13 Meaningful Horror Films About the Body
Body Horror is one of those subgenres that can be difficult to define, although it is sometimes confused with something gory. There has to be a human body (preferably several) facing any number of forms of grotesque change or violation, but in my opinion, true body horror needs an extra layer: it has to mean something.
There is perhaps no greater fear than the fear that our bodies break down and betray us—and that we are easily repulsed by the simple functions that occur within and without our own forms. Even if we’re lucky enough to have relatively healthy and functioning bodies, it’s only a matter of time before something goes wrong—perhaps horribly wrong. Good body horror reminds us of our fears in this area: loss of physical control, loss from disease, the ravages of aging, and it often adds new fears we may not have thought about yet.
The genre is not for the faint of heart or faint of heart, but there is a lot to be said about it, as is the case with writer-director Coralie Farjat’s Substance , starring Demi Moore, which takes a poignant hit at our fears of aging and, indeed, our fears of watching other people (especially women) age.
Substance (2024)
Demi Moore’s return has created such a cultural splash that it may just pave the way for horror—and body horror, no less—to Oscar success. The film received five nominations, including Best Picture. Demi (I can call her Demi, right?) plays an aging A-list celebrity who learns of a black market drug that creates a younger version of herself. Of course, more and more terrible side effects occur. This is as good and sickening a satire of our terrible misogynistic beauty standards as you can find. You can rent The Substance from Prime Video .
The Fly (1986)
Sometimes body horror is about how distorted we are by our own bodies, a completely relevant and powerful theme. But in other cases, something more happens. No one had ever done body horror quite like David Cronenberg, and The Fly came at a very specific moment in history: In 1986, the AIDS crisis was in full swing, and thousands of people were battling and dying from a still-mysterious disease that seemed to come out of nowhere just a few years earlier. Jeff Goldblum plays Seth Brundle, a scientist working on molecular teleportation who makes one small and largely innocent mistake only to find his body betraying him in increasingly grotesque ways. While it was probably not intended as a direct metaphor, the timing and applicability to the era give the film added power. You can rent The Fly from Prime Video .
Thing (1982)
Perhaps John Carpenter’s greatest film, but certainly his silliest, The Thing is an adaptation of John Campbell’s classic novella Who Goes There? , which itself was adapted as The Thing from Another World , one of the best sci-fi horror films of the 1950s. This ’80s version features nearly two hours of concentrated paranoia and isolation as a malevolent alien life form stalks an Arctic research base, sowing mutual mistrust by taking on the physical forms of various researchers. While the previous take hinted at communist infiltration, Carpenter’s dark (but exciting) film argues that our greatest threat will always be our fear of each other. Effects creator Rick Bottin’s superbly gory creature effects, capturing our alien intruder in various stages of transformation into human (and animal) forms, are an absolute highlight – for viewers with a strong stomach. You can rent The Thing on Prime Video .
Titan (2021)
Just another movie about a gender-fluid erotic dancer (Alexia/Adrienne, played by Agathe Roussel) who fucks in a car, ends up pregnant, and is then taken by a man (Vincent Lindon) who believes he has found his long-lost son. Yes, and our main character is also a serial killer. There’s a lot going on in writer-director Julia Ducournau’s decidedly unconventional love story, but what stands out is the way Alexia/Adrien’s gender nonconformity is treated not as a subject of horror, but ultimately as her greatest asset and focus of affection. You can stream Titan on Tubi .
Hellraiser (1987)
Let’s say you’ve given your body to those sexy perverted priests of hell, and while it was fun for a while, you’re wondering: what’s next? Frank (Sean Chapman) wants his girlfriend (Claire Higgins, deliciously nasty) to bring him a fresh supply of flesh and blood so he can gradually rebuild his human body. There’s a lot to be said here about the S&M-esque connections between pleasure and pain, but it’s also a film that thoroughly revels in the murky insides of skinless human bodies. You can stream Hellraiser on Tubi, Prime Video , Pluto TV, AMC+ and Shudder.
Cabin Fever (2002)
Eli Roth ( Hostel , Thanksgiving ) began his directorial career with this cabin-in-the-woods horror film, albeit with a giant twist. A group of college friends head into the woods for October break when they meet and refuse to help your typical weird old recluse (slasher movie protagonist) – except that Henry is trying to warn them not about a man-killer, but about a deadly flesh-eating virus. Using slasher films, Roth and company tell the story of a rather gory infection that inevitably turns friends against friends as they each try to avoid the infection. You can rent Cabin Fever from Prime Video .
