Demi Moore Goes to Bat for the Horror Film Genre During Award Win for “The Substance”

The horror genre – be it in literature, film or television – has always had an undeserved reputation as the ‘difficult child’ at the dinner table of pop culture. When it comes to the likes of Count Dracula, Freddy Krueger, or the Blair Witch sharing tablespace with the well-heeled and warm-hearted likes of Jack Dawson, George Bailey and Andy Tailor, there’s no real contest, we suppose. However, when the paparazzi has had its share of snapping pics of the beautiful ones and packed up for the day and the latest Merchant Ivory piece of Oscar-bait has come and gone, a whole lot of us can probably be found watching such delightfully scary flicks as John Carpenter’s The Thing, or Robert Wise’s The Haunting. And who could blame us, really? After all, there’s only so much PC-enforced Hollywood vegetables which we can get down our poor gullets at any one time, and we all know that horror is so much more fun than any number of feel-good/touchy-feely ‘masterpieces’ which are roundly celebrated around awards season. Still, it’s a nice feeling to have an A-list celebrity defend those oddballs of us out there who have a subscription to Fangoria and count Bela Lugosi as a better actor than Marlon Brando. Such is the case with actress Demi Moore who herself is enjoying a career rejuvenation with her riveting turn in the decidedly horror-like film The Substance.

For anyone who has not had the moment to check it out yet, The Substance is the story of a woman ( Demi Moore) whose career as an actress and fitness guru has gone the way of the telephone booth. In order to get her mojo back, she decides to inject herself with an experimental vial of chemicals which comes with the promise of renewed vitality and popularity. Sidenote: Things take a very bad turn.

From our ‘Is it real or is it Hollywood’ pals over at Variety comes the news that Oscar-nominated actress Demi Moore is coming out swinging in defense of horror movies.

Accepting the award for Best Actress at the recent Critics Choice Awards, the Ghost star took a moment to wax rhapsodic about the oft-times looked down upon genre of the horror film.

“This is so far beyond anything I could have hoped for,” Moore told an audience which gave her a standing ovation for her work in The Substance. “I just want to say the very recognition — not just for me, but for what this film is about, what it’s trying to convey — your acknowledgment is almost like the elixir. It is the healing balm to the very issue the film brings forward. I am so grateful, not just for my performance, but that you have highlighted this film, this genre. Normally, horror films are overlooked and not seen for the profundity that they can hold.”

As someone who proudly displays his Scream Factory Friday the 13^th Blu-ray boxset on the same shelf as such acknowledged classics as Field of Dreams, The English Patient and Gentlemen’s Agreement, I couldn’t agree more with Demi Moore’s astute observations; horror as a genre is amazingly inventive and can at times get to truths which your standard Hollywood blockbuster can’t even approach; here’s to many more scares and chills in the years to come!

By Ryan Vandergriff