Demi Moore is sensational, but this body-horror yarn loses its way - 3/5 Coralie Fargeat reimagines the historical misogynist ‘hagsploitation’ genre to powerful effect – at least until her film’s disg

The actress stars alongside Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid in Coralie Fargeat’s gleefully grotesque movie about an aging celebrity who takes an experimental drug that gives her a younger self.

The Substance is all about showing instead of telling, and while that ultimately proves to be exceptionally demanding for the film’s stars, both Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are magnificent. Beyond the intense physicality for both actors – including bold nudity and metamorphosis – they are what set the stakes and attitude.

The Substance, the new film starring Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore, has set a record for the latter. The body-horror film follows a fading celebrity (played by Moore) who begins to use a black-market drug that creates a younger version of herself (Qualley).

It's not long before Demi and her doppelganger are at each other's throats. Complications ensue when Sue is hired by Elisabeth's old boss (Quaid is scarily hilarious as Harvey) to star in a new workout show called "Pump It Up.

Coralie Fargeat’s sci-fi shocker follows the downward spiral of a 50-year-old movie star who resorts to drastic measures

The way writer-director Coralie Fargeat presents Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley — the matter-of-fact way in which she films their bodies, and the trust that she elicits from them — has the unmistakable stamp of a woman director.

At last, Cannes embraces body-horror schlock in Coralie Fargeat's "The Substance," but the film is more metaphorical than meaningful. Review.