Body horror
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Death to Videodrome! Long live the new flesh!" --Videodrome "Are you eatin' it...or is it eatin' you?" --The Stuff |
Related e |
Featured: |
Body horror, biological horror, organic horror or venereal horror is horror fiction in which the horror is principally derived from the graphic destruction or degeneration of the body.
The term is applied to works of horror fiction in which the horror is principally derived from a sense of physical "wrongness" with the body. Body horror mainly focuses upon radical physical transformations, bodily degeneration, mutant births, and the invasion/violation of the body by a disease or foreign organisms. Works of body horror integrate the psychological horror of one's body undergoing disturbing and irreversible changes with grotesque and shocking imagery. Frequently body horror is allegorical. The Fly has been said to have been a metaphor for debilitating disease and the ravages of old age upon the mind and body. Rosemary's Baby certainly draws from fears of rape and birth defects.
In horror literature, body horror can be found in many of the works of Clive Barker and William S Burroughs. Comic books and graphic novels are no strangers to body horror either, with one of the best examples being Black Hole. In the horror films, David Cronenberg is largely attributed as introducing the concept to mainstream audiences. Other seminal examples of body horror movies include John Carpenter's The Thing, several films of Shinya Tsukamoto including Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and the movie Alien.
The animated television series Æon Flux by Peter Chung frequently makes use of body horror elements as plot devices, particularly amputation and disease. Amputation, body modification and loss of identity are key elements in the semi-cybernetic Borg from various Star Trek franchises.
Contents |
In art
Notable films
- The Hands of Orlac (1924)
- The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers and its remakes, including a mockbuster (1956, 1978, 1993, 2007, 2007)
- Matango (1963)
- The Outer Limits episode: "The Architects of Fear." (1963)
- Rosemary's Baby (1968)
- Horrors of Malformed Men (1969)
- The Exorcist (1973)
- It's Alive (1974) and its two sequels and remake
- Shivers (1975)
- Eraserhead (1977)
- Rabid (1977)
- Demon Seed (1977)
- The Brood (1979)
- Alien (1979)
- Altered States (1980)
- Scanners and its sequels (1981, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995)
- Possession (1981)
- Creepshow (1982) (segment: The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verill)
- Basket Case (1982) and its sequels (1990, 1992)
- John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)
- Videodrome (1983)
- Bio Booster Armor Guyver (1984)
- The Stuff (1985)
- The Fly (1986)
- Guinea Pig (film series) (1986–1991)
- From Beyond (1986)
- Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986, 1991, 1994)
- Street Trash (1987)
- Cyclops (1987)
- Hellraiser (1987) and its franchise
- Brain Damage (1988)
- Dead Ringers (1988)
- Society (1989)
- Leviathan (1989)
- Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1988) and its sequels (1989, 1991, 2010)
- Society (1989)
- Jacob's Ladder (1990)
- Braindead (film) (1992)
- Body Bags (1993) (segment: Hair)
- Cronos (1993)
- Body Melt (1993)
- Virus (1999)
- eXistenZ (1999)
- Cabin Fever (2002)
- In My Skin (2002)
- Dreamcatcher (2003)
- Doom (2005)
- Slither (2006)
- Bug (2007)
- Teeth (2007)
- Planet Terror (2007)
- Bad Biology (2008)
- Tokyo Gore Police (2008)
- The Machine Girl (2008)
- Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2008)
- The Ruins (2008)
- Grace (2009)
- District 9 (2009)
- Thirst (2009)
- Antichrist (2009)
- Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009)
- The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)
- Splice (2010)
- Black Swan (2010)
- Marianne (2011)
- The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) (2011)
- The Skin I Live In (2011)
- Tomie Unlimited (2011)
- Prometheus (2012)
Notable persons
- David Cronenberg
- John Carpenter
- Takashi Miike
- Shinya Tsukamoto
- Clive Barker
- William S Burroughs
- Peter Chung
- Franz Kafka
- Roland Topor
See also
References
- The Biology of Horror (2002) Jack Morgan
- "Body Horror" special, Volume 27, number 1 (1986) of Screen.
- Philip Brophy, 'Horrality: the textuality of contemporary horror films'
- Pete Boss, 'Vile bodies and bad medicine'
- Kobena Mercer, 'Monster metaphors: notes on Michael Jackson's Thriller'
- Barbara Creed, 'Horror and the monstrous-feminine: an imaginary abjection'