The Substance Wins Best Horror Movie (Golden Issue Awards 2024)

December 23, 2024, 10:00am

Every year, ComicBook’s staff comes together to choose their “best” of the year as part of our wide-ranging Golden Issue Awards. The awards honor what we feel was the best of movies, television, comics, and more for the year and while there are many categories, there is one that we as staff are perhaps more passionate about than others: the movies. This year, the world of film gave us a lot to enjoy, but 2024 was particularly an outstanding year for horror — so much so that we had to give the genre its own award. Horror is definitely having its moment, but this year fans were kept on the edge of their seat with genuine chills while simultaneously being asked to think about some seriously deep subjects. After all, the best horror movies serve to challenge the viewer.

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And our 2024 nominees found unique ways to scare and challenge. The year gave us prequels — one released decades after the initial film and one that answered the question of how the world of one franchise ended up the way it did — a police procedural with a chilling occult twist, supernatural horror rooted in the idea of identity, and even body horror that challenges the price of youth with nominees The First Omen, A Quiet Place: Day One, Longlegs, I Saw the TV Glow, and The Substance. Though many of these movies are destined to be horror classics, only one can take home the Golden Issue Award for Best Horror Movie.

And the winner of the 2024 ComicBook Golden Issue Award for Best Horror Movie is…

The Substance!

From the moment French director Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance got its first freaky and mysterious trailer, horror fans knew they were in for something special. In The Substance, fading fitness celebrity Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is fired from her workout series by her producer (Dennis Quaid) because of her age. The slight leads Elisabeth to use a mysterious drug — The Substance — in an effort to recapture her youth. The trick? The drug creates a younger, more beautiful version of herself (Margaret Qualley) leading to unexpected and catastrophic side effects.

What could have been merely a chilling story about weird medical horror ends up being much more, leaning into the way Western culture prioritizes youth and beauty — and in the process encourages women into self-loathing and insecurity as they become “too old” to have value to a society obsessed with the superficial. More than just an unsettling examination of ageism, The Substance also features outstanding performances. Moore in particular gives what may well be the performance of her career as Elisabeth whose initial desperation for renewed youth descends into a deeper and more terrifying desperation when she realizes she’s gone too far. Qualley also shines in the film as the younger, more traditionally feminine Sue, creating a character that is both unique from Moore’s Elisabeth, but hauntingly the same as the two actors together offer up both aspects of being a woman in society — namely the shared insecurities thanks to a culture that cares only about image.

And of course, we’d be entirely remiss if we didn’t praise Fargeat for creating this story in such a way that makes it stick with you long after the credits roll thanks to the film’s sparse use of dialogue, stunning visuals, and truly disturbing prosthetics for Elisabeth’s transformation. It’s not hyperbole to call this film a masterpiece — and we suspect we won’t be the only ones handing The Substance awards this year.

Congratulations to the cast and crew of The Substance on their Golden Issue Awards Win!

The nominees for Best Horror Movie are: