Spoiler Warning: There are some meaty spoilers for The Substance below. Please turn back if you’ve yet to watch the movie or have a weak stomach.
I’m not the biggest fan of body horror films, but when I kept hearing that The Substance was one of the best and most unforgettable releases on the 2024 movie schedule, I said “What the Hell” and gave it a watch. And let me tell ya, I LOVED Coralie Fargeat’s satirical horror film and everything about Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley’s outstanding, Oscar-worthy performances. I won't be surprised if this makes it on our Best Horror Movies ranking in time.
The body horror was amazing in all the best ways, the satirical tone of the film was biting, to say the least, and the story about a woman going to great lengths to prevent her fading star from going out entirely all resonated with me. And while there are some truly grotesque and stomach-churning moments throughout one of the best horror movies in a long time, there’s one scene that disgusted me the most.
Do you know what it is? Come along and find out…
The Substance's Body Horror Had Me Sqirming In My Seat With My Hands Covering My Eyes
I should have taken the advice of one of my colleagues when they said we were not prepared for The Substance shortly before its release, because they were right and I was not ready for what was about to go down. And as others on the site have pointed out since then, some scenes will give you legit nightmares if they don’t make you lose your lunch first.
Multiple scenes involving both Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) and her younger double Sue (Margaret Qualley) had me squirming in my seat with hands covering my eyes like I was a three-year-old watching the It miniseries for the first time. All those visuals of infected wounds, the buckets of bloody messes of flesh and gore, and that bonkers final act had me both queasy and glad to be watching this before dinner, and not after..
But The Scene Where Harvey Is Devouring Shrimp Made Me Want To Barf
However, no scene in The Substance made me feel as gross or upset as the lunch sequence early on where Dennis Quaid’s Harvey, an absolute scene-stealer in all the best and worst ways, nonchalantly informs Elisabeth that she’s no longer needed after turning 50 years old.
The way Quaid’s hyperactive, sleazy, and hideous antagonistic TV executive rips, tears, chews, and slurps his way through a plate of shrimp (why so much butter?) while talking about audiences loving seeing someone fart on screen before beating around the bush is disgusting on so many levels. And then he just leaves Elisabeth with this mess when he abruptly jumps from the table after fumbling over his words. Yet the shrimp remains...remain.
I honestly love shrimp more than just about anything edible, and I have a habit of eating so much of those little crustaceans to the point of making myself sick. But that's the good kind of sick, and I may have to lay off the little suckers after watching this sequence of terrible events play out.
In Addition To Being Truly Disgusting, The Sloppy Lunch Scene Is One Of The Most Important Scenes
After watching The Substance, I stumbled upon a clip from the Toronto International Film Festival premiere where Demi Moore called the shrimp scene “the most violent of the movie,” and you know, I have to agree with her. Sure, we don’t see bodies coming out of other bodies, or buckets of blood, or anyone getting hurt (at least not physically), but because of what it represents.
The shrimp scene pretty much lets you know how the rest of the movie is going to go: the male-dominated entertainment industry takes its stars, chews them up, spits them out, and then moves on without a proper explanation or goodbye or anything. Instead, those on the receiving end are left with a big, greasy, disgusting mess (and most likely the bill). If not for this terrible lunch meeting, I don’t know how the rest of the movie would have played out.
Now that I’ve finally digested the shrimp scene and the rest of The Substance, I think I can finally move on from Coralie Fargeat’s rare body horror experience. But with more than a few promising upcoming horror movies, I think the next stomach-churning experience is right around the corner.
