Body Horror

brian yuzna SOCIETY

Eraserhead and Begotten

John Carpenter's THE THING. Best more obscure one I can think of is Zulawski's POSSESSION. And, of more recent movies, Miike's GOZU.

You could argue that large sections of the CREMASTER cycle also qualify.

I think Miike's a good nomination.

So what criteria are we using to judge this--directors who use twisted, futuristic imagery in tandem with twisted themes in their films? If so, Terry Gilliam comes to mind.

If it's just straight out twisted, non-futuristic films, "Eraserhead" and "Begotten" were good recommendations.

"So what criteria are we using to judge this--directors who use twisted, futuristic imagery in tandem with twisted themes in their films? If so, Terry Gilliam comes to mind."

no, "body horror" is more about horror rleated to the body/and or biological themes and imagery, such as croneberg.

"Eraserheaad" might indeed count at least partially because of the baby thing.

to clarify...themes and imagery like disease, bodily decay, parasitism, mutation, slime, birth/sex/reproduction, etc.

usually focusing on the centralcharacter or characters facing an invasion or change from within, literally or metaphorically.

Troll 1 and 2. Seriously.

totally!

ah...ok. never heard the phrase "body horror" before.

maybe a little off-track, but how about Stan Brakhage's "The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes", which is composed entirely of autopsy footage?

The "Aliens" movies deal with the parasitism/invasion issue. Or to really stretch it, "Innerspace"

alien, aliens, etc. would count, certainly.

also that alien abduction movie "Fire in the Sky" which sucked except for the actual abduction sequence, which is a beautifully executed piece of almost pure "body horror". worth the price of a rental for that sequence alone!

"maybe a little off-track, but how about Stan Brakhage's "The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes", which is composed entirely of autopsy footage?"'

that might technically count...but death and gore are almost a seperate (albeit related obviously) category, even if often used in conjunction with "live" body horror, so to speak.

RUNNNNNNNNN to the video store and rent If You Were Me, the South Korean anthology film about human rights. If you're willing to deal with the theme loosely, then most of the films are about body horror at the level of people realizing how hard their life is directly because of their body.

And then there's "Tongue Tie", which is EXACTLY what you're looking for.

Also, the first thing I thought when I saw this thread was Oldboy