Gross-out body horror is back with a vengeance this year, and along with it, the meta cultural commentary that makes the genre so delectably timeless. The Substance leads the charge in disturbing audiences and getting them to think at the same time, despite a few drawbacks. Least among them, believe it or not, is churning stomachs. While skipping a meal is recommended before watching, The Substance has a bigger problem that other films of its kind were able to circumvent.
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Its real issue is how depressing and uncomfortable it is to watch. What the film has in spades with arresting visuals, it lacks in terms of a palate cleanser straight up horror comedies supply. The Substance, while it can be considered a satire, is about as funny as the ending of Wolf Creek or Hostel. All three films wear their disquieting shock value on their sleeves more conspicuously than quirky humor or dialogue.
However, one movie that’s thematically similar – as well as titularly – to Coralie Fargeat’s mess-terpiece managed to strike that balance in a way befitting its prolific producer. The film in question appropriately takes us back to the Reagan era when Demi Moore and Dennis Quaid became stars and comes to us from one of the most notorious names of low-budget schlock this side of Roger Corman.
Larry Cohen is known for a great many infamous and influential video store titles (CHUD, It’s Alive, Maniac Cop, Q: The Winged Serpent), but out of his entire filmography, the one people talk about most lately is The Stuff. It might not be the best selection of Cohen’s, but as it’s gained a following over the years, it has become his most visible and it’s easy to understand why.
Remember what I hinted at earlier: horror movies, good and bad, have a long shelf life when they strike a nerve. But to do that, they need something to say and the spectacle to pull it off. With The Stuff, Cohen went after consumer culture’s obsession with processed food and the realistic boogeymen (or strawman, arguably) of predatory firms who push their tempting yet unhealthy products.
The story begins with an old guy discovering a vanilla yogurt-looking substance (there’s that word again) bubbling up from the snowy ground. Curious and maybe a tad senile, he tastes some of it and quickly realizes this “stuff” is rather delicious. Within minutes, it seems, his find is packaged, labeled, mass-marketed, and in every store and fridge across America.
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“Enough is never enough” for most Americans except for one suburban kid named Jason (Scott Bloom), who is the first to realize The Stuff is actually alive and not a typical snack. His family’s reassurances that The Stuff is harmless turn out to be reprogramming by the product, which transforms everyone who eats it into zombies and brainwashed pod people. Jason then starts sabotaging displays at supermarkets and warning everyone in sight in vain.
Meanwhile, a corporate spy and fixer named Moe Rutherford (Michael Moriarty) is on a mission to figure out what the audience already knows – how the people behind The Stuff made it so irresistible. Miles, meetings, and several near-death encounters with the milky goop later, Moe and Jason team up to track down where The Stuff is stashed so they can put an end to it.
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But to do that, they have to get the word out, which requires the aid of a racist militia of peppers led by Colonel Malcolm Grommett Spears (Paul Sorvino) – who just so happens to own two radio stations. Once the adventures reached this point, Cohen unleashed the climactic special effects scene that gave the film its reputation. The recurring character of sweets mogul Chocolate Chip Charlie (Garrett Morris), who was on the case with Moe for a bit, turns back up suddenly – and proceeds to wither and break down like the rest of the would-be hosts who consume The Stuff.
This scene, and the entire premise, points to the hook of the film and Cohen’s commentary: you’re not just what you eat; what you eat can eat you. Cohen had this on his mind when writing the script and helping develop the marketing as the description of vengeful food made it into taglines. He also must be a member of an NGO because the idea of a delicacy oozing from the earth to fight back stems from the belief humans are wrecking the planet.
Yeah, you have to give The Stuff a woke point or two retroactively, but you can’t deny it taps into issues that remain relevant to everyone to this day. It’s as if some things never change. Tropes and tendencies in genres certainly don’t – at least not by much. The worries and themes deeply rooted within the subtext of The Blob, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and George Romero movies about the living dead are present in The Stuff, and keep it aging like a fine wine. (Or perhaps, I should say, “aging like a twinkie.”)