Thanatomorphosis (2012)
Laura (Kayden Rose) is a depressed and withdrawn young woman with an abusive boyfriend… but wait, it only gets worse. She wakes up in the middle of the night and discovers a strange spot in her groin. And then one of her nails falls off. Laura begins to literally decompose, following the various stages of decay of the human body while she is still alive and conscious. It’s extremely visceral, but the film has greater ambitions than just making us sick; Rose’s impressive performance makes it clear that we’re watching a film about psychological trauma through an extremely grisly metaphor of body horror. You can stream Thanatomorphosis on Tubi .
Raw (2016)
A vegetarian veterinary student develops a taste for meat. Lots of meat. All the time. In many ways it is human. Human cannibalism is alarming, but it’s hardly unheard of. Raw takes the graphical steps a few more steps further, making even the most jaded viewers feel queasy, though it’s also a coming-of-age story. Its director, Julia Ducournau, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for the previously discussed film The Titan , having already established herself as a purveyor of flawed modern classics. You can rent Raw on Apple TV .
Swallowed (2022)
Ben (Cooper Koch) just wants to run away to Los Angeles to start an exciting new life as a gay porn star, but first, his friend Dom (who’s secretly in love) has a great idea: They’ll quickly smuggle drugs across the Canadian border to get start-up capital, if you will. In fact, and unsurprisingly, this is a very bad idea, since they both have to swallow condoms filled with mysterious… something. Some condoms break during a confrontation with a bigot in a truck stop restroom, and things go from bad to worse when they finally meet a drug lord (Mark Patton) who is both ruthless and very hot for Ben. Oh, and did I mention that condoms are filled with insect larvae that bite you to give you a high and/or an erection? Classify this as Boner Body Horror. You can stream Swallowed on Tubi or rent it on Prime Video .
Mad Love (1935)
Just a story about a guy and a girl with a star from the golden age of Hollywood! Except that the boy is a surgeon played by Peter Lorre, and the girl is a married actress with whom he is obsessed. When her pianist husband’s hands are mangled in a train accident, Lorre’s character gives him the hands of a killer and then tries to drive him crazy by pretending to be the decapitated former owner of those hands. It’s a gloriously frantic film with bits of beautiful expressionist cinematography. For the characters in Mad Love, hands play a central role in every endeavor: they can create music, do science, perform surgery—at least when they are intact. The film suggests that when these instruments are damaged, we are at the mercy of fate (and Peter Lorre). You can rent Mad Love from Prime Video .
Eraserhead (1977)
This is David Lynch’s finest film yet and an early arthouse masterpiece, so it probably goes without saying that trying to summarize the plot is an exercise in futility. It’s something like this: a man reunites with an old lover just in time for her to give birth to his child, a lizard creature, while a woman living in a radiator watches on. What stands out here is the equal fascination and horror of the reproductive impulse and the act – not just of birth itself, but of the whole strange and disturbing process by which we reproduce. You can stream Eraserhead on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video .
From Beyond (1986)
Director Stuart Gordon has teamed up again with Re-Animator ‘s Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton for a further Lovecraft adaptation that improves on the previous film, at least in terms of horror effects. Combs plays Dr. Crawford Tillinghast, an assistant to Dr. Pretorius Ted Sorel, both working on a machine that can make visible the world that exists beyond our perception. It turns out that what exists just beyond the veil is not particularly friendly, although Praetorius discovers that by giving up his body, he can expand his consciousness, or at least the parts of his consciousness that are both mad and evil. Returning from the void with only a hint of a body, the Doctor is an increasingly repulsive and generally amorphous blob, at odds with science fiction notions of psychically evolved people as more beautiful – or at least not murderous and oozing. You can stream From Beyond on MGM+ and Pluto TV .
Winner (2020)
In the near future, a corporation offers wealthy clients murder by proxy: they kidnap and drug a friend of the victim’s family member, and the body is placed in the control of the killer with 48 hours to complete the job. Andrea Riseborough plays Tasya Vos, a leading assassin who nonetheless begins to lose her identity. Director Brandon Cronenberg (David’s son and a very old brick) has created a bloody, extremely bloody sci-fi story here about characters having a tenuous connection to their own bodies and an even weaker connection to the bodies of other people. You can stream Possessor on Tubi or rent it on Prime Video .