Phillip Brophy coined the actual “body horror” term in 1989. You can also find elements of the concept in books and films on through the years, starting from Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein. You can make a strong case that in addition to inventing science fiction, author Mary Shelley also laid the groundwork for body horror. This chronological ranking of the best of body horror movies will have more than a couple of entries that fit such a bill.Īlso, because of our limited space, we’re limiting David Cronenberg to three entries. In certain extraordinary cases, the devastation the psyche experiences is more unnerving than the physicality of whatever’s going on. The best body horror films will show that state of the human mind. We are there to watch how they handle the whole thing. At the same time, we aren’t just here to watch someone disintegrate or metamorphize. The essential body horror movies, by and large, are psychological character studies. It doesn’t have a thing to say about the human condition, obsession, or death. I wouldn’t go that far personally, but Human Centipede is a good example of an empty experience that surrounds itself with the desire to up the body horror ante as much as possible. It is physical violence to the point of pornography, some would argue. Horrible growths, transformations, and mutations of an otherwise normal human body. Body horror movies, a relatively new genre (it’s only about 40 years, less than half of the history of film itself) obviously rely on physical grotesquery. They aren’t even going to one of the runners up, which we will list at the end of the article. Let’s just get it out of the way now: None of the Human Centipede movies made this chronological cut of the ten best body horror movies ever made.
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