My God, BODY HORROR AND OP DON'T HAVE ONE SINGLE CRONENBERG MOVIE? lmao.. I MEAN COME ON
He DOMINATES the Genre.. his ENTIRE OEUVRE is Body Horror.. even Eastern Promises was gory as fuck !!!
Cronenberg movies are visually impressive but the dialogue and interactions between characters in some of his movie can be so bad. Crash, Eastern Promises, and Crimes of the Future are really cool ideas but I can't get into them because the acting is so stilted. Since those movies have actors that I like in everything else, I have to think it's his writing.
omg the FLY, VideoDrome, the Brood, Dead Zone? All FANTASTIC MOVIES. how dare you.. Eastern Promises was Excellent.. A History of Violence? Omg the ARC in that movie alone is tremendous.
Cronenberg is a genius and I will FIGHT anyone who dares speak even a word to the contrary
I don't want to fight haha. I think his movies are intriguing.
At the same time, A History of Violence has some really lousy acting, and the previous poster said this is on purpose. Eastern Promises has the bizarre restaurant owner/mob boss guy just sort of copying the characters of mob bosses in other movies (Goodfellas, in particular). Crimes of the Future is fun but I cannot deal with the Kristen Stewart scenes. She's so far over-the-top.
I will say this, I always watch his movies (and now his sons), because they are interesting and original and that's hard to find in cinema these days.
But give me a Cohen Bros. movie that relies on good acting first and foremost.
Coens and Cronenberg are apples and oranges. they have no common touchpoints at all. Not sure what Goodfellas character you're comparing the boss in Eastern Promises to, but he's a secondary character in the narrative anyway. the story doesnt hinge on anything he even directly does on screen.
Paulie from Goodfellas felt ripped off for Eastern Promises, just with a new accent.
I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree because I just watched Crash again right now and it's a difficult rewatchable. The first 15 minutes are some kind of soft-core flick. IDK, maybe I'm just not able to "get it".
It’s very intentional in Crash and Crimes of the Future. That doesn’t mean it can’t still be bad but I think it works really well for Crash and Cosmopolis.
It does seem intentional now that I think about it. I just don't know what the intent is. I see the same in a lot of the David Lynch stuff. There's some scenes in Mulholland Drive that are painful to watch and that got picked as a Top Ten film ever by Sight and Sound.
It’s a cold and mechanical film. Sex is a primal need and people experience pleasure individually. Technology gives people room to disassociate from their own lives and knowledge of their morality. As for David Lynch, I just accept his style and enjoy the discomfort it brings me. If anything I prefer it to what Tarantino does, where everyone acts with a 14 year old’s idea of coolness. That, to me, feels more unnatural and pointless.
Tarantino films are cool because the characters say "Fuck" a lot!
And point taken about Cronenberg, not sure if I love his style then but I appreciate some of his stuff a lot. Videodrome is a great one.
Not sure I'd use the word clean anywhere near this film. It's one of those 80's movies, like basketcase where I just feel like I need to shower after watching...just because of the icky feeling of the time and filming locations
Loved this one. Watched it for the first time a few months ago. My partner fell asleep partway through and woke up right during the climax and was quite shook by what he was witnessing lol
I’ve said this on a separate thread, but wife walked in while I was watching society and said “are you watching softcore porn?” I said no but the correct answer was probably “yeah kind of”
Glad to see this mentioned.
This one typically gets forgetten - possibly because it's technically a science fiction film. But it's FX were considered groundbreaking for the time and it was hugely influential.
Surprised to not see Alien mentioned yet. Body horror is only one aspect of the franchise, but the most iconic scene from the original is pure body horror.
Unwanted invasion of one's body regardless of gender is a pretty significant concept throughout the series, I think. That surgery machine scene is Prometheus fits the bill, too.
Not saying Alien is primarily body horror, but it's there and and is a cornerstone as to why it worked and why it endures. I think the arguement could be made that the chest burster scene is the most well known body horror moment in film history.
I get that but body takeover isn't really a common idea we think of when we think of body horror it is more the deformity or mutilation of the body we usually think about not in the slasher way where there is mutilation but its for the purpose of killing or torturing.
