Oscars 2025: ‘The Substance’ success marks a massive moment for body horror
Body horror is generally defined as horror fiction in which the scares are derived from the gruesome deterioration or transformation of the human body, as opposed to an external threat.
Over the years, there have been plenty of directors whose movies see them revelling in these queasy, upsetting, and often grotesquely harrowing degradations of the body. David Cronenberg is undoubtedly the most famous purveyor of this kind of horror, which is often just as thematically rich as it is viscerally stomach-churning, but he has infamously never been nominated for an Oscar. This is why the performance of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance in the 2025 Oscar nominations is potentially such a watershed moment for the genre.
Fargeat’s highly acclaimed horror film starring Demi Moore as a fading celebrity who uses a bizarre drug to transform into a younger version of herself – played by Margaret Qualley – has been one of the runaway hits of awards season. Fargeat won ‘Best Screenplay’ at Cannes, and out of its five nominations at the Golden Globes, Moore walked away with ‘Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.’
Despite all this success, many observers wondered if the Motion Picture Academy would follow suit and reward The Substance. The Academy has historically been reticent to nominate horror movies in any of its big categories, instead preferring to seemingly only consider the genre for technical categories. In 2018, Jordan Peel’s Get Out broke through this barrier with four nominations, thanks to its canny mix of horror, comedy, and sharp racial commentary. However, the Academy has never been keen to nominate something as, for lack of a better term, visually disgusting as The Substance, given that body horror has often felt like it was looked down upon, even within the horror genre.
Thankfully for fans of the genre, though, the Academy saw sense and lavished The Substance with five nominations: ‘Best Picture,’ ‘Best Director’ for Fargeat, ‘Best Actress’ for Moore, ‘Best Original Screenplay’ for Fargeat,’ and ‘Best Makeup and Hairstyling’.
This triumph of recognition signifies a massive moment for body horror as a genre, women in horror, and women behind the camera, as female directors being nominated for ‘Best Director’ is still a depressing rarity. Fargeat has smashed the glass ceiling with her film, and perhaps her success will lead to a world in which the Academy simply sees body horror – and horror as a whole – as a worthy genre of film.
“I don’t see horror films as any different from other movies,” Fargeat recently told IndieWire. “They are so political. They are such a great way to tell so many things in a very rude way and in a very indelicate way. To me, they should compete at the same level as everything else.”
She added, “The best thing I wish for the Academy is that there is not this barrier; that every movie is considered as cinema, which I think it is.”
So, is this a new day for that most controversial of horror subgenres? Are we long past the time when Cronenberg could be snubbed by the Academy, even when his films received other nominations? It will be fascinating to see if Fargeat’s transgressive movie actually wins anything at the ceremony. After all, it’s high time another body horror movie followed up Cronenberg’s The Fly, which even the Academy couldn’t deny boasted the ‘Best Makeup’ in 1987.
