The Substance18

Directed by Coralie Fargeat | UK/France | 2024 | 2h 21m | Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Hugo Diego Garcia, Oscar Lesage

Television star and fitness icon Elisabeth Sparkle was once a beloved Hollywood pin-up. But when network executives try to replace her with a younger star, she turns to a black-market drug that temporarily transforms her into a younger version of herself. Demi Moore delivers a career-defining performance in Coralie Fargeat’s award-winning satirical body horror, which confronts harsh realities about ageism and misogyny, while exposing the dark side of toxic beauty culture.

🏆 Nominated for 5 Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Lead Actress) and 5 BAFTA Film Awards (including Best Director and Best Original Screenplay).

Reviews

‘Some will run screaming, but if it’s your jam, this could just be your new favourite horror movie.’
★★★★★
Philip De Semlyen, Time Out

‘It’s the casting of Moore, though, and her willingness to denude herself at 61 –emotionally, as well as physically– that gives The Substance a startling connection with its themes. Not for 30 years has she owned a film with anything like this certitude.’
★★★★★
Tim Robey, The Telegraph

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed The Substance between October 12, 2024 and March 10, 2025.

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Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow) unleashes a bloody, bewildering meta-horror, as a young director and a reclusive scream queen descend into a delirious world of queer desire, fear and blood-soaked obsession. Starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.

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Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road.We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We only show a few adverts – less than most cinemas – and we only play a couple of trailers, so please don’t be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!

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