to reveal her bare legs to the hips and we see between her legs (presumably she is wearing underwear) and a man seated behind her ogles her. Several men ogle dancers wearing skimpy outfits that reveal cleavage and bare buttocks as they pass by. A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage as paparazzi snap photos of her. A woman wearing a hospital gown open in the back (we see her bare back and partial buttocks) sits on an exam table in a hospital. A woman wears a dress that is deeply cut in the back and we see her bare back to the hips. There are numerous close-ups of women’s cleavage, buttocks and legs. Billboards are shown with a woman wearing a skimpy leotard and reclining (we see her cleavage, bare abdomen and legs to the hips). A woman puts on a short and low-cut dress (cleavage and bare legs to the mid-thigh are seen), preparing for a date.

The Substance VIOLENCE/GORE 10

 – A creature standing on a stage in front of a live audience (we see it dragging what looks like intestines or some other organ behind it), speaks but seems to be unintelligible and the audience looks scared; it gags and spits out a breast onto the stage, people scream and yell to “kill the monster,” and a man hits it with a microphone stand decapitating it and blood sprays (like a fire hose) over the audience for an extended period of time, as a portion of the creature pulls itself away from the mass and we see it with a face (it then breaks down to a puddle of liquid). After injecting herself with a fluid, a woman collapses to the floor and the flesh on her back opens along the spine revealing bloody tissue and something moving inside; a creature emerges, vomits green goo on the floor (we see the goo) and stands in front of the mirror while the first woman lies motionless on the floor; the creature is a mass of flesh and features in various places including a few mouths, a few faces, a hand and face on the back that move, several breasts and several buttocks; the creature presses earrings into its flesh and burns a strand of hair when it uses a curling iron, it glues a photo of a woman’s face to its head and goes onstage in front of a live audience. After injecting herself with a substance, a woman thrashes on the floor as the room appears to pulsate; she yells and groans, her eyes open wide and we see another iris develop and then a second eyeball appears in each socket; there is movement under her skin on her back and a long slit opens along her spine (we see bloody tissue) where an elbow pushes through accompanied by vibrating sounds and flashing neon lights; we see a slime-covered hand and a woman walks toward a mirror and looks at the reflection (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details). A man and a woman kiss passionately on a sofa and when he unzips her top a large amount of what looks like organs and bloody tissue pour out of her back.
► Two women run through an apartment, one kicks the other and slams her head against a large picture several times, one woman is struck in the head with a large vase, one woman locks herself in a bathroom and the other woman kicks the door open, one woman knocks her head on the sink and falls to the floor, one woman slams the other woman’s head against a mirror repeatedly (we see a lot of blood and matter) and then kicks her while she is on the floor repeatedly (we see bones protruding through flesh and blood gushes from her chest and mouth).
► A woman is T-boned while driving; her car spins around as glass shatters and we see her in the hospital (we are told that she has no injuries and we see X-ray images on a screen in the room).
► A woman gags and coughs (she does not vomit), her nose bleeds, she spits out a tooth into a sink (we see the bloody tooth), and she then pulls several more teeth out of her mouth (we hear squishing and see a lot of blood). A rapidly aging woman groans and pounds on a bathroom door telling a man on the other side to get out; he panics when he hears her voice and hears her coughing and spitting (we see goo when she spits on the floor), she tries to run through a hallway, her leg snaps and she falls to the floor wheezing and groaning. A woman panics during a TV show taping when she thinks she sees a lump push out of her hip; the production team watches the screen when they replay it in slow motion, she leaves the room and pinches her hip moving a lump under the skin toward her belly button and pulls out a chicken drumstick. A woman presses an elevator button and her finger nail breaks off; she pulls it off with squishing and goo as she moans and her ear falls off (we see the severed ear with blood on it). A woman revives to discover that her foot and leg have begun decaying, her face has aged and her hair has gone gray (we see the flesh wrinkled and decayed and her knee and foot are malformed); the woman tries to stand up later and her leg and knee crack loudly as she moans and yells. A woman awakens to find that one of her fingers has begun decaying and we see the darkened and wrinkled flesh and a twisted fingernail. A woman’s nose bleeds and she begins to lose consciousness; she struggles to insert a needle in an unconscious woman’s spine to draw out fluid, there is no fluid remaining, and the first woman collapses and hits her head hard on the floor. A woman lies on the floor of a shower stall and bangs her head against the floor repeatedly.
