The Substance
A body-horror satire about a fading celebrity who uses a black-market drug with grotesque consequences, rated R for extreme gore, graphic nudity, and strong language. Content escalates sharply in the second half and reaches an extremely graphic, blood-saturated climax.
Explicit sexual contentSelf-harm & suicideMedical traumaGraphic violence & goreAbuse & manipulationSubstance abuseFlashing lights
If you’d rather skip
The protagonist first acquires and self-injects the substance; injection scenes with audible squishing sounds repeat across the film as the drug use escalates.
A televised aerobics show features dancers in thongs performing suggestive routines; hyper-sexualized close-up body imagery and full nudity appear from this point onward.
A character graphically stitches another's back; needles piercing skin are shown in sustained close-up.