A side character follows the main character from the location where she gets the subtance to a nearby diner. She’s shown being very stressed about this and constantly looking behind herself as she runs.
lingering shots of injection paraphernalia, as well as intermittent and close-up scenes of injection throughout the movie. CW DETAILS: includes healthy vein & subcutaneous injection, tournquet use, slow needle insertion, spinal injection, and injection into an infected site.
Arguable. The main character behaves like an addict towards "The Substance" which is an allegory for plastic surgery and other youth-sustaining products. There are lines about 'wanting to stop' and being unable to stop.
not a super specific portrayel, but within the realm of body horror, we get an open mouthed face slowly covered by fabric in the third act, as well as the character in the third act who struggles to speak (no covering of her mouth)
while not explicit dislocation, bone crunching foley heard throughout some transformation scenes, as well as a scene where an old, arthritic knee is forced out of locking in order for the character to stand up.
in the third act: the flesh of an ear falls off, a hand is amputated and showers blood, and a head is lopped/knocked off. all three of these scenes happen extremely fast and are positioned with an air of absurdity/campiness.
in the second act, there is a quick nightmare scene where the main character squats and experiences a bulging/herniation in her buttocks; in the third act, the main character emerges with full-body deformity that includes breast placement. later, a breast is produced through a orifice on the deformed body and falls to the ground.
Each time the drug is used or a 'switch' happens the character collapses dramatically. There is also one scene in the final third where a character is beaten unconscious.
there is some rapid aging related mobility loss in elizabeth's body, in particular one of her legs and an arthritic knee. however, most of the rapid aging is visual only, rather than mobility related.
After she has 4 martinis cut to her v* at home, no visual only audio.
When the young version wakes up the first time she v*, not sure if visual as I closed my eyes.
At the end of the film the 'monster' sort of vomits up a piece of viscera, the audio is very triggering but the visual is more of an object.
There are a lot lot lot of other possible triggers for you though, huge amount of spitting, gagging, open mouth chewing, gross food stuff etc.
There's one shot towards the end where someone spits directly at the camera, it's quite gross. There is a lot lot lot of mouth misophonia stuff, open mouth chewing, too.
Many times in the film, in grotesque ways. You can generally see it coming, basically anytime she's in the bathroom with her body double. The worst bit is towards the end she's putting a large needle repeatedly into an infected wound.
Yes, the main character harms herself several times throughout the movie, through smacking herself in the head/face, pulling her hair, rending at her face, berating herself in a classic dysregulation/punishment cycle, sometimes banging her head against the wall.
Elisabeth suffers alot of DP and DR. She loses her sense of self to Sue, and loses contact with reality after Sue is made.
Also Sue starts to harm her and completely disconnect or dissociate from E. Might be a metaphor for DID or UID
The character expresses no longer willing to live in a certain version of herself, willing to endure extensive suffering to no longer live in her life anymore, ultimately tries to kill a version of herself. Not a traditional suicide attempt by any means, but could be interpreted as suicidal ideation in certain ways.
Depending on the definition of a 'meltdown', the main character experiences scenes of dysregulation and responds with self harm, as well as a scene of overwhelm where she snaps as a colleague.
There are scenes reminiscent of birthing as the new self emerges from her former body, pulls things out of her body, and the monster at the end “births” a breast, in a sense.
No, but I do think some might be troubled by this film's treatment of disfigurement. There is a 'monster' in the film. The message is not at all about disability but could be read that way.
Arguable. The main character is 50 but gets to live in a younger body so has relationships with younger men. However, the men in the film are generally portrayed as predatory so it doesn't have the 'vibes' of an age gap relationship.
No typical chronic illness depicted, but use of the substance is repeatedly shown as necessary throughout, so characters experience illness (ie. vertigo, pain, nose/ear bleeds) only alleviated by injection.
Sort of? A character is constantly reminded that they and another character are the same person, and the whole movie could be seen as aging, trying to prevent it, and trying to survive within the male gaze