The 20 best body horror movies

French director Julia Ducournau is, in some ways, the European equivalent of David Cronenberg. In  Raw, she follows a vet student who unexpectedly starts wanting to eat human flesh. Like Bones and All, the film’s dark and often explicit story is as much about the central character’s burgeoning desires, sexual and otherwise. Like the best of body horror, the film delights in pushing the boundaries of what can be shown on-screen, using anxieties over women’s bodies and their desires, and in the process, it becomes one of the most disturbingly erotic films of the decade.

There’s no question the 1980s was a golden age for horror, and while the slasher dominated the box office, there were a few notable body horror films. The Blob, released in 1988 and a remake of the 1958 movie, is one such. Like its predecessor, it focuses on a malevolent and ravenous creature that results from an experiment gone wrong. It’s the kind of film designed to elicit a shudder of fear and revulsion from the audience, not just because of the dissolving on-screen but also because of how effectively it forces the viewer to imagine what it would be like to be devoured. 

The Ruins is one of those horror films to hit several distinct notes simultaneously. On the one hand, it’s a typical film about a group of American tourists who fall afoul of a set of Mayan ruins. On the other hand, it’s very much body horror as the poor tourists find their bodies invaded and consumed by the evil vines which inhabit the ruins. The scenes in which the vine moves beneath the skin of the poor tourists are some of the most chilling, a reminder of just how permeable and porous the human body remains.

Eraserhead is one of those films that’s almost impossible to summarize in a convincing way, and much of this is due to the twisted imagination of director David Lynch. There’s no question that Eraserhead is one of the director’s most challenging works, though its central story about a man (Jack Nance) caring for his misshapen child is remarkably touching in its twisted way. It is a film riddled with contradictions and switches in town, but it’s impossible not to feel spellbound by its uniquely surrealistic approach to the power of film storytelling.

Director Eli Roth knows how to get under the skin of the viewer, and Cabin Fever is one of his better offerings, particularly since it toes a fine line between horror and humor. The film’s plot is exactly what one would expect, focusing on a group of teens who, at a remote cabin in the woods, are confronted with a flesh-eating virus that spreads quickly. The film seethes with the dread of bodily infection as the virus spreads from one friend to another, seemingly unstoppable. What the film lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in terms of its unsettling body horror.

The central story of Invasion of the Body Snatchers has been related several times in the history of Hollywood, but arguably, the 1978 version is the most disturbing. Like its predecessors, this version focuses on a group of people who try to withstand an alien invasion in which the invaders take over the bodies of their human hosts via sinister pods. Like the best body horror, it uses the conventions of the genre to ask deep, probing questions about the nature of American life and the ever-present threat of a pernicious enemy lurking in plain sight. Sometimes, even one’s body isn’t in one’s control any longer.

The power of body horror lies partly in its willingness to push against the boundaries and strictures of good taste. Few films have been as confrontational in this regard as The Human Centipede, with its story about a German scientist and his efforts to create a human centipede by sewing three tourists together mouth to anus. The film is undeniably grotesque and delights in containing as many gross moments as possible. Moreover, there is a particular sort of twisted humor to the entire affair, though it is notably lacking in any social commentary.

Though he was best known for working in the tradition of cosmic horror, HP Lovecraft also excelled at using his fiction to poke and prod at deeper human anxieties and fears regarding the body. His various pieces of fiction have inspired numerous films, including Re-Animator, based on “Herbert West–Reanimator.” It deftly straddles the line between horror and comedy, and while this may not be to the liking of diehard Lovecraft fans, it’s a key aspect of the film’s appeal. It also makes the most out of its central story about a medical student who brings dead bodies back to life, though he doesn’t reckon with the unfortunate and unforeseen consequences. 

Videodrome remains a true classic in Cronenberg’s extensive filmography. In many ways, the film is both peak Cronenberg and peak 1980s since so much of the film’s central action revolves around James Woods’ Max Renn, a Canadian media executive who tries to uncover the truth behind a series of snuff films. It’s a fascinating film because it expresses the concerns over the rise of such new technologies as the VHS, and the film’s strange narrative choices keep the viewer in as fevered and uncertain a state of mind as its central character. 

Following his father’s footsteps, Brandon Cronenberg has also begun making films that use the human body as the locus of his horrifying cinematic visions. Possessor, as one might guess from the title, is about a trained assassin who takes over the bodies of others to take out her marks. Things quickly go sideways when her current host isn’t so easily subdued. The film's brilliance lies in its ability to evoke the most terrifying aspects of the (post)-modern world, where one is never entirely sure how much control one has over one’s essential self. 

