Body Horror

Disgusting deformities, troubling transformations, repulsive somatic deteriorations, horrific hybrids, uncontrolled cellular alterations — these are some of the main ingredients of cinematic body horror, the subgenre that focuses on depicting the human condition in its most physical sense, the perfect symbol of caducity, transience, and, in the final analysis, the process that inexorably leads to death.

Given that the films assigned to this Tag can display quite varied levels of quality and merit, as well as utilizing the most disparate registers (ranging from Andrzej Żuławski's surreal "Possession" to Neil Jordan's fairy-tale-like "The Company of Wolves" to Peter Jackson's deranged "Dead Alive" to Alex Garland's dramatic "Men"), it's obvious we're talking about a subgenre that lends itself to directors who are also richly talented auteurs. Such is the case of David Cronenberg, a genuine philosopher of the Seventh Art who, over the course of his extraordinary career, has employed body horror to reflect on mankind and contemporary society, inventively dealing with socially relevant issues such as technological progress, mass media, sexuality, old age, and death.

Not everyone's cup of tea, by its very nature body horror tends toward the cinema of excess. It loves to tackle taboo issues. It provokes repulsion and disgust. It delights in playing on the viewer's fragility as a biological organism destined to experience psychophysical deterioration, eliciting primordial fears by emphasizing the ephemeral condition of our flesh-and-blood shell. Along those lines, infection and disease constitute recurring themes, translating into scenes displaying revolting bodies, frequently exuding substances of every conceivable color and consistency, covered with lesions and rashes, afflicted with cancers and metabolic disorders, tormented by purulence and necrosis. Additionally, in a more original twist, some films even bring new and disturbing organs with mysterious functions into play.

Trivia: The term "body horror" first appeared in a 1983 article written by Australian musician, composer and educator Philip Brophy for the magazine "Art & Text".