The indie body horror film The Substance has boomed into a huge hit.
Made on a budget of just $17.5 million, per Deadline, the film grossed more than $77 million worldwide and has earned many awards and nominations.
The Substance, which premiered on Sept. 20, 2024, has also earned its star Demi Moore numerous accolades, including a Critics’ Choice Award, a SAG Award and a Golden Globe.
During her Critics’ Choice Award speech, Moore said, “The very recognition, not just for me, but for what this film is about, what it’s trying to convey, your acknowledgment is almost like the elixir.” She continued, “It is the healing balm to the very issue the film brings forward.”
The Substance has also earned five Oscar nominations, including in major categories like Best Picture, Best Actress for Moore, Best Director for Coralie Fargeat and Best Original Screenplay. When the nominations were announced, the director became only the ninth female nominee in her category, per The Hollywood Reporter.
So, where can you watch the highly-lauded body horror? Read on to find out where The Substance is currently streaming and where it’s available to rent digitally.
What is The Substance about?
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Demi Moore in The Substance
In The Substance, Demi Moore plays an aging Hollywood starlet named Elisabeth Sparkle who is fired from her popular exercise show the day she turns 50 because a studio exec (Dennis Quaid) feels she’s become too old.
Soon after, Elisabeth is told about a secret medical procedure, called “The Substance,” that promises to make her feel young and beautiful. The process allows her body to birth another body who is half her age (Margaret Qualley) and the two can live side-by-side, but only one can be conscious at a time.
The rules state that the two versions can only exist for seven days at a time before needing to switch out. If one of the versions remains conscious for more than seven days, they begin sucking the life out of the other.
Desperate for youth and beauty, Elisabeth’s new younger self (who names herself Sue) quickly gets careless and starts overusing her time, which causes Elisabeth’s body to rot away. By the end, she’s almost unrecognizable and has eroded away into a hideous monster.
On top of the film’s incredibly squirm-worthy body horror, it tackles themes of sexism, ageism and the patriarchy. Moore told The Guardian that she brought life to her character by using her own experiences of sexism and ageism in Hollywood, particularly in the ’90s.
“We’ve all had moments where you go back and you’re trying to fix something, and you’re just making it worse to the point where you’re incapacitated,” she said. “We’re seeing these small things nobody else is looking at, but we’re so hyper-focused on all that we’re not. All of us, if we start to think our value is only with how we look then ultimately we’re going to be crushed.”
Moore added, “What I did to myself, what I made it mean about me. Really looking at that violence, how violent we can be towards ourselves, how just brutal.”
How can I stream The Substance?
MUBI/YouTube
Dennis Quaid in The Substance
The Substance is streaming exclusively on Mubi and the Mubi subscription through Prime Video.
Mubi’s chief executive, Efe Cakarel, decided to buy the rights to the body horror, making it the distributor’s first global acquisition, after watching the scene in which Quaid peels and eats a mound of shrimp.
“This was something incredibly unique,” he told The New York Times in 2025. “I had never been this sure about anything.”
Where can I rent or buy The Substance?
MUBI/Youtube
Demi Moore in The Substance
Viewers can digitally rent The Substance on various platforms like Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Fandango at Home.
Can I watch The Substance in theaters?
MUBI/YouTube
Margaret Qualley in The Substance
The Substance is also still screening in select cinemas around the country, so check local theater listings.
Read the original article on People
