What Is Body Horror? 8 Iconic Movies + Tips for Getting Gruesome Onscreen

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Photo Source: “The Substance” Courtesy Mubi

Horror is arguably the most versatile genre because there’s no shortage of things to be afraid of. Scared of the ocean? Great—there’s an entire subgenre of shark attack films. Believe in the afterlife? There are haunted houses aplenty onscreen. Worried about a man in a mask murdering you with a sharp object? Understandable—let us direct you toward slashers.

But one horror subgenre in particular feels especially personal—for both audiences and the actors who step into these roles—because it deals with the most carnal of subjects: your own body. Let’s (literally and figuratively) dig in.

 

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What is body horror?

Body horror movies traffic in frightening changes to the human form—with subjects like deformity, disease, heavy injury, mutilation, hybridization, and metamorphosis. 

The influential Universal Studios creature features like Rupert Julian’s “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925), James Whale’s “Frankenstein” (1931), and George Waggner’s “The Wolf Man” (1941) dealt with bodies transforming into monstrous forms. But it was really the sci-fi B movies of the 1950s, like Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.’s “The Blob” and Kurt Neumann’s “The Fly,” that solidified the various body horror tropes as their own subgenre. In the 1970s and ’80s, as special effects evolved, filmmakers like David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and Clive Barker took body horror to new, more grotesque places. 

Body horror hallmarks

Prosthetics and makeup: Perhaps the most vital characteristic of the subgenre, makeup and VFX prosthetics allow body horror filmmakers to depict gruesome injury and/or transformations. For actors, it’s important to know what working with heavy makeup entails, both physically and in terms of crafting a character. You’ll need to portray the humanity (or lack thereof!) beneath the artificiality.

Unnatural movements: Whether it’s a slow zombie shuffle or the crackling of broken bones, body horror is full of unusual movement. Actors need to prioritize how they’re using physicality in their performance to emphasize the metamorphosis taking place. 

A loss of humanity: Perhaps the most frightening question the genre asks is: What happens to our minds when our bodies start betraying us? This is a fascinating, challenging space for a performer to play in.

When in doubt, fire up the following eight films and take notes on how actors through the years have portrayed the horror of losing your physical form.

Best body horror movies

“Eraserhead” (1977)

Lynch’s feature directing debut happens to not only remain a phenomenal film, but also a highly influential body horror movie that directly inspired another entry on this list (more on that later). There’s the whole body horror buffet here: sperm cell–looking creatures emerging from floating heads; deformed, worm-like infants; chests being sliced open and organs getting mutilated; and, of course, actor Jack Nance—whose performance anchors the film’s unending surrealism—being turned into, you guessed it, an eraser. Underneath all the horror, though, “Eraserhead” remains a touching, poignant, and unsettlingly funny movie about the unease of parenthood and the fear of a child being born with any sort of problems.

“Altered States” (1980)

Director Ken Russell may have completely disregarded Paddy Chayefsky’s source material, but he still delivered a phenomenal horror movie that is as much about messing up the mind as it is the body. In his film debut, William Hurt stars as a professor experimenting with an isolation tank and psychoactive drugs. Things take a terrifying turn when his hallucinations begin to affect his body and he devolves into a caveman. A lack of gnarly effects and gore are more than made up for with trippy visuals that imply deformity—for example, the professor’s flesh swelling into bizarre and painful forms.

“The Fly” (1986)

Arguably the defining body horror film, Cronenberg’s remake of Neumann’s 1958 original popularized the subgenre for mainstream audiences. In one of the most alluring and alarming performances of all time, Jeff Goldblum stars as an eccentric scientist whose mishap in the lab turns him into a human-sized fly hybrid. Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis’ creature effects remain a landmark achievement, but it’s Goldblum who sells the character’s spiral and turns this creature feature into an intimate tragedy. It’s a master class in portraying transformation, disintegration, and the loss of self. “The Fly” helped launch the careers of Goldblum and costar Geena Davis, and the VFX continue to disgust and inspire to this day.

Cronenberg is a staple of body horror. For further viewing, check out “Shivers” (1975), “Rabid” (1977), “Videodrome” (1983), and “Crash” (1996). 

“Akira” (1988)

Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s animated cyberpunk masterpiece may not be immediately associated with body horror, but there is plenty of it scattered throughout. The film’s unforgettable third act, especially, is still one of the subgenre’s most influential moments. (“Turning into an Akira” is a reference in itself). 

Set in a dystopian 2019, the story follows Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwata), the leader of a biker gang, whose friend Tetsuo (Nozomu Sasaki) gains telekinetic powers that spiral out of control. Eventually, those powers overtake his body, and Tetsuo transforms into an unrecognizable abomination, a gigantic mound of flesh that swallows an entire stadium. It’s a horrific, clever use of body horror to explore adolescence as being in a state of metamorphosis that looks monstrous to the outside world. Actors (especially those who want to become voice actors) should pay attention to how Sasaki—as well as Joshua Seth in the English dub—showcase Tetsuo’s monstrous transformation through voice work alone. 

“Tetsuo: The Iron Man” (1989)

Clearly indebted to the industrialist nightmare of “Eraserhead,” the crime-blasted experimental horrors of Shin’ya Tsukamoto’s “Tetsuo: The Iron Man” defy explanations; but it’s very clearly a work of sheer cyberpunk body horror. An unyielding, anxiety-riddled ride, the film is a tale of metal fetishism that begins with a man (Tomorô Taguchi) inserting a steel rod into his thigh wound. Soon, his obsession with becoming more metal than man descends into sexually explicit surrealism. This is a must-watch for aspiring filmmakers; Tsukamoto is able to turn the organic into the mechanic with spectacular visuals despite a shoestring budget. 

“Cabin Fever” (2002)

Eli Roth’s debut feature does foreshadow the “torture porn” aspects of his later films (“Hostel,” “The Green Inferno”), but here it’s all through a body horror lens. This horrifying (and occasionally horrifyingly funny) story follows a group of college students vacationing in the woods who fall victim to a flesh-eating virus. Roth pays homage to other low-budget horrors like Sam Raimi’s “The Evil Dead” (1981) and Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s “The Blair Witch Project” (1999), making a lot with a little. Much like in those films, it’s up to the visceral performances by actors like Rider Strong and Jordan Ladd to sell the terror. 

“Raw” (2016)

Ducournau made her feature debut with a body horror drama that reportedly made people faint during screenings. There’s a good reason why: This coming-of-age story about a young veterinary-school student (Garance Marillier) developing a taste for human flesh inspires unease and churns stomachs at every turn. But what makes “Raw” such a great case study for both actors and directors is how it manages to root its horror in mundane reality—to (mostly) avoid blood but still use the language of body horror to tell a story about sexuality, growing up, rebellion, and the unpredictability of human appetite. 

Bonus: Ducournau’s 2021 follow-up, “Titane,” takes things in an even more twisted direction with the story of a serial killer (Agathe Rousselle) and her sexual attraction to cars. 

“The Substance” (2024) 

Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” is already a sharp look at beauty standards, the entertainment industry, and aging—but it excels when it turns into a gnarly body horror movie. When TV aerobics star Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is fired on her 50th birthday and replaced by a prettier, younger actor, she decides to use a mysterious drug to reclaim her youth. From there, Fargeat uses Sparkle’s horrific journey to dissect the expectations of a youth-obsessed industry, along the way evoking everything from “The Fly” to Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” (1980) and John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982). The makeup and prosthetics are fantastic, and both Moore and costar Margaret Qualley put on powerhouse performances.

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