Guillermo Del Toro Praises Demi Moore’s Body Horror Hit ‘The Substance’

On November 7, 2024By Littum

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 10: 80th Annual GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS — Photo: Guillermo del … (+) Toro accepts the award for Best Animated Feature for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” on stage at the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 10, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. — (Photo by Rich Polk/NBC via Getty Images)

NBC via Getty Images

Demi Moore’s body horror hit The substance catches the attention of Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro.

The writer-director is, of course, the creative force behind such horror classics as Cronos and The Devil’s Backboneand dark fantasy films included Pan’s Labyrinth and The shape of the water— the latter of which won del Toro Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture as a Producer.

Written and directed by Coralie Fargeat, The substance stars Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, a celebrity turned TV exercise guru who is fired by a network executive (Dennis Quaid) on her 50th birthday.

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The log line for The substance reads: “A fading celebrity takes a black-market drug: a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of himself.”

Margaret Qualley stars as the younger version of Elisabeth who simply goes by “Sue”.

In one post on X On Saturday, del Toro sang Fargeat’s praises, writing that The Substance is “the horror of losing oneself—the vertigo of the surface—the treachery of the flesh … precise, pulsating, humorous, relentless, and shifting smoothly from pathos to terror and laughter.”

See del Toro’s post about X and Fargeat’s response to it below.

The substance was praised by critics when it was released in theaters on September 20. The film recently made its streaming video on demand debut on Mubi – which distributed the film – as well as digital streaming via premium video on demand.

Rotten tomatoes critics combined gave the film a 91% “fresh” rating based on 312 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus for the film reads: “Boldly crude, viciously clever and possibly Demi Moore’s finest hour, The fabric is a gut-wrenching feat from writer-director Coralie Fargeat.”

Since its domestic release on September 20, The fabricper The numbershas earned $15.4 million in North American theaters and $23.4 internationally for a worldwide box office of $34.1 million.

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According to Black, The fabric had a production budget of $17.5 million before printing and advertising.

While The substance is wrapping up its North American theatrical run, it’s not quite finished in international theaters yet. Sore Blackthe film is set to open in France on Tuesday, just after Demi Moore was honored with a career tribute at the French Cinematheque in Paris.

Moore also recently received a Best Lead Performance nomination from the Gotham Awards as awards seasons begin to get underway.

Rated R, The substance is new on SVOD and PVOD.

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