THE MONSTROUS FEMININE RE-IMAGINED: THE SUBSTANCE
Makaleler > Tam Makale · 2025
Yazarlar: Henrieta Krupa
sinecine: Sinema Araştırmaları Dergisi, Uluslararası, 2025, cilt 16, ss 58-90
DOI: 10.32001/sinecine.1617469
Özet
This article examines Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (2024) as a feminist intervention within the body horror genre, addressing the scarcity of academic scholarship on this groundbreaking film. By critiquing patriarchal norms surrounding beauty, aging, and the commodification of women’s bodies, The Substance offers a provocative narrative that challenges phallocentric structures and patriarchal systems. Anchored by Demi Moore’s transformative performance, the film subverts the male gaze through grotesque imagery and visceral depictions of bodily disintegration, operating by the abject, reconfiguring monstrosity as a site of resistance and empowerment. Drawing on Julia Kristeva`s concept of the abject, Barbara Creed’s notion of the monstrous-feminine, and Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze, this study foregrounds The Substance as a significant yet underexplored contribution to feminist horror cinema. Through an analysis of the film’s narrative and visual strategies, this article situates The Substance within the broader landscape of feminist New Wave Cinema, highlighting its capacity to interrogate societal norms by amplifying marginalized voices.