section_path: Reception/Critical response
section_name: Critical response
paragraph_text: Critical response
  
  On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 364 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.0/10. The website's consensus reads: "Audaciously gross, wickedly clever, and possibly Demi Moore's finest hour, The Substance is a gasp-inducing feat from writer-director Coralie Fargeat." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 57 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. On AlloCiné, the film received an average rating of 3.6 out of 5, based on 39 reviews, from French critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 80% overall positive score (including an average of 4 out of 5 stars), with 75% saying they would definitely recommend it.
  
  Peter Bradshaw 's four-star review in The Guardian called it "a cheerfully silly and outrageously indulgent piece of gonzo body-horror comedy." David Ehrlich of IndieWire graded the film an A, calling it "an epic, audacious body horror masterpiece... an instant classic. The most sickly entertaining theatrical experience of the year." Nicholas Barber of the BBC awarded the film four stars out of five, while singling out Moore's performance, writing: "Ripping into her best big-screen role in decades, Demi Moore is fearless in parodying her public image." Phil de Semlyen's five star review in Time Out said it is "Moore who glues it all together, going full Isabelle Adjani -in- Possession in a vanity-free performance full of bruised ego, dawning horror and vulnerability."
  
  Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised the film's director, writing: "Coralie Fargeat works with the flair of a grindhouse Kubrick in a weirdly fun, cathartically grotesque fusion of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Showgirls." Radhika Seth of Vogue called it an "audacious piece of filmmaking... the most exciting release to have debuted on the Croisette so far" and that it was her "current pick to win the Palme d'Or." Damon Wise of Deadline said it is "a riotous, dreamlike horror-thriller that ends in a delirious symphony of blood, guts and otherwise undefinable viscera." Javier Ocaña of El País wrote that the film "is not that great", partly "because subtlety is not Fargeat's greatest virtue", but "mostly because the first 45 minutes seem like a covert remake" of John Frankenheimer 's Seconds.
  
  Many filmmakers, including Ana Lily Amirpour, Edward Berger, Davy Chou, Kelly Fremon Craig, Robert Eggers, Adam Elliot, Hannah Fidell, Michael Gracey, Kitty Green, Laurel Parmet, Rich Peppiatt and Juel Taylor cited it as among their favorite films of 2024.
  
  On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 364 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.0/10. The website's consensus reads: "Audaciously gross, wickedly clever, and possibly Demi Moore's finest hour, The Substance is a gasp-inducing feat from writer-director Coralie Fargeat." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 57 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. On AlloCiné, the film received an average rating of 3.6 out of 5, based on 39 reviews, from French critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 80% overall positive score (including an average of 4 out of 5 stars), with 75% saying they would definitely recommend it.
  
  Peter Bradshaw 's four-star review in The Guardian called it "a cheerfully silly and outrageously indulgent piece of gonzo body-horror comedy." David Ehrlich of IndieWire graded the film an A, calling it "an epic, audacious body horror masterpiece... an instant classic. The most sickly entertaining theatrical experience of the year." Nicholas Barber of the BBC awarded the film four stars out of five, while singling out Moore's performance, writing: "Ripping into her best big-screen role in decades, Demi Moore is fearless in parodying her public image." Phil de Semlyen's five star review in Time Out said it is "Moore who glues it all together, going full Isabelle Adjani -in- Possession in a vanity-free performance full of bruised ego, dawning horror and vulnerability."
  
  Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised the film's director, writing: "Coralie Fargeat works with the flair of a grindhouse Kubrick in a weirdly fun, cathartically grotesque fusion of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Showgirls." Radhika Seth of Vogue called it an "audacious piece of filmmaking... the most exciting release to have debuted on the Croisette so far" and that it was her "current pick to win the Palme d'Or." Damon Wise of Deadline said it is "a riotous, dreamlike horror-thriller that ends in a delirious symphony of blood, guts and otherwise undefinable viscera." Javier Ocaña of El País wrote that the film "is not that great", partly "because subtlety is not Fargeat's greatest virtue", but "mostly because the first 45 minutes seem like a covert remake" of John Frankenheimer 's Seconds.
  
  Many filmmakers, including Ana Lily Amirpour, Edward Berger, Davy Chou, Kelly Fremon Craig, Robert Eggers, Adam Elliot, Hannah Fidell, Michael Gracey, Kitty Green, Laurel Parmet, Rich Peppiatt and Juel Taylor cited it as among their favorite films of 2024.