The Substance leaks online as piracy links spread across social media

Less than a month after it was released in theaters, The Substance is popping up on torrent sites across the internet, leading fans to question just how this happened.

As one of the most exciting 2024 horror movies, The Substance is already all over social media. From praise for its indulgent and disturbing body horror imagery to detailed reviews (check out our review of The Substance to see what we thought), you can’t miss it.

Unfortunately, part of the new movie’s takeover is now coming from an illegal upload. Signs of an HD version began circulating on October 12, not long after the film’s September 20 release date.

Following the leak, links and snippets of scenes have started appearing on socials, with some fans lamenting how “the videos are all over the timeline.”

Mubi

One thing nobody can seem to work out is how the leaks came to be. One Reddit post suggested that the torrent came directly from a movie theater hard drive, though others have debated this source.

“The movie theater ones have individual watermarks on each copy so they can be easily traced. Not worth the risk of getting caught,” one user explained.

Another theorized: “DCP has always been possible, it’s just 1) very demanding, 2) very traceable, and 3) very easy to get caught, so people don’t do it. This rip looks like a WEB-DL of a preview stream rather than DCP.”

“I read someone suggest it could be an pre-retail, internal preview and another who examined frames which lead him to suspect its was hosted streamable on a closed/private platform,” one comment suggested. “Therefore the Theater WEB-DL.”

Regardless, it doesn’t bode well for keeping the still recently released movie under wraps. As Mubi’s highest-grossing movie to date, there’s still plenty of gas in the tank.

The Substance digital release date

Mubi hasn’t announced a digital release date for The Substance yet, but all signs point to it arriving on platforms before the end of October.

Digital and streaming details aren’t yet confirmed, but with the leaks coming into account, Mubi may choose to drop it on digital platforms sooner rather than later. What’s more, being a horror movie, it may be a tactical move to get it online before Halloween.

As for streaming services, The Substance should naturally land on Mubi’s own platform.

For more, check out all the best horror movies on Amazon Prime Video and horror movies on Disney Plus. You can also check out all the horror movies streaming on October on Netflix and more.