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Director Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is rightfully drawing praise from critics and body horror fans these days. It’s a colorful, creative, and surprisingly entertaining examination of the self-loathing generated by society’s expectations of the female body.
If you’ve heard nothing else about the film so far, you still probably know that it is one of the most violent and disturbing horror movies to come along in quite some time. The internet—or at least the film-obsessed corners of social media—is already filled with stories of people leaving their screenings, vomiting outside the theater, or otherwise finding themselves unable to process what they’ve just witnessed. Such reactions are more than understandable.
But if you were one of those viewers who found themselves intrigued by The Substance and hungry for more, I’ll let you in on a dark secret. The Substance isn’t the most disturbing body horror film out there. It’s barely a blip on the radar in that particular category. If you’re willing to see just how dark that rabbit hole is, then here are some notable body horror movies that put The Substance to shame in terms of sheer audacity.
The Fly (1986)
When crafting an overview of the body horror genre, it’s often painfully necessary to limit your coverage of David Cronenberg’s work. Cronenberg may be body horror’s most significant (and greatest) contributor, but there is a tendency to reduce one of horror’s most fascinating and diverse subgenres to the contributions of this one great man.
Still, The Fly remains a singular achievement. Yes, the process of watching Seth Brundle slowly transform into a human/fly hybrid is a hellish spectacle brought to life by some of the greatest special effects in film history. The secret sauce that has always made this movie sing, though, is Geena Davis’ performance. Through her eyes we see Brundle as a man succumbing to a degenerative disease rather than another mad scientist. The Fly’s goop and gore will get to you, but it’s the nightmare of watching a disease become more prominent than its human host which makes this movie truly troubling.
Street Trash (1987)
It’s not difficult to understand why the low-budget schlock producers of the 1980s were attracted to the body horror genre. Many were already pumping out as many gore and nudity-filled movies as they legally could. So why wouldn’t they take a stab at a concept that was generating so much buzz in certain circles based almost entirely on its raw spectacle? Most of those films have rightfully been lost to history as the gimmicky gore fests they always were. Yet Street Trash is the one that has appropriately risen to the top of the heap.
Street Trash embraces its underlying mean streak in ways that few of its contemporaries ever dared to. This story of a frustrated liquor store owner who begins selling poisonous products to the homeless customers he utterly despises is amplified by colorfully absurd special effects best described as “goopy.” Street Trash is closer to a dare than a movie. It’s a constantly escalating series of gross-out scenes that feel like they should be divided by intermission screens that remind you that you can turn off the TV whenever you’d like. That said, the fact this movie is set in the brutal, warzone-like neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn (a current hipster oasis) is quite hilarious.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
Despite its lean 67-minute runtime, Tetsuo is the body horror movie that tends to leave the most lasting impression on those who dare to watch it. While it’s nearly impossible to break this movie down via conventional means, it essentially follows a Japanese salaryman who is horrified to find that he is slowly sprouting mechanical appendages and gradually transforming into a machine.
The unknowability of Tetsuo is part of the reason why it is so horrifying. The movie offers few answers, which forces you to dive a bit too deep into your own mindset as you desperately try to wrap your head around the implications of what you’re witnessing. It’s easy to feel like you’re losing your mind while you’re watching this thing, and that’s not the state you want to find yourself in as you attempt to digest some of the most disturbing effects ever brought to life by a reportedly troubled, confused, and sometimes unwilling crew. It’s a beautiful nightmare.
Society (1989)
For much of its runtime, Society is a surprisingly restrained film about a young man named Bill Whitney who suspects that something weird is going on with his friends and family. While the very nature of the movie you’ve chosen to watch should clue you into the truth of the matter, what few glimpses of said weird things the film allows us to see are usually written off as somewhat believable hallucinations. No, you didn’t see your sister twist her body around into impossible angles; you’re just stressed about becoming an adult.
Those delusions are shattered by the film’s final 30 minutes in which we are given a front-row seat to an event known as the “Shunting:” a kind of alien orgy in which the elite members of society meld their melting bodies together while absorbing the nutrients of lower class beings. The expert build to this unnerving blend of sex and gore makes the whole thing so shocking that you have to stop and force yourself to really appreciate the Hall of Fame effects on display from the great Screaming Mad George. Just remember to eat the rich before the rich eat you.