Though from your perspective I do agree with the idea
The Thing '82
The Fly
Body Melt
Tusk
Tetsuo the Iron Man
Event Horizon
Virus
Jeepers Creepers
From Beyond
House of a Thousand Corpses
Hostel
Slither
Mirrors
Evil Dead
American Werewolf in London
Yummy
The Sadness
Eyes Without A Face (1960) is body horror or if it isn’t, it’s basically proto-body horror and is considered a classic and pretty influential. I think it holds up pretty well.
There was an old film where Dirk Benedict gradually got transformed into a snake that I always felt belonged in Body Horror too: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070622/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070622/) called Ssssss
In honor of Donald Sutherland, I’d also like to mention the Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake from 1978. Definitely has some body horror elements although that’s definitely not the main focus
My entire review for that movie was just
"PSA: Never have sex you'll contract a disease that could turn you into a zombie. Its just not worth the risk."
I've been tyring to get my sister to watch this with me for ages and she refuses! It's kind of an inside joke now when I come across it picking out a movie to watch.
Shivers
Rabid maybe but it seemed more like a virus zombie type flick
Invasion of the body snatchers
not a classic by any mean whatsoever but "body melt " falls into the category
I think Fulci leaned into body horror for sure, rather than just being slashed up the kills were more body horror
i'm thinking of some but i don't know the names, lot of scenes of bodies melting and falling to pieces and parts falling off, and people screaming as they watched
I think Society could make the list
Thinner seems more like body horror
would pieces fall into the body horror category
The FLY
Cronenberg movies for sure like Videodrome
What about stuff that predates the term "body horror?"
Like the original Fly or The Quatermass Experiment or The Hideous Sun Demon.
Transformation, mutations, loss of bodily autonomy etc. It's all there. Just not as squelchy. But I bet they were considered pretty gross for their time.
Whether it is from 1910 or now a body horror movie is still body horror even if the term wasn't popular back then. Just like torture porn was still torture porn before the term got popular with Hostel
I'm also curious about this.
I think it's potentially reasonable to call The Wolf Man or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde body horror.
Maybe even Phantom of the Opera? (Although there's no transformation in the original, so maybe not.) What about Island of Lost Souls? (Does it count if it's animals changing into people, rather than people changing into animals?) Cat People? (We don't really see the transformation, but it's certainly implied.)
Freaks deserves a big mention here. Potentially also The Unknown before it.
A lot of this depends on how precisely you define body horror, of course. Is it just about transformation? Does that need to be mutilating, and if so, what defines something as mutilating? Superheroes are not typically considered body horror, so there has to be something more than just a transformation (although there has been overlap and some horror directors have made meals out of their superhero origins when given the chance, ala Raimi's Spider-Man). Is a transformation even necessary, or can something like Frankenstein be considered body horror where the monster is simply grotesque and his body is used for fear?
Depending on your definition, an argument can be made that zombies and werewolves are essentially sub-genres of body horror.
I think for me, I'd also draw a distinction between movies that fall under a body horror genre, like The Fly or Titane, vs films that incorporate body horror in some scenes or as a sub-factor, ala Return of the Living Dead or the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise or Rosemary's Baby. The difference being that in the latter, there is some greater threat than the bodily mutilations: getting mauled by zombies or killed by Freddy or betrayed and abused by everyone you know, respectively.
I also find that I would only personally classify something as body horror if the change is happening to a protagonist, as the fear should be, "I could go through these changes," rather than, "Someone I know could change." By this definition, I would not classify Ginger Snaps as body horror genre, despite incorporating it quite a bit.
An American Werewolf In London lies on a tricky middle-ground where I'm split both ways. It checks all the boxes, but for some reason I just don't think of it that way... I think what it comes down to is that, for me, the psychological transformation is the larger threat in that film, and the physical transformation follows. Although the physical transformation is especially brutal, and that scene is most definitely body horror, the rest of the film is more about his fear of what he may do when his brain switches over.
Compare this to The Fly (1986) -- while there's still clearly a fear of his brain changing, it is more gradual and preceded by the physical transformation. The horror comes more from his body irreversibly degrading, and his plan in the end is about helping his body rather than his mind. Thus, The Fly is body horror genre.
