10 Body Horror Movies That Went Too Far

Those body horrors that had you squirming in your seat.

by Andrew Pollard
Cabin Fever
Lionsgate Films

The world of horror cinema is one that forever finds fans returning time and time again.

One of the clear and obvious reasons as to why horror hounds are eager to continuously lap up this murky corner of film, is quite simply because there is such variation on offer within horror. This is a movie genre that is overflowing with countless subgenres - and here it's all about the disturbing, chilling subgenre of body horror.

Body horror is something that particularly came to the fore in the late 1970s, with David Cronenberg (yes, he'll be featured here...) one of those leading the charge and championing this sticky, icky element of the horror realm. Since then, there have been numerous great, decent or just plain bad body horrors that have surfaced, and plenty of them have had audiences wincing in disgust.

Of course, certain body horrors tend to be a smidge more wince-inducing than others, and that's what's on offer with this list. Simply making a body horror movie is one thing, but the ten pictures in the spotlight here proved particularly hard for moviegoers to stomach.

10. The Brood

Cabin Fever
New World Pictures

For full disclosure, it's pretty difficult to not just give in and dedicate this entire list to the movies of David Cronenberg.

Few, if any, have ever done body horror as well as Cronenberg, with the Canadian filmmaker having a masterful eye for what is likely to make an audience wince. And if you're looking for an exemplary, extreme body horror from this legend of the game, look no further than 1979's The Brood.

Written in the aftermath of the director's own divorce, this picture centres on Samantha Eggar's Nola as she goes through a divorce while battling her own mental health problems - all as a slew of mysterious murders take place across the city.

In typical Cronenberg fashion, The Brood reveals how a group of dwarf children have been responsible for these murders, and that Nola had given birth to said children via an external womb that was driven by shock treatment and her own memories of abuse and abandonment from her childhood.

When the big reveal of all of this comes, with Nola going as far as to lick clean one of her newborns, it was David Cronenberg at his absolute David Cronenberg best.

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.