When I walked into a local movie theater on New York’s Lower East Side to see “The Substance” last weekend, I did so in an uncharacteristic way, knowing hardly anything about the film before planting myself in a seat.
I knew vaguely that it was a science fiction psychological thriller starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and was pegged to the perennial relevance of the beauty industry (and society more broadly) selling women products designed to make them both acknowledge and feel bad about their age. What I did not know was that it was a body horror movie, a genre I find myself largely inexperienced with, despite my general affinity for spooky content.