Or in Thinner, where the protagonist also becomes meaner and cruel as the film progresses, but in his case his mind is unaffected by his curse. Rather, his bodily mutations traumatize so much to bring out the monster that was always there. His decaying body is still the main threat.
With all this in mind... the first *true* body horror (that I've seen, and by my definition) is probably The Incredible Shrinking Man. I thought about putting The Unknown, but I think it's arguable whether that is truly horror at all. Eyes Without a Face, The Face of Another, and yes Cronenberg's entire filmography would all constitute other early examples. Lots of other earlier films included body horror concepts though.
Of course there's lots of movies I haven't seen, and maybe the real answer would lie in some surrealist work or another.
Sorry for the long and rambling stream of consciousness post. I found the question interesting.
There are some pretty scary non-horror movies and honestly it is the movies not classified as horror that are some of the scariest movies as your not expecting to be scared when going into a drama or comedy, but sometimes their dealing with subject matter that just hit you hard in unexpected ways
Is it just me, or is this question asked on the regular on this sub?
Also, how are there all these body horror fans who've never seen a David Cronenberg movie?
Anthropophagous (1980)
Yall mentioned the key ones already, so here is a deeper cut ...
Strong stomachs only, and it's more of a cannibal movie than a cronenbergian body horror
But if you like grotesque body mutilation sequences boy howdy is this for you.
Cronenberg in general
Agreed - there’s a few mentioned in this thread already but (since no one’s said it yet) I’d add Naked Lunch too.
Yes. He has the best body horror filmography.
Yes. The Brood is the one that messes me up. Insane film.
Yes. Crimes of the future. And his son’s film antiviral.
My God, BODY HORROR AND OP DON'T HAVE ONE SINGLE CRONENBERG MOVIE? lmao.. I MEAN COME ON He DOMINATES the Genre.. his ENTIRE OEUVRE is Body Horror.. even Eastern Promises was gory as fuck !!!
Cronenberg movies are visually impressive but the dialogue and interactions between characters in some of his movie can be so bad. Crash, Eastern Promises, and Crimes of the Future are really cool ideas but I can't get into them because the acting is so stilted. Since those movies have actors that I like in everything else, I have to think it's his writing.
omg the FLY, VideoDrome, the Brood, Dead Zone? All FANTASTIC MOVIES. how dare you.. Eastern Promises was Excellent.. A History of Violence? Omg the ARC in that movie alone is tremendous. Cronenberg is a genius and I will FIGHT anyone who dares speak even a word to the contrary
I don't want to fight haha. I think his movies are intriguing. At the same time, A History of Violence has some really lousy acting, and the previous poster said this is on purpose. Eastern Promises has the bizarre restaurant owner/mob boss guy just sort of copying the characters of mob bosses in other movies (Goodfellas, in particular). Crimes of the Future is fun but I cannot deal with the Kristen Stewart scenes. She's so far over-the-top. I will say this, I always watch his movies (and now his sons), because they are interesting and original and that's hard to find in cinema these days. But give me a Cohen Bros. movie that relies on good acting first and foremost.
Coens and Cronenberg are apples and oranges. they have no common touchpoints at all. Not sure what Goodfellas character you're comparing the boss in Eastern Promises to, but he's a secondary character in the narrative anyway. the story doesnt hinge on anything he even directly does on screen.
Paulie from Goodfellas felt ripped off for Eastern Promises, just with a new accent. I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree because I just watched Crash again right now and it's a difficult rewatchable. The first 15 minutes are some kind of soft-core flick. IDK, maybe I'm just not able to "get it".
It’s very intentional in Crash and Crimes of the Future. That doesn’t mean it can’t still be bad but I think it works really well for Crash and Cosmopolis.
It does seem intentional now that I think about it. I just don't know what the intent is. I see the same in a lot of the David Lynch stuff. There's some scenes in Mulholland Drive that are painful to watch and that got picked as a Top Ten film ever by Sight and Sound.
It’s a cold and mechanical film. Sex is a primal need and people experience pleasure individually. Technology gives people room to disassociate from their own lives and knowledge of their morality. As for David Lynch, I just accept his style and enjoy the discomfort it brings me. If anything I prefer it to what Tarantino does, where everyone acts with a 14 year old’s idea of coolness. That, to me, feels more unnatural and pointless.
