The Substance of the Oscars; What’s next for Horror Films?

(my first non-satirical article, i think)

Coralie Fargeat’s film, The Substance, is a body horror mindfuck of a film that follows Elizabeth Sparkle, and her Orphan Black of a clone; Sue. It stars Demi Moore, who I only know from that semi-erotic pottery scene from Ghost, and Margaret Qualley. The film is so much more than blood and guts and goop and pus, it’s an honest look at body dysmorphia and self hatred, the cyclical nature of insecurities that plague women no matter how old they are. It’s a think piece on not only bodies but addiction, and the need to have a fix whether it’s through a heroin needle or a botox needle. And if you have mommy issues, you could even say the film talks about the envy mothers have to their daughters. The Substance is substantial. 

Or, to quote Sophie Holsinger’s Letterboxd review: “This is what ozempic is secretly doing to y’all.” 

The film is nominated for best picture at the Oscars, which, if you’re someone who thinks the horror genre is lowbrow content because your only exposure to the genre has just been 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason, this might confuse you. If you amount horror films to the entirety of the Scary Movie franchise, of course the idea of The Substance potentially being an award winning film is crazy. The truth is the last time a horror film won best picture was at the 64th annual Oscars with Silence of the Lambs, however, it was recognized more as a thriller. 

The Shape of Water also won best picture but it’s not outright a horror film, just horror adjacent. 

Get out won best original screenplay but it’s not one of the major four categories. 

The relationship between Horror and the Oscars is similar to the relationship between Ariana Grande and the Grammys. Horror breaks the rules set by other traditional genres of film, the academy doesn’t like that, and refuses to give Horror its flowers even if the genre churns out our Hereditary’s and our Alien’s and our Scream’s. Just like how Ariana Grande releases Thank u, Next and Positions and Eternal Sunshine, she is always snubbed; never nominated for any major category and the one time she did win was years ago. Sweetener is her Silence of the Lambs. 

And then you have your Taylor Swift’s running amok in the award scene, 13 nominations for Emilia Perez and no one in that film can hit a C6 without AI, neither can Taylor Swift. But Emilia Perez is backed by Netflix money and gets any award they want. But you know who can hit a C6? You know what shocks people? Ariana Grande’s vocals, and Horror. 

(I won’t get into best supporting actress but clearly I believe Grande is more deserving of that award than Zoe Sandala for Emilia Perez, even if Qualley got snubbed). 

There have been plenty of horror films that have redefined culture and the rules in how we feel fear, how we feel shock, and how we feel horror within our everyday lives. No one was worried about a boogeyman coming into your house to kill you until John Carpenter’s Halloween, and no one thought it could be someone you know until Wes Craven’s Scream. No one feared the repetition of modernity and human error until Night of the Living Dead. No one feared the implications of technology when brought to the wrong hands until Saw (or maybe, Elon Musk). and No one feared their workaholic fathers more until The Shining. Horror has always tested the boundaries of what is and isn’t. Horror is packed with surrealism and erotisim combined with the dread of what could be. It breaks and rebuilds and demolishes and remodels; and for a lot of snobby arthouse Hollywood higher ups, you’d think they’d regard horror as avant garde. 

However, because horror is ambiguous, in ways drama and romance and fantasy aren’t, the good films are simply labeled as thrillers (Silence of the Lambs, Misery, etc). So they are compacted better for a general audience, though horror is not meant for everyone. 

I mean, the same trend follows in Horror television. Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House flips the haunted house story on its head, even if the source material comes from the Shirley Jackson novel that shares the same name. Yet, it has no Emmys when American Horror Story’s Murder House does? The show that did a cheap recreation of the 1999 Columbine Shooting, only for the shooter to fall in love with a teenage girl and then sexually assault her mom to bring in the anti-christ? That won? over the Bent Neck Lady plot-twist? 

The Substance can’t be stuffed into a box and compartmentalized for a general audience, The Substance cannot be repackaged as a drama or a thriller, when the uncanniness of bodies are used as a plot device to drive the narrative Fargeat is showing the audience home. Bodies are not just objectified but symbolize failure for Elizabeth and success for Sue. We as the audience see the way Elizabeth deteriorates physically and mentally. According to Barbara Creed, who brought the theory of Abjection into horror film through the Monstrous Feminine, Elizabeth’s body and identity as a whole is thrown away for the creation of Sue. A creation that expels from Elizabeth’s back. Elizabeth is both self and other with Sue, both the subject and the object. They are one. Elizabeth and Sue have no regard for the rules of the substance and the boundaries that cross both identities. Abject is what we leave behind, we, and Elizabeth, leave Elizabeth behind for Sue, only for when Elizabeth reappears, she and the audience feel fear, shame, and loathing. Even the very definition of Abject given by Barbara Creed, and Abjection through Julia Kristeva, expresses that Abject/Abjection is the cultural process where the subject expels practices, objects and substances. 

In other words; Mama, a girl inside you. 

The very recognition by the academy is not just a fluke, or a misstep because the director is French, just like how Emilia Perez’s director is French “person”. The recognition is simply a sign of the times, that horror, true horror can and will hold a mirror to culture and society. 

So what does that mean for the future of horror films? What does that mean for future potential nominees like Nosferatu and The Monkey? Does this mean that horror films will be recognized for their ambiguity and wit? Does that mean Scream 7 could get an Oscar if Spyglass pulls something out of their ass? Will our new scream queens like Kathryn Newton and Jenna Ortega be academy award winners? Does that mean if Anora wins best picture, that it technically means a horror movie won? 

I guess we’ll see if and when Ariana Grande’s next album gets snubbed or not.

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