CineVibez Magazine #9

Melty Vibez

Oct 29, 2024

Welcome to CineVibez Magazine, where every movie has a vibe. I finished watching Apartment 7A, this new prequel to Rosemary’s Baby. Meh, I didn’t really like it. It takes an unoriginal, albeit kinda clever approach for a prequel: Remember Terry who met Rosemary in the laundry room before leaping to her death? The new movie is about her. Yes, her.

Rosemary meets Terry in Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Terry’s story parallels Rosemary’s Baby so closely that it adds nothing to the western horror film canon. Your favorite side characters are back (even Dr. Sapirstein), but the new versions don’t really hold water In fact, Apartment 7A’s biggest flaw is its depiction of Minnie and Roman Castevet. The lack of personal boundaries scared me more than the devil rape, but Minnie and Roman are just sweet, helpful neighbors in this new movie.

The Castevets Take Terry In in Apartment 7A (2024)

Ultimately, Apartment 7A answers why Terry jumped out the window and little else. If that’s been gnawing at you since 1968, see this movie. You will finally find peace. As for the rest of us, just watch Rosemary’s Baby again. I see something new on every rewatch. Or alternatively, check out The First Omen -another prequel made decades after the original with a better script.

The New CineVibez Format:

In Zine Queenz #1, I revealed my vision for the future of the CineVibez HQ family of newsletters. CineVibez’s focus going forward will be recommending and highlighting little known, forgotten, and obscure films from yesteryear. We’re talking b-movies, grindhouse, psychotronic, cult, straight-to-video, sub-subgenres, etc. - all the good stuff.

Frank Henenlotter's NYC Masterpiece Basket Case

If possible, I’ll try to link the recommendations to contemporary hits. Like today, I’ll write about the body horror pioneers who cleared the way for Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance. I’ll gloss over the heavy hitters like Cronenberg’s The Fly, Carpenter’s The Thing, and Death Becomes Her in favor of more interesting choices. For example, Fargeat took inspiration from 1982’s Basket Case, among other movies. Basket Case was one of the more mainstream 42nd Street regulars for a reason. Each scene looks so dirty that you might want a shower after watching. But boy oh boy Frank Henenlotter puts his characters in a delightfully sleazy New York. It also stars one of the all-time greats: Frankenhooker’s Beverly Bonner. She started to look a lot like my mother-in-law toward the end of her life. It makes holidays confusing. And btw, Frankenhooker is another great companion film for The Substance.

Another Henenlotter Classic: Frankenhooker (1990)

Anyway, you’ll mostly hear about The Fly and Death Becomes Her in the trades, but Basket Case was a fun reference from Fargeat. I keep seeing people mention John Carpenter’s The Thing alongside The Substance, but no, no, no. I don’t see it. Sure both have body horror, but The Thing focuses on an external dilemmas whereas The Substance’s struggles are more internalized (until they’re not). It’s a different vibe, man.

But none of you are here for recommendations you already know of or have seen. The good stuff is in the back. A week or so ago, I went idea fishing and realized CineVibez HQ was headed in the wrong direction (a direction already forged by others). Don’t worry - I course corrected. CineVibez HQ’s family of newsletters now has a new, innovative approach. I can’t explain the approach because its new, so stop asking. I can only give you the following mission statement:

I will obsessively research (and watch) psychotronic, cult, foreign, or lesser known movies to find recommendations that relate to contemporary hits my audience enjoyed. In doing so, I hope to show that people are better at recommending movies than algorithms and artificial “intelligence.”

I won’t rant about A.I. or social media in this newsletter unless its the topic of a film I watched; that’s the last topic I want to highlight. I just want to give you guys a living, breathing alternative to computer language-based recommendations. But maybe I should aim lower in the beginning - I just hope you guys like the new format more than reading Deadpool reviews.

Bodiez, Bodiez, Bodiez

Let’s get to the heart of the matter. Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is a new body horror film that takes aim at modern beauty standards. You really should see this one in a theater, but it’s streaming on Mubi on Halloween if that isn’t reasonable for you.

Body horror films rule because they get so wild and unpredictable that it feels like you’re watching a feral animal try to escape a maze. The Substance is no exception. The plot follows Demi Moore’s Elizabeth Sparkle, an aging celebrity fitness instructor who gets pushed out of her job for a younger, hotter alternative. As she unravels, Elizabeth gets in a car accident and is rushed to the ER. Things get interesting after a nurse slips her the phone number for a new pharmaceutical injectable called the substance. It is neon green and claims to bring back your younger, hotter self. Just be sure to follow the instructions.

I won’t spoil too much, but Elizabeth obviously takes the substance and fails to follow the instructions, causing mayhem. What follows is a wonderfully insane allegory about self-hatred and illogical beauty norms. Elizabeth’s transformation comes with a mental breakdown that rivals that of Seth Brundle. That’s not the only reference to The Fly btw.

