I am currently very sick (most likely influenza) so a few days ago i needed to kill some time and ended up watching The Substance!!!

Now, some years ago i had the hugest Jekyll and Hyde obsession (it's still here, just a little less pronounced), and so i recognized a lot of similarities between this movie and that classic piece of literature. I mentioned these similarities while watching the movie, and my roommate then joked "shouldn't you review this as a Jekyll and Hyde movie?"

And they were spot on. So lets go!

Story

Before i start on any of the, Jekyll and Hyde -ishness of this movie, i just want to weigh in on a few other categories :) this is not going to be all that well structured, since again, im sick and mostly just trying to get time to fly till i feel good enough to stand for prolonged periods of time again.

The long and short of this movies plot, is that the washed up former hollywood star and oscar winner Elizabeth Sparkle, gets fired from her job as the host of an exercise show, and in her desperation after the firing, decides to order and take a Substance that splits her into two, not mentally, but physically. One of her bodies is the one she's used to, that of a middle aged woman, though still fit and conventionally attractive, and the other body, that of a woman in her 20's, oozing with that youthful sex-appeal that hollywood hungers for. She now has to share her life between these two physical states, giving them a week each on rotation, or else.

From here i don't want to go into detail with the plot, i'm not here to summarize.

My biggest issue with the plot is actually not about the plot itself but rather the movies runtime, the director could have cut a solid half an hour off of this film and it would still have functioned exactly as is, even better, since brevity helps getting ones point across.

Cinematography

The cinematography was MARVELOUS, the videographer really knew what they were doing!! The work with bold pops of colour was striking and helped cement a "hyper reality" feel to the entire film. The usage of the close up is worth highlighting! Whenever Elizabeths producer is on screen, theres extreme closeups on various body parts of his. When eating shrimp, the emphasis is on his hands and mouth. He is a consumer, he is consuming our star. These choices taints the closeup as being somewhat disgusting. This shines then, when we get to the part of the film where Sue, Elizabeths younger alter ego, auditions for Elizabeths former job. Sue is filmed almost like a car in a car commercial, like a set of mechanisms made to serve, both in a mechanical and sexual sense. All of this, with that incredible closeup. The tool that was used almost exclusively to communicate disgust, now also communicates sexiness, but that disgust is hard to forget. All of this also places Sue in the same category as Elizabeths producer, someone who eats her, someone who consumes until there's nothing left of her, which becomes hard to ignore the further into the movie we get.

Jekyll and Hyde adaptation?

Now, I dont want to act as though this movie was made to be a Jekyll and Hyde adaptation, but there are some similarities in how this movie handles the splitting of oneself to the iconic book.

So, firstly, the thing most Jekyll and Hyde adaptations get wrong, is that they liken Jekylls split to a DID esque situation, ie. Dissocitive Identity Disorder, despite the fact that within the book, Jekyll split into Jekyll and Hyde starts out purely physical, where Jekyll is middle aged, and where Hyde, who's age is unspecified, is described as being youthful. Now already, there's similarities, right? Both middle aged individuals split a younger version of themselves that can go out and enjoy parts of life the original can't. Hyde (subtextually) goes out on town and fools around, he (textually) murders a man, Sue partys with her cast-mates and has a one night stand with a 20 something young man.

In both Jekyll and Hyde and The Substance, as time goes on the younger self starts taking up more of the protagonists time, eventually becoming an antagonist in themselves. (note: yes yes, i know jekyll isn't the protagonist of the original book, but that's besides the point for this particular opinion piece). This is where Jekyll and Hyde and The Substance turn into addiction narratives! Our middle aged characters struggle to hold onto themselves as they desire for more and more time in their youthful appearance. The older and younger counterparts begin understanding themselves as different people, despite the fact that they are still only one person. The vast sensory difference between being in your 20's and in your 50's could only be disorienting, i dont fault any of them for falling into a dissociative state and understanding themselves as more than one person. In The Substance this presents as Sue being frustrated with Elizabeth for being lazy and messy, despite the fact that that is herself with less energy and more need to recover, and in Jekyll and Hyde this presents as Hyde cursing out that old rightous geezer that wants to keep him locked down.

The younger counterparts also both end up ruining the older counterparts lives, Hyde murders a man with Jekylls cane, therefore implicating him, and Elizabeths desire to be Sue ends up ruining her attempts at finding love with someone her own age, as she spends her time as Elizabeth standing in front of the mirror in an attempt to make herself look like her younger self, instead of going to the man who is clearly showing interest in her.

In the end, Sue ends up literally brutalising Elizabeth, Hyde takes the life of both Jekyll and Hyde, the addiction eventually kills them both.

Now there's always more I'd like to say about this film, but this is about what i can muster at the moment. Before i close off this review? Series of thoughts? i want to mention that, while i overall really enjoyed this movie, i was put off a bit by some of the horror moments in it, where it focused on disabled bodies as horror in itself. this is something i would hope that horror as a whole could move away from. but hey, i guess another similarity to Jekyll and Hyde, however little i wished for it.

On top of everything else, I'd even argue that this movie is a combination of Jekyll and Hyde and the picture of Dorian Grey, and as such is an even more compelling addiction narrative than those two books are individually. But i sadly dont have the energy currently to make that argument, so, i might do that at a later date hehe. I should really get myself together and make a guest book on this website now that im thinking about it, so i can get comments from people so any potential readers can influence what i may post. Anywhom that was that for today, hope you enjoyed the read :)

mawita is a personal blog of mine, set up in an attempt to carve out a piece of the internet for myself, without algorithms or followers or many other things i despise about modern internet usage. The process of learning HTML and CSS has brought me a lot of joy, and has opened up a big new world for me online. Its joyous :)