section_path: Reception/Themes
section_name: Themes
paragraph_text: Themes
  
  Wendy Ide of The Guardian praised The Substance for its feminist perspective of older women, making note of how other female-led horror films like Carrie or Rosemary's Baby centre on themes of menstruation and childbirth. She wrote that The Substance, in contrast, "not only offers a female perspective on women's bodies, but also argues that things only start to get properly messy once fertility is a dim memory." The New York Times critic Alissa Wilkinson described the film as an exploration of the male gaze, noting the satirically exaggerated camera angles and shots, depicting the female characters in a way "that feels reminiscent mostly of porn ". In exaggerating these portrayals of female beauty standards to the point of absurdity, the film becomes humorous: "the worse things become for Elisabeth, the harder it is not to giggle with glee." She also notes that the film can be seen as exploring mind–body dualism.
  
  Alison Willmore of Vulture said that the film's strongest theme is about the dangers of addiction, comparing it to Requiem for a Dream. Elisa Battistini for Scraps from the Loft (originally published on Quinlan.it) called the film "a strange blend of Death Becomes Her and Society with hints of Tetsuo ". Several critics have noted the film's similarities to Oscar Wilde 's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
  
  The film's influences include works by David Cronenberg (The Fly), John Carpenter (The Thing), Joel and Ethan Coen (Barton Fink), David Lynch (Mulholland Drive), Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream), and Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey).
  
  Wendy Ide of The Guardian praised The Substance for its feminist perspective of older women, making note of how other female-led horror films like Carrie or Rosemary's Baby centre on themes of menstruation and childbirth. She wrote that The Substance, in contrast, "not only offers a female perspective on women's bodies, but also argues that things only start to get properly messy once fertility is a dim memory." The New York Times critic Alissa Wilkinson described the film as an exploration of the male gaze, noting the satirically exaggerated camera angles and shots, depicting the female characters in a way "that feels reminiscent mostly of porn ". In exaggerating these portrayals of female beauty standards to the point of absurdity, the film becomes humorous: "the worse things become for Elisabeth, the harder it is not to giggle with glee." She also notes that the film can be seen as exploring mind–body dualism.
  
  Alison Willmore of Vulture said that the film's strongest theme is about the dangers of addiction, comparing it to Requiem for a Dream. Elisa Battistini for Scraps from the Loft (originally published on Quinlan.it) called the film "a strange blend of Death Becomes Her and Society with hints of Tetsuo ". Several critics have noted the film's similarities to Oscar Wilde 's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
  
  The film's influences include works by David Cronenberg (The Fly), John Carpenter (The Thing), Joel and Ethan Coen (Barton Fink), David Lynch (Mulholland Drive), Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream), and Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey).