5 Gruesome Body Horror Gems for Everyone Who Liked The Substance
They're scary, but it's impossible to tear yourself away from the screen.
The French satirical body horror film The Substance has been released and won the Cannes Film Festival award for best screenplay. To mark the occasion, we looked back at other notable films in the genre – both classics and lesser-known but no less fascinating projects.
1. Videodrome, 1983
The most important body horror film of David Cronenberg's career and one of the most important movies of the genre, reflecting the technophobic tendencies of the era. Sexual deviance, control over the body and the influence of media corporations – Cronenberg's favorite topics are combined in a bizarre plot about a TV station owner who becomes addicted to Videodrome.
Strange, hypnotic and cold, Cronenberg's film is subordinated to its unique narrative – it has an almost elusive structure. The director would later develop his love of plastic makeup in The Fly, but nowhere does he use the aesthetics of physicality to create a powerful social message as he does in Videodrome.
2. Antlers, 2021
Teacher Julia notices the strange behavior of one of her students, twelve-year-old Lucas. Suspecting domestic violence, Julia visits Lucas and discovers that the boy's father has long since locked himself in a room in the attic, refusing to come out.
It later turns out that the man was bitten by an unknown animal in a coal mine and is slowly turning into a monster, overcome by an insatiable hunger.
Antlers is a combination of drama and body horror: here, physical deformities happen not to one of the main characters, but to a secondary one, and the consequences of these changes are shown on different scales, from a single family to an entire city.
3. Infinity Pool, 2023
While on vacation in a resort town, writer James and his friends decide to venture out of the tourist zone, but the venture ends in tragedy: James runs over one of the locals on the street.
The crime is punishable by death, but there is a nuance in the laws: for a large sum of money, the authorities will clone the criminal and kill his copy, leaving the culprit free. James makes a deal and learns that there is a thriving subculture of hedonists among the rich tourists who evade punishment by regularly sending their clones to the slaughter.
4. Antiviral, 2012
Brandon Cronenberg may be the heir to the king of body horror, but his style is mutating in a different way. Antiviral has an intriguing concept: in the future, people have found a way to get even closer to their idols – by contracting some kind of celebrity disease; the more dangerous and malignant – the better.
Syd works for a company that sells celebrity disease vaccines, and in his quest for extra income, he learns more about the industry than he cares to know.
One day, he contracts the disease that killed superstar Hannah Geist. When this fact becomes known to others, Syd becomes a target for crazed fans. To avoid the same fate as Hannah, Syd must unravel the mystery surrounding her death.
5. Spring, 2014
A young American, Evan, comes to Italy. He lives and works on a farm, and one day, while walking through a nearby town, he meets the charming Louise, with whom he instantly falls in love.
But their passionate affair takes a sinister turn when Evan discovers that this woman hides a much more ancient and terrifying essence beneath her human appearance.
Spring is a love story set within the framework of body horror, where sentimentality and passion are intertwined with physical deformities and spontaneous mutations.