Jeepers Creepers focuses on the misadventures of siblings Trish and Darry Jenner, whose paths cross with a malevolent being who takes human body parts to replenish its own. Though the creature is a rather typical-looking movie monster, there’s something deeply disturbing about the idea of one’s body being cannibalized for some other nefarious purpose. What’s more, the ending of the film is far more tragic than one might expect in such a film since Darry is ultimately captured and mutilated by the creature, with his eyes torn out and used for its own vision. The juxtaposition of the horror with the jaunty song “Jeepers Creepers” heightens the horror. 

Ridley Scott is one of his generation’s most versatile directors, capable of working in almost any genre. In Alien, he turned his attention to blended science fiction and horror and the film’s tale of a spaceship crew who come into contact with a malevolent and parasitic organism. It features some truly horrifying images — the scene of one of the Xenomorphs bursting out of a man’s chest is justifiably seen as one of the most shocking in the history of sci-fi — and the film forces the viewer to confront the reality of just how permeable the human body can be. 

David Cronenberg often uses the grotesqueries of the body horror film to explore real-world issues. The Brood uses the breakdown of a couple’s marriage to explore issues such as psychotherapy, interpersonal relationships, and trauma. The film is pure Cronenberg, and numerous scenes are designed to be extremely disturbing, perhaps none more than the one in which Nola, the woman who has given birth to the brood, licks the afterbirth off of one of her progeny. The film is a precursor of the director’s other very notable adventures into the realm of the weird and the unsettlingly embodied.

Sometimes, a film comes along that manages to skillfully combine body horror and black humor, and Slither is one such film. Like so many other of the best body horror films, this one focuses on the travails of the residents of a small town once it comes under attack from a parasite from outer space. The film abounds with images of bodies growing bloated, grotesque, and gross as they are inhabited by the parasite, driven by a desire to create a hive mind. At a lean 95 minutes, it manages to hit the ground running and never relents. 

Kevin Smith brings an irreverent sense of humor to almost every film he makes, and Tusk is no exception. Starring Justin Long as podcaster Wallace Bryton, the film follows him as he becomes trapped in the dark designs of a sailor, Michael Parks’ Howard Howe, who wants to use Bryton to reconnect with a walrus with whom he once shared a powerful bond. The film’s central plot is undeniably absurd. Still, it does have some genuinely disturbing moments, particularly once Howe begins to sew his victim up in a walrus suit made of human skin. The film ends up being darkly hilarious and bitingly tragic in equal measure. 

Throughout his career, David Cronenberg has excelled in the body horror genre, and he continues this with Crimes of the Future. Bodily modification abounds,  which takes place in a future where technology has advanced and where humans have also evolved. The film's brilliance lies in Cronenberg’s ability to balance the story's dramatic and body horror elements, and it also features some stellar performances from the likes of Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart. This film is further evidence that when it comes to films that explore the boundaries of the body, no one can do it quite like Cronenberg.

John Carpenter is an undeniable master of the horror genre, as he has shown throughout his career. Though it wasn’t an enormous success upon its release, The Thing has come to be seen as a true masterpiece. It is a story about a group of scientists working in Antarctica who find themselves in a battle for their lives against a creature that can take the shape of any living thing, which still has the power to haunt and disturb. As with the greatest horror films, The Thing is thematically rich and compulsively watchable, immersing the viewer in this world of growing paranoia and unsettling mistrust.

If there’s one director whose name is most associated with body horror, it would be David Cronenberg, who has made pushing the boundaries of cinema his specialty. In The Fly, a remake of the 1950s film of the same name, he showed his skills as a confrontational director. Jeff Goldblum gives a remarkable performance as Seth Brundle, a man whose experiment goes tragically wrong, leading to his transformation into an unholy mix of human and fly. There’s something wrenchingly pathetic about the monster that Seth becomes, and the film’s brilliance lies in its ability to make the audience sympathize with this tortured monstrosity and its plight. 

Titane became a critical darling when it was released in 2021, winning the prestigious Palme d'Or at Cannes. It features a brilliant performance from Agathe Rousselle, a young woman, Alexia, with a titanium plate fitted into her skull. After committing several murders, having sex with a car, and going on the run, she finally disguises herself as a missing boy and ingratiates with his father. The film dwells with almost prurient interest in how Alexia’s body begins to change in ever more horrifying ways as the car’s child grows inside of her, and the sight of motor oil leaking out of her is undoubtedly the stuff of nightmares.

Based on the Jeff VanderMeer novel of the same name, Annihilation focuses on a group of scientists investigating a mysterious anomaly known as the Shimmer. They soon find that this mysterious energy field causes DNA to combine in new and horrifying ways, and they encounter several chimerical creatures as they approach a sinister lighthouse. There are moments in the film that get under the viewer’s skin, particularly as the main character, Natalie Portman’s Lena, sees her own DNA start to change under the influence of the Shimmer.  Annihilation forces the viewer to confront that the human body is not nearly as coherent as they might like to believe.