Men behave badly during “The Substance” screenings, female spectators react

Men behave badly during “The Substance” screenings, female spectators react

Remember: recently, we shared on Terrafemina the damning testimonies of spectators of the film Anoradenouncing the attitude of certain men during their session.

“Attitude” is quickly said: men are said to have masturbated in the middle of a session, during the numerous sex scenes which punctuate the first part of this Palme d'Or, a tragicomic portrait of a sex worker.

But apparently, Sean Baker's Cannes-winning film is not the only one to suffer from problematic audiences, to say the least.

Although probably devoid, fortunately, of these sexual exhibitions, the sessions of The Substancethe shocking horror film by Frenchie Coralie Fargeat, would also have caused a lot of reaction from female spectators. Because of their neighbors.

On TikTok, young women are indeed pointing out the behavior deemed inappropriate by men sitting next to them, in the cinema, in front of this bloody tale in which Demi Moore excels (notably during this very daring sequence which we have deciphered for you).

But what exactly are these spectators testifying to?

“It’s really disturbing”: spectators testify about their session of “The Substance”, between loud laughter and insults

@aalya.library Chill out in the comments, i am not talking about the funny moments, i am referring to the seeious scenes ef elisabeth crying jn the mirror. I am not dumb lol, i know it is campy at times and people are bound to laugh at those funny moments. I am in no way targeting men either, as someone wanted to accuse me off. #thesubstance #demimoore #bodyhorror ♬ The Substance – Raffertie

It's simple: spectators complain of having heard laughter during their screening session. The Substance. Mocking laughter, nervous laughter perhaps, emanating from their seat neighbors. And not just laughter: insults. And given the broadcast in different videos of these observations, we could speak of a trivialized attitude towards this feminist work.

“I just went to see The Substance and I heard guys laughing throughout the movie? We shouldn't see the same one!“, protests one of these spectators in her video. “And then there was this man who left the theater even before the end of the screening screaming: 'what shit!'… Sorry to all those who don't understand the deep meaning of this film“.

Oui, The Substance makes you laugh. Its formidable irony, its aesthetic excesses, its taste for pronounced gore, its turns in the last part towards something absolutely… Other. But it seems that this masculine laughter is not a conniving laugh. More of a sneer?

“Guys laughing at my session of The Substance during the most sickening and stunning sequences“, deplores yet another young woman, looking dismayed. We point out just in case – and it may be a coincidence, isn't it – that Coralie Fargeat's film is distorted, to the point of grotesque parody , the “male gaze”, this male gaze which sexualizes women, but also the patriarchal system, ageism, contempt for men in power… Not really something to please everyone.

And to all genres.

Another speech, that of this TikToker, who develops this experience a little more, just as uplifted: “Dhe men laughed during my session of The Substance at the moments when I was conversely the most uncomfortable, like the sequences of Demi Moore in front of the mirror… They laughed, until that end. There, no one was laughing anymore!“

It seems that the work finally shut these gentlemen up. Perhaps sufficiently disturbed by this horror film, its very frontal discourse and its very graphic horrific outbursts, to make it known through offbeat or insulting reactions? Even if it means expressing it loud and clear, as if it were a matter of saving face?

In any case, we recommend this phenomenal Ferris wheel ride.