By Kellina Moore
In certain horror films, the origins of terror are often found not far from your neighborhood or even your home — they lie within your very skin.
This genre is known as body horror: films that showcase various alterations, mutations, and degradations of the human body. These disturbing transformations often highlight the futility of our attempts to govern our wildly unpredictable forms. We like to view ourselves as the mind controlling a body, but these films serve as a reminder that we are ultimately subject to the fleshy vessels we inhabit.
Coralie Fargeat’s latest offering, “The Substance” (in theaters), featuring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, is part of this vigorous tradition, telling the story of an aging starlet who utilizes an experimental drug to craft a younger, better self. As you might expect, the treatment leads to unforeseen and revolting side effects, mocking society’s (especially Hollywood’s) fixation on preserving women’s stereotypical beauty and youth — regardless of the cost.
For those seeking an introduction to this subgenre, here are eight films that will provide a swift education in the daring, the gruesome, and the grotesque.
‘The Thing’ (1982)
The transformations that fill John Carpenter’s film are as diverse as they are unforgettable. A creature capable of assuming the shape of its victims targets a secluded research station in Antarctica, leading the men stationed there to defend themselves while growing increasingly distrustful of one another. The monster could take on anyone’s appearance before morphing into a grotesque imitation — such as when one team member’s head separates from his body and sprouts spider-like legs. This incites paranoia surrounding not only one’s own body but those of others. Some viewers interpret this film through the lens of anxieties related to the AIDS crisis. (Watch it on Peacock.)
‘The Fly’ (1986)
Selecting just one film from David Cronenberg, often dubbed the father of body horror, for this list is challenging. However, his remake of the 1958 monster classic “The Fly” is typically seen as the most iconic. The practical effects illustrating a scientist’s slow, agonizing transformation into a fly-human hybrid after a teleportation mishap earned Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis an Oscar for best makeup that year. Quotes like, “You can’t penetrate beyond society’s sick, gray fear of the flesh” offer a fitting introduction to the corporeal musings that permeate much of Cronenberg’s oeuvre. (Available for rent or purchase on major platforms.)
‘From Beyond’ (1986)
Director Stuart Gordon’s adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft tale quickly dives into the action. In a chaotic opening that resembles a climax, we are introduced to a device that accesses a parallel realm filled with gooey monsters and surreal pleasures. One of the researchers is dragged to the other side, experiencing increasingly delightful deformities. The slick creature he becomes is illuminated in vivid neon pink, maintaining a playful tone even as it grows bizarre. (Watch it on Amazon Prime Video.)
‘Hellraiser’ (1987)
I’ll allow Clive Barker’s supernatural, leather-clad, body-altered antagonists to introduce themselves: “Demons to some, angels to others.” As in “From Beyond,” the division between pain and pleasure is intensely blurred, this time with a more religious undertone. Frank (Sean Chapman) inadvertently awakens these otherworldly entities, known as Cenobites, by solving their puzzle box, releasing mutated beings with pins embedded in their heads and skin stretched taut. They dismember him, and he spends much of the film without skin, demanding human sacrifices and consuming their life force to heal. The leather-bar style of the Cenobites lends the body horror a provocative queer edge. (Available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Hoopla and Tubi.)
‘Tetsuo: The Iron Man’ (1989)
In Shinya Tsukamoto’s experimental, tightly packed film (running just 67 minutes), the mutations are technological. After a businessman hits a man known as a “metal fetishist,” he begins to merge with machinery. Shot entirely in black-and-white 16mm film with sparse dialogue and a soundscape dominated by industrial clanging, this film stands out as the most artistically audacious on the list. Many transformation scenes employ stop-motion, imparting an inorganic, awkward quality, reminiscent of a malfunctioning engine. Brace yourself for a gritty, oily experience. (Stream it on Arrow and Asiancrush.)
‘The Human Centipede’ (2009)
Many of the horrifying events depicted in this notorious torture film directed by Tom Six are better left unmentioned. However, due to the film’s extensive cultural influence, you may already be familiar with the core concept — three people are captured and surgically attached by a deranged scientist. The idea alone was so shocking that even if few actually watched the movie, it became a topic of hushed playground gossip, tattoos, and even a South Park episode. The sheer depravity in its body degradation is such that one needn’t watch it to be appalled. (Rent or buy it on major platforms.)
‘Tusk’ (2014)
Director Kevin Smith, known for his offbeat comedies like “Clerks,” may seem like an odd fit in this lineup. Yet, while Smith’s tale of a podcaster who is surgically transformed into a walrus by a deranged mariner has its comedic moments, the end result is profoundly unsettling. The titular tusks, for instance, are crafted from the podcaster’s shaved-down tibia bones. A former housemate of mine, a vegan who stumbled upon me watching this and ended up transfixed and traumatized, remarked six years later: “It still haunts me.” (Available for rent or purchase on major platforms.)
‘Titane’ (2021)
Pregnancy serves as a fitting theme for a subgenre focused on uncontrollable bodily transformations. Julia Ducournau’s second film (her debut, “Raw,” is another bloody triumph), intertwines pregnancy horror with twisted themes of gender and mechanization. The story follows Alexia, a serial killer with a strange attraction to cars, as she navigates an unusual and unnatural pregnancy while posing as a boy who vanished a decade earlier. The narrative may be outrageous, but its themes are intricate and psychological: exploring the lengths we go to alter our bodies for love. (Stream it on Hulu.)
