15 Movies to Watch If The Substance Left You Wanting More

15 Movies to Watch If The Substance Left You Wanting More

If you enjoyed the twisted body horror and savage social commentary of The Substance, you’re probably hungry for more films that push similar boundaries. The movie’s exploration of beauty standards, doppelgängers, and Hollywood’s dark underbelly leaves a lasting impression. Here’s a collection of films that capture that same disturbing magic – whether through body horror, identity crises, or brutal takedowns of our appearance-obsessed culture.

1. Revenge (2017)

Coralie Fargeat announces herself as a visionary director with this blood-soaked reinvention of the revenge thriller. The film follows Jen, left for dead in the desert by her wealthy boyfriend and his hunting buddies after a sexual assault.

What follows is a hallucinatory journey of survival and retribution, painted in searing neon colors and unflinching gore. The desert setting becomes a character itself – harsh, unforgiving, yet strangely beautiful.

Like The Substance, Revenge uses extreme body horror to explore female rage and resilience, creating moments so visceral you’ll squirm while cheering for the protagonist’s rebirth through violence.

2. Reality+ (2014)

This rarely-discussed 22-minute gem from Coralie Fargeat serves as a fascinating prototype for The Substance. Available on YouTube, this short film introduces viewers to a world where people wear special contact lenses that filter reality, making everything and everyone appear more beautiful.

The visual language – all candy colors and distorted perceptions – directly foreshadows Fargeat’s later work. A woman becomes addicted to her enhanced vision, unable to face the world without her technological crutch.

The short brilliantly explores our addiction to filtered realities long before Instagram face filters became ubiquitous, making it eerily prescient and a perfect companion piece.

3. Society (1989)

Brian Yuzna’s cult classic delivers one of cinema’s most unforgettable finales – the infamous “shunting” sequence where the wealthy elite reveal themselves as amorphous, flesh-melding creatures. The film follows Bill, a teenager who suspects his family belongs to a sinister upper-class cult.

Society’s grotesque body horror serves as biting social commentary on class divisions, with the rich literally feeding off the poor. The practical effects still shock today, creating surreal body transformations that defy explanation.

Darkly humorous yet genuinely disturbing, this film shares The Substance’s preoccupation with bodily fluids, class critique, and the monstrous nature of privilege and beauty standards.

4. Infinity Pool (2023)

A hallucinatory nightmare from Brandon Cronenberg unfolds at an exclusive resort where wealthy tourists create clones of themselves to escape punishment for their crimes. Alexander Skarsgård plays a failed writer drawn into increasingly depraved acts when he discovers this loophole.

The film’s exploration of privilege, consequence, and fractured identity resonates strongly with The Substance’s themes. Both works examine how the wealthy can literally discard unwanted versions of themselves.

Visually stunning and morally unsettling, Infinity Pool’s drug sequences and identity crises create the same stomach-churning unease as watching Elisabeth’s transformation in The Substance – asking what happens when we can separate our actions from their consequences.

5. The Shining (1980)

Kubrick’s masterpiece of psychological horror shares surprising visual DNA with The Substance. The Overlook Hotel’s crimson bathroom and symmetrical hallways echo the sterile, red-tinged apartment where Elisabeth’s transformation unfolds.

Jack Torrance’s descent into madness parallels Elisabeth’s obsessive deterioration, both characters trapped in architectural spaces that reflect their fragmenting psyches. The film’s famous mirror scenes, where characters confront their reflections, directly foreshadow The Substance’s doppelgänger themes.

Beyond aesthetics, both films explore isolation and identity crisis with meticulous framing and disorienting sound design. The Shining’s influence on The Substance appears in everything from its claustrophobic spaces to its exploration of doubling and the monstrous potential within.

6. Death Becomes Her (1992)

The perfect precursor to The Substance, Robert Zemeckis’ darkly comedic tale skewers beauty obsession with a mix of satire and body horror. Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn play aging rivals who discover a potion promising eternal youth, only to find immortality comes with grotesque side effects.

The film’s combination of cutting Hollywood satire and pioneering visual effects creates memorable body horror moments – Streep’s backward-twisted head and Hawn’s shotgun-blasted abdomen remain shocking even today. These women literally break themselves apart in pursuit of beauty and revenge.

Like The Substance, the film examines female competition within a system designed to pit women against each other, using body horror as metaphor for the violence of beauty standards while maintaining a wickedly funny edge.

7. Scream 3 (2000)

The most Hollywood-focused entry in the Scream franchise hits differently after watching The Substance. Set amid the production of the fictional “Stab 3,” the film explores the seedy underbelly of the film industry long before the #MeToo movement.

Parker Posey’s scene-stealing performance as an actress playing the Courteney Cox character creates a meta commentary on Hollywood identity that resonates with The Substance’s exploration of authentic versus manufactured selves. The film explicitly addresses the casting couch and predatory producers.

While more conventional than The Substance’s experimental approach, Scream 3’s blend of horror and industry critique feels prescient today, making it a fascinating companion piece about the monsters lurking in Hollywood’s shadows.

8. Carrie (1976)

The adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel by Brian De Palma culminates in one of cinema’s most iconic blood-drenched sequences. The humiliated telekinetic teenager unleashes supernatural vengeance at her prom in a scene that clearly influenced The Substance’s own bloody climax.

