Demi Moore's Gory Horror Film The Substance Qualifies as Comedy at Golden Globes, and Fans Are Divided

Is The Substance a comedy or drama? 

That’s what had to be decided for the wild horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley ahead of the Golden Globe Awards, which have separate categories for dramas and comedies or musicals.

After reports that The Substance was submitted in the comedy category, fans have thoughts. 

Director Coralie Fargeat’s gory tale follows Hollywood star Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore) who takes the titular mysterious black-market drug and births a “better” version of herself, Sue (Qualley). Costarring Dennis Quaid as a lascivious TV executive, The Substance combines violently twisted body horror with satire of cultural obsession with youth.

“I thought of it more as a drama, but I guess it can be considered a dark comedy, considering the subject matter,” wrote @OurMovieGuide on X (formerly Twitter) in response to the news that the film will be considered a comedy by Globe nominators. 

Other social media users were less ambivalent. “nothing about this film says comedy,” responded @harv, adding, “what are they even doing.”

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The Substance “is a drama,” said @Aphoticphoton. Of the Globes, they added, “Hate that the musical or comedy [has] become the miscellaneous category for movies.”

Other fans online found the Mubi film’s submission as a comedy a perfect fit. “I honestly can’t believe anyone would call this anything other than a comedy, especially considering the third act,” commented user shrimptini on Reddit. (Spoiler alert: the final stretch of The Substance involves a grotesquely misshapen monster version of Moore and Qualley’s characters, a live New Year’s Eve televised show and fountains of bright-red blood.) 

“Yeah, it’s tragic, uncomfortable, and visceral, but it has better intentional comic timing throughout than most movies I’ve seen this year,” tweeted @adamj_film.

Another X user, weeklydeekly, agreed, weighing in on different definitions of humor: “It’s not that it’s ‘haha’ funny. It’s very ‘what in the actual [f---]’ funny.”

Responding to other user’s notion that “comedy is seen as an insult here,” @curtmega posted, “Saying and acknowledging that The Substance is a comedy (it very much IS satire) doesn’t undermine its impact. If anything, it reinforces the fact that it’s working on so many levels.”

For writer Zach Schonfeld, Fargeat’s movie is not about making a serious impact: “The Substance is a highly enjoyable trashy B movie with an A-list cast that has been widely mistaken for an Important Message movie, which has had devastating consequences for the discourse.”

In his review for PEOPLE, Tom Gliatto called The Substance “an absurdly grotesque study of how women are pressured to preserve their youth at punishing, humiliating cost” as well as “a chance for Moore to prove herself at comedy. She succeeds. Her performance is an escalating howl of panic and desperation that’s also acidly sarcastic and ludicrously funny.”

The Substance is in theaters now, then streaming on Mubi Oct. 31. The Golden Globes will take place Jan. 5, with Nikki Glaser as host.