Demi Moore’s grotesque new movie ‘The Substance’ has a shocking, bloody, and unhinged ending — and Oscar buzz

What is “The Substance” about?

“The Substance” centers on Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore), a former A-lister whose career is on the decline. Elisabeth won an Oscar early in her career and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but for the last several decades of her career she’s mostly become known for hosting a fitness TV show. It’s clear that she loves her job and derives much of her self-worth from it.

Unfortunately, that all gets shot to hell when she’s abruptly laid off on her 50th birthday because her show’s misogynist producer, Harvey (Dennis Quaid, who’s remarkably hideous in this role) thinks she’s too old. He wants to find the next fresh young starlet to host the show.

Soon after, a distracted and distraught Elisabeth gets into a car accident when she sees her billboard being taken down. She sustains only minor injuries, but when she’s in the hospital, a handsome young male nurse pokes at her back and mysteriously mentions she’s a “good candidate.” (For what, he doesn’t say.)

The nurse slips Elisabeth a USB stick labeled “The Substance” with a note that says it changed his life.

Elisabeth plugs in the USB stick at home, and on it is a video that reveals The Substance is a mysterious “biological process” through which you can spawn — from your own body — a better, more perfect (i.e., younger) version of yourself. The details or possible drawbacks of this apparent metamorphosis aren’t made clear, and Elisabeth initially writes the procedure off. But her depression over her declining career eventually leads her to order The Substance, which is delivered to Elisabeth (dubbed customer number 503) via a random drop-off location.

Elisabeth reads through the instructions for using The Substance, which is a vial of neon yellow-green liquid meant to be injected. (This “activator” is also prominently labeled single-use only, which will be important later.) According to the rules, once you inject The Substance and transform, you need to switch back to your original self every seven days. (Or else what? Unclear.)

Throwing caution to the wind, Elisabeth injects the serum into herself and convulses as her body creates, and then expels out of her split-open back, her younger, more perfect self, played by Margaret Qualley. This hideous pseudo-birth leaves Elisabeth’s original self (Moore) catatonic on the floor, where Qualley’s character needs to hook her up to an IV with nutrients to keep her alive. However, there are only seven days’ worth of nutrients available.

The younger double’s first order of business is to head over to the auditions for Elisabeth’s replacement. Calling herself “Sue,” she impresses Harvey, who has no idea Elisabeth and Sue are really the same person. She lands the gig, becoming the new host of the fitness show — even with the stipulation that she can only work every other week (which she says is because she has to care for her ailing mother).

Sue’s good time, complete with a boyfriend, comes to an end when she goes to extract more stabilizer fluid and realizes Elisabeth isn’t producing any more. In a panic, she calls the customer service number, who offers her no other option but to switch back — the only way to regenerate the fluid needed for Sue to stabilize.

She does, and Elisabeth awakens to find that the effects of Sue draining her lifeforce have resulted in her becoming utterly monstrous — she’s a hunchback, with wispy thin strands of hair, and completely unrecognizable.

“The Substance” ending, explained

Finally pushed to the brink, Elisabeth calls the company who sent her The Substance and says she wants to end the experience, even though she’s aware there’s no reversing the process of what’s happened to her to restore her looks.

The company sends her a termination liquid to kill her double while Sue is catatonic, but Elisabeth changes her mind right after injecting it and resuscitates Sue by injecting her own blood into Sue’s heart.

Sue wakes up, the connection severed, and the two come face to face for the first time. When Sue almost immediately realizes Elisabeth tried to kill her, she flies into a rage and brutally beats Elisabeth, essentially curb-stomping her to death in the apartment.

The only problem is, as The Substance’s instructional video made very clear, the two are one. They can’t survive separately because with Elisabeth dead, there’s no more stabilizer fluid, and without stabilizer fluid, Sue can’t continue to exist. So Sue’s body (while she’s en route to the big New Year’s Eve performance) starts deteriorating: her teeth begin coming out, and a nail pops off.

As she’s scrambling to stay in one piece, and without any help offered by The Substance supplier, a desperate Sue goes home and injects the leftover Substance liquid from months ago into herself. The goal is to spawn a new, better version of herself that can take over in time for the New Year’s Eve show.

Unfortunately, they weren’t kidding when they said single-use only. The resulting monstrosity that emerges from Sue’s back is a deformed genetic mutation, combining parts of Sue and Elisabeth (dubbed “Monstro Elisasue”). The monster can’t speak intelligibly but has Elisabeth’s original face on its back, fixed in a silent scream, amid a bunch of flesh and body parts.

The monster rips down a photo of Elisabeth’s younger face and tapes it on, then dolls itself up with carefully placed earrings and some makeup. Once “ready,” it goes to the studio and tries to perform the New Year’s Eve show in front of a live audience and amid a crowd of topless female dancers.

The picture slides off and onlookers are horrified when they see Elisasue — especially when the monster, who’s trying to express that she’s still the same Elisabeth, regurgitates a single disembodied breast on stage.

The crowd is aghast and terrified and attacks the monster. It’s decapitated, but its head regenerates and the creature starts spraying blood, soaking the audience and the stage.

Eventually, the monster escapes the studio and makes its way outside, where it collapses into a heap of body parts. Elisabeth’s original face on a heap of flesh is all that remains. The face squirms away and comes to a satisfied rest on her own walk of fame star before disintegrating, where the resultant goo is unceremoniously washed away by a street cleaner the next morning.

“The Substance” is in theaters now.