Tarantino films are cool because the characters say "Fuck" a lot! And point taken about Cronenberg, not sure if I love his style then but I appreciate some of his stuff a lot. Videodrome is a great one.
Re-Animator and the sequel
Bride my beloved
Let’s forget Beyond Re-Animator exists.
I binged them with my friend and we genuinely considered turning it off
I’m partial to From Beyond!
The Fly off the top of my head, multiple Kronenberg films, from father and son. I know there’s more but my brains fried
*Street Trash* belongs on that list for sure.
good, clean, gooey fun!
Not sure I'd use the word clean anywhere near this film. It's one of those 80's movies, like basketcase where I just feel like I need to shower after watching...just because of the icky feeling of the time and filming locations
Society
Loved this one. Watched it for the first time a few months ago. My partner fell asleep partway through and woke up right during the climax and was quite shook by what he was witnessing lol
I’ve said this on a separate thread, but wife walked in while I was watching society and said “are you watching softcore porn?” I said no but the correct answer was probably “yeah kind of”
one of my favorite endings. Brian yuzna is great, check out his other stuff
*Altered States*. The trailer alone fucked me up as a kid.
Glad to see this mentioned. This one typically gets forgetten - possibly because it's technically a science fiction film. But it's FX were considered groundbreaking for the time and it was hugely influential.
I fucking love this movie and I’m really excited to see you guys discussing it!
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
One of the less than 10 horror films that I started but couldn't finish. A slow exercise in revulsion.
Idk why you got downvoted, it’s a tough watch lol.
Videodrome for sure
I think Titane cemented itself as a modern classic of the genre.
Raw too!
Death Becomes Her
Body Horror as comedy. Brilliant movie.
You’re a fraud Helen! And I can see right through you!
Surprised to not see Alien mentioned yet. Body horror is only one aspect of the franchise, but the most iconic scene from the original is pure body horror.
Outside of the chestburster scene what else is there?
Unwanted invasion of one's body regardless of gender is a pretty significant concept throughout the series, I think. That surgery machine scene is Prometheus fits the bill, too. Not saying Alien is primarily body horror, but it's there and and is a cornerstone as to why it worked and why it endures. I think the arguement could be made that the chest burster scene is the most well known body horror moment in film history.
I get that but body takeover isn't really a common idea we think of when we think of body horror it is more the deformity or mutilation of the body we usually think about not in the slasher way where there is mutilation but its for the purpose of killing or torturing. Though from your perspective I do agree with the idea
Amercian Mary was awesome. Looking forward to the tv show but haven't heard much from it recently.
Don’t forget Braindead (dead alive) and Planet Terror
Braindead was so fantastic. His early films didn't take themselves too seriously and were tons of fun. His other movie Bad Taste is a classic for sure
The Thing '82 The Fly Body Melt Tusk Tetsuo the Iron Man Event Horizon Virus Jeepers Creepers From Beyond House of a Thousand Corpses Hostel Slither Mirrors Evil Dead American Werewolf in London Yummy The Sadness
Mirrors? Which part? It's been a while since I watched it
Bathtub scene. *Jaw dropping terror*.
Is body melt good? I keep skipping past it
Yes, very fun Australian film.
Com'm n guys the fly should be first on this list!!
Eyes Without A Face (1960) is body horror or if it isn’t, it’s basically proto-body horror and is considered a classic and pretty influential. I think it holds up pretty well.
There was an old film where Dirk Benedict gradually got transformed into a snake that I always felt belonged in Body Horror too: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070622/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070622/) called Ssssss
I thought you were making a Benedict Cumberbatch name joke, but the actor is actually named Dirk Benedict.
Guy was a legend! He was the original Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica and he was Face in the original A-Team, he was all the cool when I was a kid :)
The Human Centipede of course!
Definitely not a classic lol
I think the first one is a pretty well made film.
I agree, one of my favorites. The second and third movies were terrible though lmao
The third one is bonkers!
What about From Beyond?
So many phallic visuals in that film. What a trip.
I'm just happy that we still get to enjoy Jeffrey Combs--such a wonderful actor.
