One Of The Best Horror Movies Of 2024 Survived The Wrath Of A Major Studio

Coralie Fargeat's "The Substance" is a grisly, giddy body horror film that runs a lawnmower over Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Boasting phenomenal performances from Demi Moore (possibly her finest work to date) and Margaret Qualley, it's currently making noise during the critics awards season, and could very well snag a couple of Oscar nominations for the two aforementioned actors. It was also, given its graphic content, a surprise box office success, grossing $57 million worldwide. And it did so despite getting dumped by Universal Pictures, and released in the United States and United Kingdom by the much smaller distributor, Mubi.

Why would a major studio like Universal so willingly give up on a movie that wound up being a critical and commercial favorite? It is a body horror movie, and those tend to get extra squishy. "The Substance" delivers the squishiness with a bloody vengeance, but once upon a time 20th Century Fox scored a massive hit with David Cronenberg's gloriously gory "The Fly." In 2024, surely a studio like Universal, knowing that horror has been red hot at the multiplexes post-lockdown, would ignore its executives' conservative impulses and cash in like a smart studio is supposed to do.

To hear Fargeat tell it, the decision to drop "The Substance" wasn't a matter of intellect. Nope, it was a case of full-blown Hollywood misogyny.

In an interview with Le Point, Fargeat revealed that "The Substance" was doomed by a screening that she characterized as "the most memorable of my life." The film was shown to three executives: two men and one woman. When the screening finished, one of the men went nuclear on the movie. He despised it and demanded that she recut the entire film — which was foolish because Fargeat had secured final cut through the film's production company, Working Title. In Fargeat's view, losing that creative battle prompted the exec to urge Universal to dump the movie.

Fargeat believes the decision was malicious, but she has yet to elaborate on this topic (which is wise politically if she ever wants to make a full-fledged studio movie). I do hope she eventually opens up about what went down at this screening because her contention that the woman executive was essentially silenced after the screening deserves a complete airing. "That says a lot about where the power still lies in Hollywood," said Fargeat. It's shameful that something like this could occur in 2024, and, frankly, those responsible should be held accountable. As for the nauseous viewers who screamed "Uncle" and fled the theater during its too-brief theatrical release, maybe horror isn't the genre for them.