► A woman presses a large needle into another woman’s spinal column and draws out fluid into a collection vessel in several scenes; we see the needle pressing through the skin, the area turns blue later and becomes infected at one point; after collecting the fluid the first woman injects herself in the leg. A woman presses a long needle into another woman’s chest and into her heart; we hear the woman’s heart beat slowing and the first woman gives the other woman chest compressions to revive her and she uses tubes to transfer blood between the two of them. A woman squeezes the ends of an open incision on another woman’s back closed and stitches it using a large needle and thick thread (we hear squishing and we see the needle passing through the skin and the skin pulling and stretching). A woman injects herself in the arm with a green substance and we see the needle pressing into her arm in close-up (this happens several times). A fully nude woman presses a needle attached to a tube to her wrist and another needle and tube into an unconscious woman’s wrist, blood fills each tube and the first woman collapses on top of the second, who wakes up coughing and gasping.
► A woman examines the contents of a box and we see hypodermic needles and instructions on the use of each item. A man examines a woman and listens to her heartbeat, as well as manipulating the skin on her spine. A woman inserts an IV needle and tube into another woman’s wrist through which she is fed. An unconscious woman’s feeding pouch empties and she begins to gasp and wheeze. A woman applies makeup feverishly, then smears it off angrily and reapplies some more; she does this a couple of times becoming more angry and hitting herself on the head and pulling her hair.
► A man asks a woman, “Has she started eating away at you?” A woman makes fun of an older woman while being interviewed on TV.
► A woman bumps into a young man on a street and the young man yells at her, revs the engine of his motorcycle and speeds away. A woman walks alone through a city and a dark, empty alley where a key card raises a door (only part way) and she crawls through the opening and walks in a long dark hallway to a brightly lit room. A woman throws a snow globe at a framed photo on a wall and the globe and the glass shatter. A woman uses a sledgehammer and a drill to tear down a wall and install a door.
► A rapidly aging woman’s flesh droops and sags and we see her bones pressing through her flesh; her breasts sag like empty balloons. A woman splatters egg whites on a large window and sticks newspapers to it to cover the view. A woman cooks a variety of foods including sausages and foie gras, and she reaches into a whole chicken, pulls out organs from inside (we see the flesh moving and we hear squishing), and pours wine into a pan and it flames up causing her to step back; she whisks a large bowl filled with egg yolks and she is splattered in the face with egg. A man slobbers and snaps the heads off shrimp, slathers them in sauce and chews loudly with his mouth open; when he leaves the table we see a fly die in his glass of wine and the table is covered with sauce and shrimp shells. A woman finds her apartment strewn with food containers, bottles of beer and liquor, a chicken carcass and other partially eaten food items in a few scenes and becomes upset. A woman uses a men’s restroom when the women’s is out of order and overhears a man talking on the phone about replacing her with someone younger; we hear the man urinating and flushing and he leaves without washing his hands. A celebrity’s star on a walkway is shown aging and cracking and people and a dog walk on it; one person drops a takeout container of food and smears ketchup on the star with his shoe. A woman drinks several cocktails in a bar and then vomits loudly in a bathroom (we hear retching and splattering without goo shown) and a woman vomits and we see green goo on the floor in a few scenes. A woman’s nose bleeds in a few scenes.

The Substance LANGUAGE 7

 – About 20 F-words, 1 scatological term, 1 anatomical term, 2 mild obscenities, name-calling (young and hot, you’re a good candidate, monster, freak, stupid, selfish [mild obscenity deleted], gross, old, fat, disgusting), 4 religious exclamations (e.g. oh God, oh my God, Holy moly). | profanity glossary |

The Substance SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman injects herself in the arm with a green substance and we see the needle pressing into her arm in close-up (this happens several times), and women are fed through IVs and tubes in several scenes. A glass of wine is shown on a restaurant table, a woman drinks several cocktails (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details), and a remark is made about someone having been drunk. A man smokes cigarettes in numerous scenes.

The Substance DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Fame, celebrity, aging, aging women, perfection, cellular division, misogyny.

The Substance MESSAGE

 – Chasing youth and fame can result in unimaginably horrific consequences.