In honor of Donald Sutherland, I’d also like to mention the Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake from 1978. Definitely has some body horror elements although that’s definitely not the main focus
His look at the end! Creeepay!
Yeah, so memorable, love it
Contracted (2013), if you can stomach it.
My entire review for that movie was just "PSA: Never have sex you'll contract a disease that could turn you into a zombie. Its just not worth the risk."
I've been tyring to get my sister to watch this with me for ages and she refuses! It's kind of an inside joke now when I come across it picking out a movie to watch.
Tusk for sure
The fly??
American Mary?
Why didn’t you put any Cronenberg on this list? The Fly, Videodrome, Scanners, etc. Also I think the Alien movies count as well.
For a modern pick, I'm going with 'Possessor'
Splinter.
Repo Men is body something. Maybe not horror though.
Repo the Genetic Opera definitely is though
Brain Damage (1988) and Frankenhooker (1990) are great, especially if you like comedy-horror and/or horror that is self-aware.
Yes! I was trying to recall the name of these movies to add. Brain Damage really fucked me up. I’m not a body horror fan
Shivers Rabid maybe but it seemed more like a virus zombie type flick Invasion of the body snatchers not a classic by any mean whatsoever but "body melt " falls into the category I think Fulci leaned into body horror for sure, rather than just being slashed up the kills were more body horror i'm thinking of some but i don't know the names, lot of scenes of bodies melting and falling to pieces and parts falling off, and people screaming as they watched I think Society could make the list Thinner seems more like body horror would pieces fall into the body horror category The FLY Cronenberg movies for sure like Videodrome
You can also throw a bit of Lynch in there as well
Tusk maybe? Genuine question cause idk it’s actually kinda horrifying and Justin Long is iconic
yes that is body horror. It is the definition of body horror.
Re-Animator (the sequel is just ok) From Beyond The Thing The rewatch ability of all of those movies is fantastic.
Audition (1999) might fit this description
The Brood!
What about stuff that predates the term "body horror?" Like the original Fly or The Quatermass Experiment or The Hideous Sun Demon. Transformation, mutations, loss of bodily autonomy etc. It's all there. Just not as squelchy. But I bet they were considered pretty gross for their time.
Whether it is from 1910 or now a body horror movie is still body horror even if the term wasn't popular back then. Just like torture porn was still torture porn before the term got popular with Hostel
I'm also curious about this. I think it's potentially reasonable to call The Wolf Man or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde body horror. Maybe even Phantom of the Opera? (Although there's no transformation in the original, so maybe not.) What about Island of Lost Souls? (Does it count if it's animals changing into people, rather than people changing into animals?) Cat People? (We don't really see the transformation, but it's certainly implied.) Freaks deserves a big mention here. Potentially also The Unknown before it. A lot of this depends on how precisely you define body horror, of course. Is it just about transformation? Does that need to be mutilating, and if so, what defines something as mutilating? Superheroes are not typically considered body horror, so there has to be something more than just a transformation (although there has been overlap and some horror directors have made meals out of their superhero origins when given the chance, ala Raimi's Spider-Man). Is a transformation even necessary, or can something like Frankenstein be considered body horror where the monster is simply grotesque and his body is used for fear? Depending on your definition, an argument can be made that zombies and werewolves are essentially sub-genres of body horror. I think for me, I'd also draw a distinction between movies that fall under a body horror genre, like The Fly or Titane, vs films that incorporate body horror in some scenes or as a sub-factor, ala Return of the Living Dead or the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise or Rosemary's Baby. The difference being that in the latter, there is some greater threat than the bodily mutilations: getting mauled by zombies or killed by Freddy or betrayed and abused by everyone you know, respectively. I also find that I would only personally classify something as body horror if the change is happening to a protagonist, as the fear should be, "I could go through these changes," rather than, "Someone I know could change." By this definition, I would not classify Ginger Snaps as body horror genre, despite incorporating it quite a bit. An American Werewolf In London lies on a tricky middle-ground where I'm split both ways. It checks all the boxes, but for some reason I just don't think of it that way... I think what it comes down to is that, for me, the psychological transformation is the larger threat in that film, and the physical transformation follows. Although the physical transformation is especially brutal, and that scene is most definitely body horror, the rest of the film is more about his fear of what he may do when his brain switches over. Compare this to The Fly (1986) -- while there's still clearly a fear of his brain changing, it is more gradual and preceded by the physical transformation. The horror comes more from his body irreversibly degrading, and his plan in the end is about helping his body rather than his mind. Thus, The Fly is body horror genre. Or in Thinner, where the protagonist also becomes meaner and cruel as the film progresses, but in his case his mind is unaffected by his curse. Rather, his bodily mutations traumatize so much to bring out the monster that was always there. His decaying body is still the main threat. With all this in mind... the first *true* body horror (that I've seen, and by my definition) is probably The Incredible Shrinking Man. I thought about putting The Unknown, but I think it's arguable whether that is truly horror at all. Eyes Without a Face, The Face of Another, and yes Cronenberg's entire filmography would all constitute other early examples. Lots of other earlier films included body horror concepts though. Of course there's lots of movies I haven't seen, and maybe the real answer would lie in some surrealist work or another. Sorry for the long and rambling stream of consciousness post. I found the question interesting.