In My Skin (2002)
Many body horror movies begin with some foreign element invading the body. It’s a relatively easy way to get characters (and the audience) to begin looking within the body in ways that may not come naturally. In My Skin is a bit different in that respect. In this movie, the foreign element that inspires a young woman Esther to begin committing increasingly brutal acts of self-mutilation is most simply described as “curiosity.”
Those who, understandably, struggle with depictions of self-harm may find it impossible to watch this body horror movie that explores that topic in horrifying detail. At the same time, this movie has so much sympathy for those who commit self-harm and does an incredible job of exploring the various factors that can lead to such acts. In true body horror fashion, said factors challenge our ability to understand the difference between the internal and external when it comes to ourselves. It’s one of the most challenging and profound explorations of the body horror genre.
Taxidermia (2006)
Perhaps the most outright “gross” movie in this collection of grotesque movies, Taxidermia’s visual atrocities are not limited to the body horror genre. No taboo is left unexplored in this multi-generational tale of a Hungarian family seemingly destined to live the most unsettling lives possible. Only those who have dared to watch movies like A Serbian Film are properly prepared for what this movie will throw at them.
Yet many of Taxidermia’s most disturbing and fascinating moments fit firmly into the body horror genre. There is this running idea that some of the characters in this movie see themselves as instruments of fate and that their bodies are vessels of that fate. You have to wade through a lot of muck to get to that point, but it’s one of the many observations this movie makes which causes it to be so much more than an exploitative gimmick.
Teeth (2007)
Teeth is often quickly summarized (and sometimes dismissed) as “that movie about a girl who has teeth in her vagina.” That is a largely accurate description that should also clue you into the nature of some of the most shocking sequences in the film. It’s also why some men who heard the basic premise of this movie immediately said “nope” and never looked back.
That’s understandable, but there is more to this movie than mutilations. It’s an effective dark comedy that takes time to explore the nightmare scenario that protagonist Dawn O’Keefe has suddenly found herself in. Like Ginger Snaps before it, Teeth does an excellent job of using a fantastical horror concept to explore the very real perils of a young woman trying to find her place in a world where it often feels like she is expected to suffer.
The Human Centipede (2009)
While I loathe the idea of having to defend The Human Centipede as a thing that should exist, the devil’s advocate in me is quick to suggest that may be the point of the whole thing. Perhaps this story of a doctor who sews three people together to create that titular creature for no discernable reason is a commentary on a movie that is, itself, a nightmare creation with little discernible purpose other than shock value.
Then again, maybe we just all need to make peace with The Human Centipede’s status as one of the most infamous gross-outs in movie history. Every now and then, a movie comes along that challenges the notion that we’ve seen it all and forces even those who seek out such material to steel themselves. The Human Centipede not only did that; it did so at the tail end of a shocking “torture porn” boom that left many audiences feeling braver than ever. Many thought they had the stomach for this largely digestion-based bit of body horror but quickly discovered they certainly did not.
American Mary (2012)
American Mary focuses on a medical student who enters the world of extreme body modification surgery as a way to help pay off her growing debts. Think of it as a version of Hellraiser brought to you by the financial crisis, and you’ll start to form the right idea of the depths this movie explores, and the horrors its characters are (often willingly) subjected to.
While American Mary starts to lose a little steam as it goes along, its first major surgery scene alone is enough to make you never want to know more about the human body and what some desire to do to it. It’s not the best body horror film about the medical community (that would be Dead Ringers), but it is undoubtedly one of the most visceral.
Swallowed (2022)
Before flying out to Los Angeles to start his career as a porn star, Ben decides to spend one last night with his best friend Dom. To help Ben raise some going away money, Dom volunteers for them to serve as drug mules who are soon asked to swallow several condoms filled with a mysterious substance. While I know that sounds like the setup for a story in which nothing could possibly go wrong, believe me when I say that things very much do.
That’s the remarkable thing about Swallowed. It begins with one of the worst decisions in the history of bad horror movie character decisions, yet it finds ways to make things so much worse from there. The film’s homosexual leads and romantic (in their own, twisted ways) subplots give it a slightly more modern feel, but this is really a classic example of “what the fuck?” body horror that shows why the genre will always be a uniquely effective corner of horror cinema.
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