10 great body horror films
Created by Igor_Brynner.
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“The term ‘biological horror,’” David Cronenberg once said, “really refers to the fact that my films are very body-conscious. They’re very conscious of physical existence as a living organism, rather than other horror films or science-fiction films which are very technologically oriented, or concerned with the supernatural, and in that sense are very disembodied.”
As the Canadian maestro returns to the big screen with Crimes of the Future (2022), a film pitched in the press – if not by its director, who has long shied away from applying the term to his own work – as a return to the realms of ‘body’ or ‘biological’ horror, we’re taking a look back at some great films that deal in the treacheries of the flesh.
Referring to a distinct subgenre in horror cinema that variously trades in aberration, mutation, transformation and a loss of conscious control over the human body – often accompanied by generous volumes of squicky corporeal trauma – body horror usually requires a certain level of tolerance for on-screen yucks.
The genesis of the term itself can be traced back to a 1983 essay by the Australian academic Philip Brophy – who would go on to practise what he preached by directing the 1993 feature Body Melt – but its conceptual tropes stretch all the way back into the realms of gothic literature.
While biological horror movies offer boundless opportunities for the greatest FX artists in the business to let their imaginations run wild, the subgenre has long proved fertile ground for its political potential, where questions of bodily integrity and autonomy are inherently foregrounded.
Here are 10 greats that you might not want to watch on a full stomach.
Pssst, want to check out the 10 great body horror films list in our new look?
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1 new
Altered States
1980, in 5 top lists Check -
7 new
Body Melt
1993, in 2 top lists Check -
5 new
Brain Damage
1988, in 2 top lists Check -
2 new
The Fly
1986, in 11 top lists Check -
8 new
Ginger Snaps
2000, in 6 top lists Check -
4 new
Slime City
1988, in 0 top lists Check -
3 new
Street Trash
1987, in 2 top lists Check -
6 new
Tetsuo
1989 — a.k.a. Tetsuo: The Iron Man, in 10 top lists Check -
9 new
Titane
2021, in 4 top lists -
10 new
We're All Going to the World's Fair
2021, in 1 top list
Last updated on Apr 20, 2024; source