Horror movies and literature reflect people’s anxieties by taking them to gory extremes. Body horror taps into the very human fear of how unpredictable, and even uncontrollable, our bodies can be. While this theme has its roots in gothic literature, the term “body horror” was coined in 1983 during a golden age of horror filmmaking.
The genre’s unsavory nature usually means it does not receive major industry accolades, but this year’s Oscar nominations may indicate a shift. Since the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, only seven horror movies have ever been recognized with a Best Picture nomination; and one of them is “The Substance,” a feminist body horror film starring Demi Moore that has had critics buzzing since its September release.
Here is a list of five more seminal body horror classics that remain critical to the genre’s foundation, despite their lack of Oscars.
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‘The Fly’ (1986)
David Cronenberg’s name is synonymous with body horror and has dominated the space for decades. Though he has many body horror films in his oeuvre, “The Fly” is arguably the most important. This remake of a 1958 monster movie of the same name stars Jeff Goldblum as a man who inadvertently transforms himself into a human-fly hybrid after a teleportation experiment gone wrong. The disturbing practical effects earned Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis the Oscar for Best Makeup that year, and lines like, ‘You can’t penetrate beyond society’s sick, gray fear of the flesh’ are the “perfect introduction to the corporeal philosophizing that permeates most of Cronenberg’s work,” said The New York Times.
‘Hellraiser’ (1987)
British horror maestro Clive Barker based this film on his novella “The Hellbound Heart,” and it was the start of a franchise that would become a genre staple. The original movie introduces us to the villainous Pinhead and other demonic Cenobites, who take torture and sadism to a memorable level of depravity. The “leather-bar aesthetic” of the antagonists also “gives the body horror in this film a defiant queer edge,” said the Times.
‘Teeth’ (2007)
Mitchell Lichtenstein’s dark horror comedy made a splash when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, where lead actor Jess Weixler won the Special Jury Prize. She stars here as Dawn O’Keefe, a teen member of a Christian abstinence group who discovers a set of teeth in her private parts, a condition known as vagina dentata. This film turns the final girl trope on its head, as Dawn takes control of her sexuality while using the power of the vagina dentata against those who wrong her. The cult classic has a campy feel, but the “intimacy of the body mutilation and the intensity of Dawn’s panic as she causes it help ‘Teeth’ leave a lasting mark,” said Vulture.
‘Tusk’ (2014)
Director Kevin Smith may be most famous for offbeat comedies like “Clerks,” but his take on body horror will stick with you. Horror veteran Justin Long stars in this film, which draws on “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” a poem recited by Tweedledum and Tweedledee in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass.” Long plays a podcaster who gets saved by a crazy seaman — then tries to transform him into a walrus. The movie has some of Smith’s signature comedic beats, but Long’s mutation into an animal is also deeply unsettling. The film not only signified a “turning point for Kevin Smith as a storyteller,” but it paved the way for A24 to “explore some deeply rich yet absurd themes within the horror genre,” said Collider. It was the studio’s first of many standout horror films with a penchant for obscure themes.
‘Possessor’ (2020)
Another recent entry in the body horror genre from the Cronenberg family, but this time, it was directed by David Cronenberg’s son Brandon, who holds his own. “Possessor” is a sci-fi horror movie that follows an assassin who kills by taking over other people’s bodies. When the main character finds a target who will not bend to her will, it “sets up a thrilling showdown” that also “raises some provocative questions about the nature of body autonomy in an increasingly technology-driven world,” said IndieWire.