{"id":684,"date":"2023-09-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/?p=684"},"modified":"2023-09-15T08:05:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T08:05:22","slug":"body-horror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/09\/15\/body-horror\/","title":{"rendered":"Body Horror"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WARNING:<\/mark> <\/strong>This Article May Contain Spoilers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s always something we don\u2019t 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\u2019t like it \u2013 the idea of our own body being subjected to some sort of unnatural transformation, degeneration or destruction is just unsettling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tusk<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                I\u2019m 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\u2019m 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\u2019t 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\u2019s lonely himself. The darkest thing about this film isn\u2019t how realistic Wallace the Walrus looks but more the realisation that he isn\u2019t the first along with the fact that he sorts Howard out instead of the other way around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antiviral<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                They do say that you can\u2019t talk about body horror without mentioning the name Cronenberg. Well, as I\u2019m writing a full article on David (watch this space\u2026) let\u2019s talk about the first feature film directorial of his son, Brandon. It seems that our lead character\u2019s 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\u2019s more body horror going on around him. It seems that there\u2019s a butcher shop that allows people to eat parts of these same celebrities! They describe it as their \u2018astral bodies\u2019 but this is still way too weird for me. I also love the fact that instead of openly distorting the bodies \u2013 they change the face of celebrities in line with what they believe the disease they had would make them look like \u2013 giving a face to the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Splinter<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                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\u2019t think you can describe this as a zombie film because they aren\u2019t reanimated in the same way \u2013 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\u2019ve got infected. They also don\u2019t just transform the body once it\u2019s dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Stuff<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                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 \u2018The Stuff\u2019. It seems that \u2018The Stuff\u2019 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. <\/em>OK you don\u2019t eat the blob for it to take over you but \u2018The Stuff\u2019 can consume you if it touches you \u2013 like the blob does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prevenge<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                I feel like some of you may find this an odd film to choose as it doesn\u2019t exactly fit into what was described in the beginning. However if Rosemary\u2019s Baby <\/em>can be considered body horror then I would say so is this. Also, a baby is formed in a woman\u2019s body so it at least relates to the body and I\u2019m sure there\u2019s nothing scarier than your unborn child telling you to commit murder. Like any typical British horror film, it\u2019s understated in the way it presents itself \u2013 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. <\/em>For a film with so many British comedians, and that I am sure is supposed to be a comedy horror, it\u2019s pretty dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Perfection<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                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\u2019t fazed by her chopping her own arm off. That\u2019s when the film adds another layer! But I\u2019m not going to spoil that part. However, no matter how clever I feel this film is \u2013 the body horror plays only a small part in the grand scheme of things. Well, until the end that is\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s always something we don\u2019t like about it and I think to some extent that it is what can make body horror so … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":685,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions\/685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}