Body horror offers some of the most discomforting viewing experiences of any subgenre. The mere concept that these fragile, fleshy bodies could betray their owners offers allegorical horrors that can represent everything from addiction, disease or even the inescapable process of aging. From the early writings ofMary ShelleyandFranz Kafkato modern cinematic works by the likes ofDavid Cronenberg,body horror shows that true hell is the human body.
The subgenre is plentiful with near perfect examples of horror that make the most out of their squishy effects budgets that show in excruciating detail some very unpleasant transformations. Films whose protagonists go through horrifying changes, both internal and external, are sure to make audiences squirm in their seats.This list will rank the best body horror transformationsbased on how striking the visuals are, how they fit into their movies, and how memorable they are overall.
10’Altered States' (1980)
Directed by Ken Russell
Based on acclaimed writerPaddy Chayefsky’snovel, and with a screenplay by him (though he woulddistance himself from the final film), directorKen Russellbrought his trademark extravagant visuals and religious symbolism toAltered States, a sci-fi body horror filmabout a psychopathologist who experiments with sensory deprivation combined with a hallucinogenic substance.
William Hurt, in his first film performance, goes through several primal transformations, each accomplished using a variety of practical makeup and optical effects. It’s his final transformation, wherehe regresses into a primordial state, that is the greatest showcase for Russell and his effects team. The image ofHurt as an amorphous skin blob, screaming in agony as the room warps around him, is one of themost memorable from Russell’s vibrant career.
Altered States
9’Street Trash' (1987)
Directed by J. Michael Muro
Theepitome of a cult classic,Street Trashis the meltiest of the melt movies. After a case of poisoned liquor makes its way into the hands of an unhoused population, they start to break down in a gruesome but colorful fashion. Take the infamous melting man scene fromRoboCopand give it a DayGlo makeover, and the result would look something likeStreet Trash’sgory death scenes.
There are several standouts, from a man’s skill sloughing off piece by piece, exposing his skeletal system, to one whobloats up like Violet Beauregarde until bursting like a gut-filled piñata. The most body horrific and memorable is the poor, unfortunate soul who melts into a technicolor puddle while on the toilet. It’sthe most colorful of any body horrorand sure to satisfy fansof gory splatter movies.
Street Trash
8’Videodrome' (1983)
Directed by David Cronenberg
No filmmaker is more synonymous with body horror thanCanadian auteurDavid Cronenberg. From the parasiticShiversto the brain-burstingScanners, few directors have found more ways to distort the human body in as violent a fashion. Hisvisionary body horror classicVideodromeis no exception.James Woodsstarsas Max Renn, the proprietor of a low-budget TV station who becomes obsessed with the titular show, which shows genuine torture and murder.
The deeper Renn delves into the mystery surrounding the show, the more reality begins to collapse on him as he uncovers a broadcast brainwashing conspiracy. The body horror here comes inthe form of a disturbing, sexually suggestive slit that forms in Renn’s torso, giving him a biomechanical vaginal VCR. It’sa twisted combination of the organic and the technological, a perfect summation of Cronenberg’s unforgettable cult classic.
Videodrome
7’Titane' (2021)
Directed by Julia Ducornau
One of the bestbody horror movies of the past five years,Julia Ducornau’sTitanebegins with its lead having a sexual encounter with a car and only gets crazier from there after she finds out she is expecting. Pregnancy can already be a real-life body horror scenario, so adding an automotive spin to it givesTitanea supercharged twist to its complicated family dynamics.
The birthing scene is both horrifying and hypnotic, as Alexia, the mechanophiliac, writhes in pain as her chrome-plated brood literally rips out of her. Whiletwisted body horror may be the engine that drivesthe movie, there’s far more under the hood, with Ducornaufusing challenging ideas of eroticism, gender identity, and parenthoodthat are hard to look away from.
6’Tetsuo: The Iron Man' (1989)
Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto
For film viewers who associate Iron Man with the Marvel Cinematic Universe,Shinya Tsukamoto’s metal fetish nightmareTetsuo: The Iron Manwill come as a shock to the system. The narrative is anything from straightforward but concerns an unnamed man who simultaneously begins to have erotic dreams of machinery while pieces of his physical body begin to turn metallic.
Japanese body horror may hold the recordfor the number of ways its filmmakers have found to combine flesh with machinery.Tetsuohad two official sequels, withMeatball Machinecranking up the gore andAkirausing the animated medium to level up its body horror. However, there’s something aboutthe low-tech black-and-white imageryof Tsukamoto’s first film that makes it all the more visceral and disturbing.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
5’An American Werewolf in London' (1981)
Directed by John Landis
Werewolf movies don’t get much play when it comes to the best body horror, but these lunar monsters offer a ton of terror when it comes to involuntary bodily changes. The best werewolf transformations in movies span a wide selection of techniques and effects technology. While the earliest transformations are still disconcerting conceptually, two werewolf movies are responsible for bringing the subgenre screaming into the new age of body horror.