Body Horror Mount Rushmore

Practical effects artist Pierre Olivier Persin who designed Elizabeth’s transformation said:

I was thinking of The Fly. At first, he [Jeff Goldblum] has hair on his back. He's losing one nail. It's a small decay. It's step by step. He's not suddenly gruesome. So it was trying to find the right balance. We didn't want one stage to be too much, so when we see where it's going, it's a surprise.

Fargeat honors a lot of body horror films, but The Fly’s DNA is all over this one. As I mentioned, you see it in the physical and mental transformations of the leads. The slow metamorphosis starts out subtle in both films, like skin discoloration or … I dunno, a witch finger. The mental decay starts to track the physical to drive the applicable themes home. I don’t really see The Thing’s DNA in The Substance though. Maybe its too difficult to imagine John Carpenter tackling the fashion industry (he didn’t really write The Eyes of Laura Mars). Anyway, Geena Davis’ head gets the first spot on Mt. Rushmore.

Death Becomes Her is another obvious inspiration. Like Elizabeth, Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep’s characters take drastic measures to maintain their youthful bodies. They even have a magical potion like the substance injection! Let’s give this one to Goldie. She’s “head number 2.”

1931’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde takes the third spot on Mt. Rushmore. Its hard to miss Fargeat’s in-your-face exploration of similar themes of duality and the id, ego, and superego. 1971’s Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde starred Martine Beswick, so lets put her on the third head. I’m not putting a man on The Substance’s Mt. Rushmore.

And finally, the fourth spot goes to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining … or maybe just Stanley Kubrick. Fargeat impressively recreates The Shining’s eerie, uncomfortable vibes, but there’s a Kubrick reference around every corner. The studio’s rug is basically The Shining’s hallway carpeting. Shelley Duvall gets the last spot. So there you have it: The Substance Mount Rushmore.

CineVibezHQ Approved Recommendations:

The Substance’s box office return was just shy of $40,000,000, which is pretty darn good for a niche horror film that cost only $17,500,000 to make. Hopefully we’ll get more interesting body horror as a result. In the meantime, I have some treats for you. The following movies share DNA with The Substance (and every other movie mentioned today):

Society (1989)

In The Substance, Sue starts falling apart once she ignores the instructions. Things get so bad that she injects a partial dose into herself to create an even better version of herself. Unfortunately, what comes out looks more like the shunting in Society - one of my favorite 80s horror movies. Go in blind and stay until the end.

Looker (1981)

I wrote about Looker before, but I need to mention it here because its a great companion film for The Substance. Looker is a Michael Crichton directed movie that attacks the same beauty standards under assault in The Substance. Except this one sort of has an AI/ChatGPT twist. You see, the Looker Machine spits out data to help advertisers figure out what body types sell their products best. The actresses get plastic surgery to obtain the Looker Machine’s measurements before filming commercials. Fun fact - Looker correctly predicted that actors are going to be replaced by computer generated images of themselves.

Titane (2021)

I added Titane to include another body horror film from France. I bet a lot of you missed Titane because of the timing of its release. But you need to see it. Titane shares more than a subgenre title with The Substance. Both movies explore identity and, more specifically, the extreme measures we take to gain acceptance from others. Titane is beautifully shot and is a marvel to watch, which seems contrary to the subgenre of choice. But trust me, it works. As an added bonus, you will get to see one of my favorite movie scenes from 2021. You’ll know its coming if you hear Future Island’s Lighthouse.

Rejuvenatrix (1988)

Last but certainly not least is Rejuvenatrix, or The Rejuvenator. You may have seen the other movies I mentioned, but I bet you haven’t seen Rejuvenatrix. Take away $17,250,000 of The Substance’s budget and you’ve got Rejuvenatrix. It’s campy, insane and parallels Fargeat’s film in more ways than one.

Rejuvenatrix opens with a rich actress past her prime who hopes to restore her youthful beauty. She finances a scientist who is working on a formula for eternal youth. The formula isn’t ready, but the actress (her name is Elizabeth for heck’s sake) doesn’t care. The formula works at first, but Elizabeth eventually learns she needs brain fluid to maintain her new figure. Brain fluid is hard to get.

Body Melt (1992)

Finally, I need to recommend Body Melt, an early 90s subgenre of body horror known as melt movies. Body Melt, Rejuvenatrix, and The Substance are essentially the same movies stylized differently by their decades. This Aussie hit is all over the place and its guarnteed to offend you, but there’s still something charming about it. And the magical potion that reverses aging is just as neon green as the substance. This one isn’t for everyone, but its similarities to The Substance are uncanny.

Happy Halloween!

Some of these movies make great Halloween selections. And let me know in the comments if I left out any good, comparable body horror films!

Happy Watching,

Murray