body horror uses the terror of mutation, body dysphoria, mutilation and mutilation to not only shock but also tell us something about ourselves. Whether it’s the current state of political affairs, social limits to controlling the primal urge of man, and all the things that we let rest deep in our unconscious. The body horror film is elemental and deepens its horrors with practical effects, often setting digital technology aside. Instead, show us humans at their worst and take away a society’s fear of itself.
David Cronenberg is a master of the genre, as is John Carpenter, who has built up an amazing filmography over the decades, sharpening their acumen and use of violence as technology grows. The two remain the same voice, but never repeat themselves. The 1980s is a genre at the height of its power, but lately, the horror industry is growing and is a paragon of success for Hollywood. With new directors appreciating their work, such as Julia Ducournau from France, these are 10 of the best body horror movies.
10/10 videodrome
Sex and violence are always inextricably linked in Cronenberg’s work. So using his body horror panache to literally warn and warn against the terror of screens seemed like a natural world for the director to inhabit. Casting the fiery James Woods as the desperate TV producer to take audiences down the rabbit hole of taboos, secret television shows and conspiracy broadcasts was a perfect choice. With some unforgettable analog effects, such as the remote control armCronenberg used horror to most effectively deliver the Trojan horse’s political ideology in another disgusting story videodrome.
9/10 Society
Brian Yuzna takes all the shine of sun-drenched suburbs, 80s lavishness and wealthy socialites and turns it into a perverted nightmare. If we take the paranoia we all have about secret societies, what the other side of the coin might look like, and the utter disregard some have for the wealthy, instead it’s a nightmare for the body. As a young child, Billy delves deeper into his parents’ social life, tries to build a life for himself after high school, and discovers something psychotic and horrifying. Yuzna comes up with one of the most terrifying conclusions of the ’80s and goes full body dysphoria. Society is a surreal and visceral experience.
8/10 Titane
The debut film by French filmmaker Julia Ducournau Raw announced a great talent in the film world and its successor, win the Palme d’Or Titane, made it clear that she is just starting out. Ducournau is an evocative tale of body horror by fusing the body with heavy metal engineering. Ducournau tries to shock, but also soften the blow of the body terror with his huge heart. Her ability to show the malleability of human flesh and how we relate to each other, push, Titane contains two brilliantly empathetic and beautifully broken performances by Vincent Lindon and Agathe Rouselle. When the two become oddballs after Agathe is on the run from murder, the body is violated, suppressed, and then released.
7/10 Animator again
The mad scientist is the perfect vessel for physical horror. Moving at breakneck speed, Stuart Gordon’s Animator again spoils all the analogue guts of the 80s to hilarious and grotesque purposes. When a group of college students become entangled in experimental drugs that begin to resuscitate dead tissue and bodies, the Frankenstein comes out of it all in murderous, explicit ways. Indulging in utter disgust, the severed heads that talk and the naked bodies begin to mingle for a frenziedly entertaining divergence in body terror.
6/10 Alien
In only his second film, Ridley Scott would prove to be a director of immense talent and intellect, displaying a passion for ingenuity that would only advance the craft and influence every film that came after. Alien Not only is it a story that combines great character arcs, including that of its protagonist Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), special effects, and cinematography, but the terror that hangs over every frame of the film is unparalleled, even today. Alien is an iconic film and one of the biggest in the sci-fi body horror genre.
5/10 Modified States
An amalgamation of ideas about birth, suffering, human consciousness and life after death, shuffled through the lens of psychedelics through the clichéd mad scientist, Modified States is a deadly spectacle by British author Ken Russell. Based on the script by Paddy Chayefsky, William Hurt plays the scientist who discovers a mind-altering drug that can lead to new questions and answers about the human mind and spirit. The journey leads him to self-revelation and a mutated body. The script’s genuine curiosity gives Hurt the ability to create a human performance. Russell gives in to those worries about life after death and the fear of your birth to his horrific body horror extremes.
4/10 Tetsuo: The Iron Man
A bare-bones idea brought to its most disgusting, hilarious, and modifying endings, the experimental Japanese film is like the last 20 minutes of Akira stretched into a 65-minute sensory experience. Tetsuo: The Iron Man gets its moody visual tests from director Shinya Tsukamoto, who shot the film on 16mm emulsion, to heighten the sense of surreal terror. When a man becomes deeply forged into the industrialization of his city, he becomes a sharing machine, tearing his body apart and ruining his relationship with humanity.
3/10 Day of the Dead
Zombie movie great author George A. Romero does more than just bring out the undead, but finds ways to take the horror of being ripped from the flesh and redirect it into big philosophical questions about the psyche of the world. America. In 1985, with Day of the DeadRomero and legendary makeup artist Tom Savini created a gory psychological nightmare that, under the Ronald Reagan presidency, questioned the growing anger of the military-industrial complex. With the help of a team of scientists, civilians and excited military personnel, Romero showed an America at odds as the humans slowly ignited long before the zombies came.
2/10 The fly
A film so brutal and disgusting that you can hardly look away. So enchantingly daring that you probably wish it were erased from their memories, but the experience will have seeped into your bones so much that it never goes away. Cronenberg’s The fly took body horror and animatronics to extremes for the sake of human ambition. Jeff Goldblum stars as Dr. Seth Brundle, the scientist who pushes the human body to its limits for the sake of knowledge and his morbid curiosity. If dr. Brundle accidentally transfers genes with an insect that will mutate his body beyond repair, the consequences become catastrophic for his health and those who love him. The fly is a hauntingly chilling film that will always be one of Cronenberg’s best.
1/10 The thing
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King of the 80s horror movie, Carpenter’s The thing is an example of montage, practical effects and his keen sense of creating an atmosphere of paranoia. By trapping a team of research scientists in the heart of the Arctic while an unknown alien presence invades their terrain, imitating and copying every flesh it comes into contact with, Carpenter created a mainstay of the body horror genre. As Kurt Russell and Keith David navigate the crew’s paranoia and their suspicion of who controls the power dynamics, The thing slowly turns into a body horror gore fest where no one can be trusted.