In 2024, body horror gained one of its finest examples since Titane with The Substance, directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat (Revenge), winner of Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. Echoing The Picture of Dorian Gray (with strong feminist political undertones), the story follows a TV fitness host (Demi Moore) who takes extreme measures to reclaim the spotlight that a sexist industry reserves for younger, more attractive women. After a dubious injection, her place is taken by a younger, more beautiful version of herself (Margaret Qualley), eager to live and conquer the world. The fragile balance between them quickly collapses, resulting in grotesque, brutal, and surprisingly fun consequences.
Talking about body horror without mentioning Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg is impossible. The Fly, although a remake, is arguably his most famous film and a starter’s manual for the subgenre. A scientist (Jeff Goldblum) is about to perfect teleportation, but when he tests it on himself, a fly sneaks into the machine, merging their DNA. The grotesque transformation raises themes of identity, the persistence of self, and the struggle between consciousness and instinct.
Inspired by Cronenberg, French director Julia Ducournau takes body horror into themes of gender, sex, motherhood, and family. The film follows a strange woman who, after a killing spree and having sex with a car, assumes the identity of a firefighter’s long-lost son. With her body transforming through pregnancy and shifting between male and female traits, she explores her place in a new, uncanny family.
Like father, like son. Brandon Cronenberg also ventures into sci-fi and body horror with Possessor, a chilling reflection on technology. It follows a hitwoman working for a secret organization that uses brain implants to control other people’s bodies to carry out assassinations. But when one mission goes wrong, her mind gets trapped inside her victim’s. Disturbing, bloody visuals act as metaphors for the disintegration of identity.
David Lynch’s unsettling debut blends surrealism and body horror. The film follows a man trapped in a miserable marriage whose wife gives birth to a grotesque baby—part human, part bird—whose cries drive him to madness.