A 2024 Oscar-winning horror film is taking over HBO Max

It’s a universally acknowledged fact that the Academy doesn’t take horror films seriously. Even if they do give some coveted nominations to horror films during the Oscars, scary and weird films rarely get the top prize, which is frustrating, to say the least; The horror genre is in a very good place as of this writing, and there are a lot of great directors with a vision and a style to work with who are making truly exceptional, critically acclaimed works. Although Coralie Fargate’s gritty, bloody and crazy horror film “The Substance” an act It won one statue at the 2025 Academy Awards, but has yet to pick up any wins in the so-called “above the line” categories — but now that it’s a hit on HBO Max (according to… Flex Patrolcharts), you can check it yourself.

Produced by the streaming service Mubi, which enabled a theatrical release of “The Substance” and served as the film’s exclusive streaming home for some time, the film centers on Demi Moore’s fading star Elizabeth Sparkle, who makes a deal with the devil to obtain her newfound youth and beauty using the titular “Substance.” Obviously there are a lot of rules involved, the most obvious of which is that Elizabeth breaks them, leading to one bloody disaster after another. So what else do you need to know about “The Substance,” and in a world where the Academy already values ​​the horror genre, what else do you need to know? He should He won the 97th Academy Awards?

The “substance” that Elizabeth Sparkle addresses in “Substance” is quite clear evilbut it is also Elizabeth is allowed to spend a week at a time (in theory) in the body of a younger, “prettier” woman known only as Sue (a well-acted and ridiculously popular Margaret Qualley). Here’s the problem, and I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this: Even though Elizabeth is supposed to hook up any body that’s not currently being used up to IVs and keep it on ice, so to speak, until she comes back after the scheduled week, she’s getting high on her own supply as Sue and gradually stops coming back into Elizabeth’s body. As Elizabeth’s body has fallen into disrepair from lack of use, we see him rapidly age each time Elizabeth re-populates her “original” body, leading to a crazy and incredibly unsettling climax in which Sue and Elizabeth fuse into a terrifying creature referred to as the “Monstrous Elisaso.” To say all hell breaks loose is…an understatement.

On paper, this sounds like fairly straightforward body horror, but thanks to writer-director Coralie Farget’s approach and clear message, it couldn’t be more real. Amidst all the eye-popping outrageous scenes in The Substance, the most surprising scene is one in which Elizabeth, in the body of Demi Moore, prepares for a date only to have her face and hair attacked when she doesn’t feel like she might be living up to the man’s (or her own) expectations. “The Substance” tells its story in a harrowing and intense way, but its message is profound: women confront it impossible physical standards, and can push them to the point of no return.

Although “The Substance” garnered a truly impressive number of Oscar nominations for a horror film — especially such a gritty one — at the end of the day, it only took home Oscars for makeup and hairstyling. Although it was sorely deserved based on Elisasso’s aforementioned monstrous look alone, I’m not the first and won’t be the last to say that Demi Moore really is, truly She deserved an Oscar for her leading role.

After an incredibly competitive awards season, Sean Baker’s drama “Anora” ended up winning the Oscar, taking home Best Picture (a category in which “The Substance” was nominated but never had a real chance of winning) as well as Best Actress, a category in which Mickey Madison’s “Anora” triumphed over industry veteran Moore. Moore, for her part, won a Golden Globe (although she competed with Madison in different categories between drama for Moore and comedy for Madison) and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. Yet the comeback story of Moore, who was told throughout her career that she would never be a serious actress and then eventually received an Oscar nomination for one of the most bizarre films in recent history, has stuck. only Out of reach.

You can decide for yourself whether or not Moore deserves an Oscar for “The Substance,” because… It’s streaming now on HBO Max and is just one of the many great projects you should check out on your streamer this week.