The Substance’s Monstro Elisa-Sue Was Designed To Be ‘Parts That Have Been Fantasised About, Exploded’

Warning: this article contains spoilers for The Substance.

There were many memorable things about The Substance, Coralie Fargeat’s award-winning, box-office-busting, Demi Moore-starring body horror from earlier this year. There was Moore’s outstanding, vulnerable, totally committed performance. There was the banging score, pulsating every beat of this bizarre deconstruction of unrealistic beauty standards. There were the stomach-churning injection scenes, Margaret Qualley jabbing a massive needle into the same infected spot of the spine, again and again. But most memorable of all? It has to be Monstro Elisa-Sue!

We’re referring, of course, to the lumpy, bumpy creation that pours out of Qualley’s Sue as she, already a up-to-date version of Demi Moore’s Elisabeth, injects herself with the titular substance. The resulting monster is a copy of a copy, a blend of both women, with limbs and faces and body parts popping out in all kinds of unexpected places. As Fargeat explains to Empire in our up-to-date issue, her goal was “this Picasso idea of having what the gazes look at every day – the boobs, the butts, the flesh – put in the shaker and rebalanced in an absurd way.”

Despite the Monstro being a shocking sight to behold, she is also surprisingly sympathetic. Though this version of Elisabeth could be considered the most ‘ugly’, she also seems the most content with her appearance. “The only gaze that matters is her own,” Fargeat says. “It’s the reconciliation between all the parts. The moment she reveals what’s inside her guts. What we are told to hide, be ashamed of, everything is out. The butt is on the head, and the boobs are everywhere, and all those parts that have been fantasised [about], are kind of exploded. And she finally has some tenderness for herself.” Ah, a content ending, right? Hmm, not quite. If you haven’t seen The Substance, we highly encourage you to do so, and experience the blood-soaked bonanza of a finale for yourself…

Read our full piece on The Substance – and the process behind one of 2024’s most iconic creature designs – in Empire’s world-exclusive up-to-date Captain America: Brave New World issue, on sale Thursday 19 December. Pre-order a copy online here. The Substance is streaming on MUBI now.