The Substance is one of those movies. It’s not shocking in a meaningful way—it’s shocking for the sake of performance. Gruesome, pointless, disgusting, and vile—not in the kind of way that provokes thought or emotion, but in the way that makes you feel tricked into wasting two hours of your life.

Now, let’s be clear: there are films that push boundaries and succeed in doing so. There are times when discomfort serves the art. But this isn’t that. The Substance is not brave—it’s arrogant. It believes it’s smarter than you, deeper than you, and that if you don’t “get it,” you must be some low-IQ simpleton incapable of grasping its brilliance.

That’s the crowd this movie was made for: people who mistake nonsense for genius, who look down on everyone else as intellectually inferior because they can attach layers of fake symbolism to something that’s ultimately meaningless. These are the self-appointed “high thinkers” who convince themselves that if something is disgusting, it must also be profound. It’s not. It’s just disgusting.

The film’s defenders will tell you that its ugly visuals, chaotic pacing, and stomach-turning scenes are intentional—metaphors for something grand. But no amount of pseudo-analysis can cover up the fact that The Substance is an artistic disaster. It’s an absurd attempt to appear symbolic when, in truth, it’s empty. The low-quality makeup, the overwrought performances, the unnecessary gore—all of it screams “Look how daring we are!” while saying absolutely nothing.

What makes this even worse is that this isn’t some low-budget experimental B-movie made in someone’s basement. No, this is a film that’s being praised, awarded, and heralded as a masterpiece by critics and festivals that should know better. That’s the real tragedy—that the industry treats this kind of cinematic sludge as “important.”

To anyone with integrity, taste, or a sense of decency, this movie is the opposite of art. It’s a symptom of what happens when shock value replaces storytelling and arrogance replaces purpose.

If you love this movie, you’re not “enlightened.” You’re just part of the problem. The Substance doesn’t reflect brilliance—it reflects decay. And the fact that people are applauding it says far more about the sickness of modern culture than the film itself ever could.