WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I think for most of us, throughout our lives, our body is one of those things we have always found hard to come to terms with. There’s always something we don’t like about it and I think to some extent that it is what can make body horror so hard hitting for us because no matter how much we don’t like it – the idea of our own body being subjected to some sort of unnatural transformation, degeneration or destruction is just unsettling.
Tusk
I’m not going to lie to you, part of the draw of this film was finding out, via a video on social media, that supposedly people struggled to finish it. Well, I’m never one to pass up a challenge. It may be an unpopular opinion but I find Wallace to be such a dick that I don’t even feel bad for him. Everything that happens has such a simple beginning, especially with Howard making Wallace believe he has the best intentions and has even tried to save him. You could even believe Howard is drugging him because he’s lonely himself. The darkest thing about this film isn’t how realistic Wallace the Walrus looks but more the realisation that he isn’t the first along with the fact that he sorts Howard out instead of the other way around.
Antiviral
They do say that you can’t talk about body horror without mentioning the name Cronenberg. Well, as I’m writing a full article on David (watch this space…) let’s talk about the first feature film directorial of his son, Brandon. It seems that our lead character’s job is to actually sell these celebrity viruses (which is gross by the way!), almost pushing the body horror of this film as even though not always visible a virus will change our bodies. I think the focus is supposed to be on Syd getting sick, like us watching him push the Q-tip up his nose (which gave me flashbacks to 2020). However there’s more body horror going on around him. It seems that there’s a butcher shop that allows people to eat parts of these same celebrities! They describe it as their ‘astral bodies’ but this is still way too weird for me. I also love the fact that instead of openly distorting the bodies – they change the face of celebrities in line with what they believe the disease they had would make them look like – giving a face to the virus.
Splinter
After a reasonably intense beginning, this film does take a little while to get going again. I would say this film fits into the transformation section of body horror and my God did it make me feel sick! The cracking sound as the gas station attendant shifts and attacks Lacey is just unnerving. I don’t think you can describe this as a zombie film because they aren’t reanimated in the same way – and zombies are usually created by some sort of virus, I say that it does have the typical trope of one person trying to hide the fact that they’ve got infected. They also don’t just transform the body once it’s dead.
The Stuff
I have a question about the opening of this film – who bends down and eats something they find on the ground? Instead of physical transformation I feel like this film takes on more of a mental transformation in the people that eat ‘The Stuff’. It seems that ‘The Stuff’ uses the people of the town as a host living inside them instead of trying to turn them into anything else. I actually think that the body horror part of this film takes more of a backseat than the other films featured on this list. This film is actually a little like The Blob. OK you don’t eat the blob for it to take over you but ‘The Stuff’ can consume you if it touches you – like the blob does.
Prevenge
I feel like some of you may find this an odd film to choose as it doesn’t exactly fit into what was described in the beginning. However if Rosemary’s Baby can be considered body horror then I would say so is this. Also, a baby is formed in a woman’s body so it at least relates to the body and I’m sure there’s nothing scarier than your unborn child telling you to commit murder. Like any typical British horror film, it’s understated in the way it presents itself – the first murder feels completely out of the blue! The voice provided for the baby is a little creepy but also oddly reminds me of the Red Queen in Resident Evil. For a film with so many British comedians, and that I am sure is supposed to be a comedy horror, it’s pretty dark.
The Perfection
At first I thought this film was going to follow the usual sickness into zombie apocalypse style film, especially at the beginning with the guest becoming sick and the mention of illness in Hunan. Then came the second level with Charlotte and Lizzie, specifically Lizzie becoming sick and seeing maggots in her vomit and cockroaches crawling in her hand! Which looked absolutely gross by the way so much so I wasn’t fazed by her chopping her own arm off. That’s when the film adds another layer! But I’m not going to spoil that part. However, no matter how clever I feel this film is – the body horror plays only a small part in the grand scheme of things. Well, until the end that is….