Both films feature women pushed beyond breaking point, transforming trauma into destructive power. Carrie’s journey from bullied outcast to vengeful force mirrors Elisabeth’s transformation from discarded actress to instrument of retribution.

The film’s exploration of female rage, religious repression, and bodily shame provides a fascinating counterpoint to The Substance’s more modern take on similar themes. Sissy Spacek’s unforgettable performance captures the same dangerous vulnerability that Demi Moore brings to Elisabeth.

9. Videodrome (1983)

In David Cronenberg’s prophetic exploration of media consumption, a television executive uncovers a mysterious broadcast signal that triggers hallucinations and grotesque physical transformations. James Woods develops a stomach slit that accepts videotapes like a VCR – an image as disturbing today as it was forty years ago.

The film’s boundary-dissolving approach to reality mirrors The Substance’s increasingly surreal narrative. Both works feature protagonists who can no longer distinguish between their real and manufactured selves.

Videodrome’s examination of how media literally reshapes our bodies and minds provides the perfect theoretical framework for understanding The Substance’s exploration of beauty standards and self-image in our social media age.

10. Dead Ringers (1988)

Jeremy Irons delivers a tour-de-force dual performance as identical twin gynecologists whose symbiotic relationship disintegrates through drug addiction and romantic rivalry. Cronenberg’s clinical approach to their deterioration creates a psychological horror that gets under your skin without traditional scares.

The film’s exploration of doubling and shared identity directly parallels The Substance’s doppelgänger narrative. Both works examine what happens when boundaries between selves dissolve, creating profound identity crises.

The twins’ custom-designed surgical instruments – beautiful, terrifying, and utterly impractical – evoke the same disturbing aesthetic as The Substance’s transformation sequences: clinical yet deeply unsettling, making ordinary medical procedures feel like violations of nature.

11. Us (2019)

Jordan Peele’s sophomore feature explores America’s suppressed traumas through the horror of meeting your exact double. When the Wilson family encounters their murderous doppelgängers – called “the Tethered” – they’re forced to confront buried aspects of themselves.

Lupita Nyong’o’s dual performance as both Adelaide and her raspy-voiced double Red creates a mesmerizing study in contrasts similar to Demi Moore’s work in The Substance. The film’s underground facility where the doubles are created echoes The Substance’s sterile apartment where transformation occurs.

Both films use doppelgängers to explore privilege, suppression, and what we sacrifice to maintain our ideal selves. The haunting image of identical faces in violent opposition resonates deeply across both works.

12. Requiem for a Dream (2000)

An aging woman, Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), becomes dependent on diet pills while chasing her dream of television fame in Darren Aronofsky’s harrowing exploration of addiction. Her physical and mental deterioration provides a devastating counterpoint to The Substance’s exploration of beauty standards.

The film’s famous rapid-cut montages and extreme close-ups create a visceral experience of bodily decay. Sara’s desperate attempts to fit into her red dress parallel Elisabeth’s own obsession with maintaining her youthful appearance.

Both films examine how society’s impossible standards drive self-destruction, with bodies becoming battlegrounds. Requiem’s unflinching portrayal of physical and psychological collapse makes it the perfect companion to The Substance’s exploration of beauty’s terrible price.

13. Ginger Snaps (2000)

This Canadian cult classic uses lycanthropy as a brilliant metaphor for female puberty. When teenage outcast Ginger is bitten by a werewolf during her first menstruation, her transformation becomes a darkly comic exploration of bodily change and societal expectations.

The film’s practical effects create visceral body horror moments – from sprouting tails to accelerated hair growth – that echo The Substance’s own transformation sequences. Both films ground supernatural body changes in emotional reality.

Ginger’s relationship with her sister Brigitte mirrors The Substance’s exploration of female duality, with each character representing different responses to societal beauty standards. The film’s feminist take on horror makes it essential viewing for fans of The Substance’s social commentary.

14. X (2022)

Ti West’s throwback to 1970s exploitation cinema features Mia Goth in the dual role of young porn actress Maxine and elderly antagonist Pearl. Set on an isolated farm where a film crew attempts to shoot an adult movie, the film erupts into violence when Pearl’s jealousy of youth and beauty turns murderous.

The makeup transformation of Goth into the elderly Pearl creates a striking visual parallel to The Substance’s exploration of aging. Both films examine the horror of time’s passage on women in an industry that values youth above all.

X’s brilliant prequel Pearl (also worth watching) further develops these themes, showing how beauty standards and Hollywood dreams can curdle into madness when opportunities are denied based on appearance and age.

15. Under the Skin (2013)

In this hypnotic sci-fi horror, Scarlett Johansson embodies an alien entity that weaponizes beauty to ensnare men. The predatory beauty uses her manufactured appearance as both weapon and disguise, creating a fascinating inversion of The Substance’s themes.

The film’s abstract visual style – featuring men sinking into black liquid voids while being harvested – creates body horror that feels genuinely alien. Johansson’s journey from emotionless predator to curious observer of humanity parallels Sue’s evolving relationship with her original self in The Substance.

Both films examine female bodies as sites of transformation and predation, questioning who benefits from beauty and who pays its price. The alien’s final revelation of her true form provides a devastating commentary on appearance versus reality.