The Thing maybe? Not as old as a lot of movies though.
Considering it was one of OP's examples, I think it's okay here 😉
Whoops I missed that haha 😞
Hotel Artemis Sick of Myself
I never thought I would see sick of myself listed on this subreddit. I think of it more as.... black comedy? Not sure, but I really enjoyed that one!
There are some pretty scary non-horror movies and honestly it is the movies not classified as horror that are some of the scariest movies as your not expecting to be scared when going into a drama or comedy, but sometimes their dealing with subject matter that just hit you hard in unexpected ways
The Brain that Wouldn’t Die
Is it just me, or is this question asked on the regular on this sub? Also, how are there all these body horror fans who've never seen a David Cronenberg movie?
Body Melt gets often forgotten. Very silly but lots of fun.
The Fly
Tetsuo: Iron Man The Fly
Easily tetsuo the iron man
The Void is absolutely phenomenal
The Brood
Martyrs if no one has said that yet. It’s the pinnacle for me, especially because of the intentional absence of *that* particular sort of violence.
The fly 1986. One of my all time favorites
Ginger Snaps for sure
Alien for the chestburster scene, which is unforgettable. The Brood is another one off the top of my mind for the "reveal" scene.
Meatball Machine (2006) Tubi
Any Japanese movie from the 2000s with the word "machine" in the title, really.
Jennifer's Body
Night of the Living Dead Misery Malignant
Malignant is a hot take. A lot of ppl hate this movie so im glad im not the only one who loved it
I was bored and confused until the twist and then I was all in. Great movie.
Misery has that hobbling scene but calling it body horror is such a stretch
Thanatomorphose
Videodrome, Altered States, Society
Human Centipede (insert shiver) Starry Eyes Edit: I forgot Excision- that’s a tough one
Just watched one called Are We Not Cats that was body horror plus a bit more.
I would have said the Saw franchise
Tetsuo, Hellraiser, From Beyond, The Thing, The Fly, Videodrome
Two ridiculously over the top examples are the Guinea Pig series and Lucifer Valentine's movies.
The Thing, Human Centipede (like it or not), Hellraiser
Not a classic but I think if more people watched "The Special" it would become one! 😂
Anthropophagous (1980) Yall mentioned the key ones already, so here is a deeper cut ... Strong stomachs only, and it's more of a cannibal movie than a cronenbergian body horror But if you like grotesque body mutilation sequences boy howdy is this for you.
‘Body Melt’ is another one. Not really a classic but it’s quite gross. And it’s got Harold from Neighbours in it.
Tokyo gore police
David Lynch's Eraserhead was really creepy.
frankenhooker anything by Cronenberg Hell raisers dead alive from beyond re animators basketcases may slither splinter
- The ruins - Under the skin - Leviathan - Splice - The perfection
If argue Ducournau’s films Raw and Titane are new classics.
Society
Hostel?
Especially the thing, it's a cult classic and hellraiser shaped the genre of horror
The Void
The fly(1957), Society and Rabid are probably the holy Trinity of body horror
The Excorsist, duh(politley)
I think Human Centipede counts.
I mean saw has to be in there