10 Best Body Horrors That Make You Squirm

3. The Fly

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20th Century Fox

Being perfectly honest, it was kind of hard not to fill the bulk of this article with the movies of David Cronenberg.

When looking back through the filmography of Cronenberg, there are so many fantastic examples of body horror. While it may be 1986's The Fly that's being showcased here, there are certainly arguments that Cronenberg offerings such as Rabid, Shivers, Videodrome, Scanners, and Crash are all equally worthy of a spot on this list. But to be fair to other filmmakers and other films, The Fly is the sole Cronenberg effort featured here.

Why The Fly? Why not. The early duo of Rabid and Shivers are great body horror pictures in their own right, and likewise Scanners and Videdrome continued that trend into the '80s - yet it's The Fly that really saw Cronenberg take his game to a whole new level.

Just to clarify, David Cronenberg has always been great. It's just that with his 1986 flick, he surpassed anything we'd ever seen from his illustrious back catalogue by that point. With Jeff Goldblum at the centre of the tale, Cronenberg's spin on The Fly took an established property and lavished it in twisted gore and practical effects wizardry.

The Fly is a movie that, even now, you can't watch without having your stomach turned just a little. And not just demented effects purely for the sake of it, for The Fly is a smart, simmering, tense affair with a jaw-dropping performance at the centre of it from Goldblum.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.