What is The Substance's IQ Score?

The Substance has an IQ Score of 153/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient framework, placing it in the Stimulating tier. The score breaks down to 43/50 Cognitive Stimulation, 30/50 Educational Value, and 42/50 Craft & Quality.

Is The Substance educational?

The Substance is moderate on educational value, 30/50 on TVI's rubric. Some learning happens, but it isn't the show's primary work.

How does TV Intelligentsia calculate IQ Score?

TV Intelligentsia's current published formula is round((Cognitive Stimulation × 0.4 + Educational Value × 0.35 + Craft & Quality × 0.25) × 4), scoring titles from 0 to 200 across five tiers. TVI publishes a three-dimension breakdown only when those values reproduce the displayed composite. The framework is published at tvintelligentsia.com/methodology/.

The Substance IQ Score 153/200

The Substance has an IQ Score of 153/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient rubric, placing it in the Stimulating tier.

By Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH·Updated 2026-07-28·Methodology

horrorsci-fidrama

153/ 200

Stimulating

Consistently challenges the viewer and rewards attention

Score Breakdown

Cognitive Stimulation/50

Educational Value/50

Craft & Quality/50

Cinematic Score/50

IQ = round((Cognitive × 0.4 + Educational × 0.35 + Craft × 0.25) × 4) · How we score →

What these dimensions mean

Cognitive Stimulation: how much the title demands of your mind, its structural complexity, ideas, and sustained intellectual engagement.
Educational Value: what you take away, across academic content, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, life skills, and knowledge transfer.
Craft & Quality: production excellence in service of the work, its direction, writing, performance, and aesthetic intent.
Cinematic Score: composition quality, emotional impact, and how the music integrates with the work. Does not affect the IQ Score.

Saves to your browser. See your Personal IQ on My TVI →

Why you should trust this score

Scored under Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH

Physician and founding editor. Maintains the adult catalog against the published rubric and reviews the rubric application.

Methodology

Published rubric, v1.3

Formula

round(C × 0.40 + E × 0.35 + Q × 0.25) × 4

Database scale

2,590 titles, version-controlled

How we stay independent. Editorial scores are not for sale. TVI may take on paid advisory or research work, but no commercial relationship buys coverage, advance access to scores, favorable treatment, or a change to a published finding. We pay for our own streaming subscriptions, and no reviewer sees sponsor data or affiliate revenue tied to a score. More about how we work →

The TVI Take

Coralie Fargeat's body horror satire uses extreme physical transformation as a metaphor for Hollywood's consumption of women's youth. Cognitively demanding, the tonal shifts between clinical precision and Grand Guignol excess require active processing.

Educational value comes from its feminist media critique, though the film teaches through visceral experience rather than exposition.

The Trailer