When I walked into a local movie theater on New York’s Lower East Side to see “The Substance” last weekend, I did so in an uncharacteristic way, knowing hardly anything about the film before planting myself in a seat.

I knew vaguely that it was a science fiction psychological thriller starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and was pegged to the perennial relevance of the beauty industry (and society more broadly) selling women products designed to make them both acknowledge and feel bad about their age. What I did not know was that it was a body horror movie, a genre I find myself largely inexperienced with, despite my general affinity for spooky content.

Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore), a middle-aged former Hollywood aerobics star who has been ousted by her employer, a sleazeball-suited type named Harvey who Dennis Quaid plays a little too well. Feeling deflated about her languishing career — and for basically being called old parts by her boss — Elisabeth orders “The Substance,” a serum that enables her to “give birth” to the younger, hotter version of herself: Sue (Qualley.) The serum works wonders, but there’s a hyper-caveat. The user must remember their oneness with their new spawn and obey the weekly body swap, lest some seriously unwanted side effects occur.

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Before seeing “The Substance,” I considered myself to be generally thick-skinned about blood and guts. When it comes to the body horror aspect of it all, “The Substance” delivers on all fronts,........

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