Rob Bottin’swork onThe Howlingis suitably violent as it makesRobert Picardo’sface bubble and contort into a canine form, but it’s edged out byRick Baker’sOscar-winning transformationinAn American Werewolf in London. Using a combination of makeup appliances and full animatronic puppets, Baker and his team stretch and contort actorDavid Naughton’sfeatures and body in an extremely painful sequence.The effects are matched by the bone-cracking sound designthat really sells how truly unpleasant the transformation is. The scene’s effectiveness all but guaranteed that werewolf movies would never be the same again.
An American Werewolf In London
4’The Thing' (1982)
Directed by John Carpenter
The year afterThe Howling, Rob Bottin would be tasked with creating the extra-terrestrial effects forJohn Carpenter’s classic horror remakeThe Thing. It was a massive undertaking for the young Bottin, but he managed to create some ofthe most memorable practical creature effectsin film history that are still held in the highest regard. With an alien monster that can imitate any organic being among a group of paranoid Antarctic researchers, Bottin had plenty of opportunities for horrific transformations in scenes where the creature is confronted and unleashes the full force of its powers.
Heads split, dogs howl, and tentacles unfurl, but the film’s show-stopping sequence involves the poor character of Norris, played byCharles Hallahan, or rather his alien doppelgänger. Feigning a heart attack, the Norris beast rips open its chest,revealing a set of shark-like teeth before a mutated spider-worm with Norris' face erupts from the new cavity. Meanwhile, Norris' other head splits from its body, grows legs and begins crawling away.It is cosmic body horrorat its most gnarly and nihilistic.
3’Society' (1989)
Directed by Brian Yuzna
Brian Yuznamade his bones as a producer for directorStuart Gordonon severalH.P. Lovecraftmovies likeRe-AnimatorandFrom Beyond, both of which were filled with some intensely gross sequences that uncomfortably combined gore with sexual content. They pale in comparison to Yuzna’s directorial debut, the wild satire of class conflictSociety, one of thegrossest movies of the ’80s. When wealthy youth Bill begins to notice strange occurrences among the Beverly Hills elite, he uncovers a white-collar cult of inhuman creatures who engage in a sacrificial ritual known as the shunting.
Designed by effects wizardScreaming Mad Georgeand inspired by Yuzna’s nightmares as well as the work ofSalvador Dali, the shunting is an absolutely bonkers sequence where the naked bodies of the wealthy elitists begin to get all kinds of squishy and flexible as they feed on a member of the lower class. Skin merges, orifices are penetrated, and date nights are ruined in this singularly disgusting orgy sequence which culminates witha fist that makes its way through a man’s bodyfrom one end to the other.
2’The Substance' (2024)
Directed by Coralie Fargeat
The Substancewill definitely be remembered for how it broke through the glass ceiling that is often placed over sci-fi and horror films when it comes to major awards recognition. The film’s major Oscar nominations are certainly worth noting, especially when it’s not afraid of getting really weird and freaky.Demi Moore, in her first Oscar nomination, plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a once-famous actress on the downslope of her career since Hollywood doesn’t know what to do with women of a certain age. Thus, she seeks out the substance, an illicit drug that allows her to split into two separate bodies: her current self and an idealized younger self, played byMargaret Qualley.
The problem comes in the sharing of their consciousness, as the two must switch bodies every seven days, and as the younger version succeeds, Sparkle begins to deteriorate. It’s a suitably gruesome, if not particularly subtle, critique of beauty standards and agingin the entertainment industry that culminates ina final mutated stage of Moore and Qualley fused, taking the stage for a terrified audience and forcing them to look at the monster of their making.
The Substance
1’The Fly' (1986)
The original'50s B-movieThe Flyis still disturbing for its depiction of a scientist who swaps body parts with a common housefly, butDavid Cronenberg’selegantly gross remakedisturbs in ways that few films do. Working with effects designerChris Walas, the transformation from man to fly has changed here to a more gradual process, whichmakes it all the more painful and tragic to watch.
Jeff Goldblumgives one of his best performances as the idiosyncratic scientist Seth Brundle, whose teleportation technology leads to unintended consequences when his DNA becomes fused with the titular insect. Walas and his team designed a series of stages for Goldblum’s deterioration,beginning with simple makeup applicationsto the actor’s face beforeeventually becoming the full Brundlefly puppet. The work is as impressive as it is horrific, and the combined efforts of Goldblum and the effects team create a monster thatinspires as much sympathy as it does revulsion. It’s a body horror transformation elevated into a beautiful, frightening art form.
