In recent years, I have grown to love and respect horror movies. I have devoured podcasts and movie reviews to really understand the love and care some horror movies put into their medium. I am still someone who will hide under the blanket when the tension gets too much; I also cannot look away when I see something intriguing.

There is a perfect mixture of fantasy and realism that really draws me, but it’s hard to achieve and do right. Too much fantasy and it might take me of it, but too much realism might hit too close to me.

Recent horror movies have not been too impressive to me. I will still enjoy them, but nothing has stood out to me. That was until I decided to watch a movie right before it came out of theaters: The Substance.

Everything about it stood out to me. The colors, the cinematography, the dialogue, the character, the designs, the effects, the plot, and the many ways this movie can be interpreted. A movie rich in detail and design is one that must be discussed, and I have been waiting to write about it.

This contains heavy messaging of things like body image issues and motherhood. Which makes a psychology nerd like me go crazy. I devoured every second of this movie and the movie continued to give me what I wanted. There is so much to this movie and that is why it means so much to me. All these characters are deliciously flawed, you feel bad and hate these characters at the same time.

The run time of this movie is 2 hours and 21 minutes. That is a long time to sit and watch a movie. However, this movie does not stop, and you will not be bored. Every moment is choreographed and planned; all of it means something.

I was glued to my seat and did not want the roller coaster to end, except when I did have to escape to go to the bathroom. It is still a long movie. But if you are enjoying it at home, you get the luxury of pausing it and come back to it. Now I have an excuse to watch it again to see what I missed, seeing the same scenes again will just be a bonus.

Photo courtesy of IMDb