The Substance is the must-see horror movie of the year

Brought to you by JOE and MUBI. It's not often a horror movie picks up an award at Cannes and generates Oscar buzz so when one like The Substance does, you should sit up and take notice. Written and directed by visionary filmmaker Coralie Fargeat – whose brilliant debut Revenge we only recommended weeks ago – The Substance sees Hollywood legend Demi Moore (Ghost, Striptease) play Elizabeth Sparkle.

The star of a popular aerobics show, Elizabeth is fired by her boss (Dennis Quaid – The Day After Tomorrow, The Parent Trap) on her 50th birthday on account of her age. Feeling humiliated and with her morale at its lowest, the TV host out of the blue receives an invite to try a black market drug, one which could solve all of her problems. After injecting the mysterious drug, dubbed 'The Substance', it temporarily creates a "younger, better version" of Elizabeth (played by rising star Margaret Qualley – Poor Things, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood).



While...

Stephen Porzio.