Body horror basics: 7 essential films every fan should see
Re-Animator, The Incredible Melting Man, Society, and more
Film Video Body horror
If you’re looking to examine your own deep seated anxieties about the human body, this may be the perfect video for you. If you’re squeamish, however, you may want to consider a more academic approach than the stomach-churning effects compiled here.
The A.V. Club has put together a quick guide to body horror films, those movies that lean into the grotesque and the sometimes fantastic treatment of things that the human body really shouldn’t do. We’ve highlighted seven classics from the genre, as well as the streaming services where you can watch these films now.
The titles here use imaginative approaches and, in some cases, groundbreaking special effects that offer up thinly veiled commentary on a diverse array of topics, from anxieties about nuclear war in post World World II Japan to class struggle in modern societies.
Body horror isn’t always easy to watch, but it can be equally difficult to look away from. And in the right hands, these films can be as compelling as it is smart.
Here’s the complete list of films in this video:
Complete list:
Society (1989)
Directed By: Brian Yuzna
Written By: Zeph E. Daniel, Rick Fry
Cast: Billy Warlock, Concetta D’Agnese, Ben Slack
Where to Watch: Tubi
The Fly (1986)
Directed By: David Cronenberg
Written By:Charles Edward Pogue, David Cronenberg
Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime
Hellraiser (1987)
Written and Directed By: Clive Barker
Cast: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence
Where to Watch: Tubi
The Incredible Melting Man (1977)
Written and Directed By: William Sachs
Cast: Alex Rebar, Burr DeBenning, Myron Healey
Where to Watch: Paramount+
Re-animator (1985)
Directed By: Stuart Gordon
Written By: Dennis Paoli, William J. Norris, Stuart Gordon
Cast: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton
Where to Watch: Paramount+
Teeth (2007)
Written and Directed By: Mitchell Lichtenstein
Cast: Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais
Where to Watch: Tubi, Vudu
Akira (1988)
Directed By: Katsuhiro Otomo
Written By: Katsuhiro Otomo, Izo Hashimoto
Cast: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama
Where to Watch: Tubi
27 Comments
As an aside, I found the gore in Hellraiser II to be a lot more unsettling. I’m mostly desensitized to body horror because a part of me always knows it’s just practical effects. But the scene where that one guy mutilates himself with a straight razor was just so realistically bloody that I had to look away.
Re-Animator is just a zombie movie (and not one about a person gradually zombifying either). I would think From Beyond would be closer to body-horror. For Japan, I might have gone with Tetsuo the Iron Man instead.
“Just a zombie movie?” Sweet wingalls!
Second Tetsuo The Iron Man. While Re-Animator is a classic, I agree on your take.Tetsuo is pure body horror, and a classic. It really deserves a spot on this list.
The Brood!
I think all these below are pretty essential:-The Thing
-Videodrome-Possessor-Tetsuo: The Iron Man-Spring(2014)-From Beyond-Society-Eye Without a Face-Return of the Living Dead 3
Weird list. I guess “Re-Animator” and “Hellraiser” technically qualify, but neither is what I think of when I hear “body horror.”On the other hand, “The Incredible Melting Man” definitely *is*, but it’s not an especially good movie. “Annihilation” and the 1982 “The Thing” are far more “essential.”
I don’t know if I’d consider Re-Animator Body Horror. Body Horror doesn’t have the strictest definition but just being gory doesn’t make something Body Horror. In the literature on horror in fiction Body Horror is generally set aside for works where the major thematic elements that drive the horror (and usually gore) are heightened or allegorical representations of the anxieties surrounding one’s body. Often representing some anxiety about the loss of control of your body like disease, age, addiction, pregnancy, obsession over societal perceptions of oneself, etc. Cronenberg definetely explores some of those themes in The Fly but I’d argue Shivers, Rabid, The Brood or Videodrome are all better examples. His son Brandon’s Antiviral and Possessor are sterling examples as well. Others I would put on this list before many that are there:Audition (or Gozu). In My Skin. Under the Skin. Eraserhead. Raw. The Thing.
Great post – and that’s why I’d definitely swap out From Beyond for Re-Animator, and like you said, Videodrome for The Fly.
You could argue that From Beyond better fits the “body horror” idea of the protagonist’s body being the horrific one, but Re-Animator still kind of fits the description, and it’s a more fun movie to watch. And I wholeheartedly disagree with switching the Fly for Videodrome. Videodrome is a very good movie, but the Fly is the definitive movie about a person’s body disintegrating in nauseating detail.
Great list. I would add that, as far as body anxiety goes, there is something particularly unsettling to me about the idea of a breakdown in the physical boundaries between human bodies. I’m thinking about —for lack of a better term— living blobs that are formed from melded individual people. Society, Slither, and the game Inside all have exceptionally memorable examples.
Stranger Things s3 actually did this really well. PG-13 (or MA-14?) too!
Slither? Does becoming all that is not count?
Came to mention Tetsuo, so I’m glad it’s already been covered by other commenters.
Superman III. That one scene disturbed the shit out of me as a kid.
The Brainiac type computer bit ? that was nightmare fuel for me as a kid for years after.
You always wanted to fly, Kent. Now’s your chance!
Nice work with naming the films in the video, much appreciated.
Hahaha, anytime I hear someone say, “Hi Dudes!”, all I can think of is Chet 😀
Insiders Tips : Australian body horror “Body Melt” from 1993. Dark and disgusting satire about a fitness drug, that does terrible things to unwitting peoples minds and bodies and “Taxidermia”, a pitch black hungarian satire about three generations of a very deranged family. Warning, they are both not for the faint of heart.
Teeth? No mention of Carpenter’s “The Thing”? Ok, AVclub
You left out “Duel”, “Road Kill” (Australian, 2011) and “Deliverance”.
No love for Slither (to date, the only James Gunn movie I’ve actually enjoyed)?
This is a really poor list.
“Wit” with Emma Thompson. That’s real horror.
No love for Body Melt?