10 Body Horror Movies That'll Make You Squirm

When it comes to horror films, there’s no sub-genre more personal than body horror. It gets, quite literally, under our skin.

The idea of a malevolent force - be it a disease, another human, or powers from the chaotic universe – tampering with our biology is universal in making even the most steely horror fan feel uncomfortable.

Since the start of cinema, horror as a genre has included a threat to the body. Monsters such as werewolves and vampires had the ability to not just kill and consume us, but change us into one of them.

However, it was in the late ‘70s and ‘80s where the sub-genre really kicked off – thanks in part to the work of director, David Cronenberg. As viewers got wise to old horror tropes, more terrifying threats needed to be explored, and there was nothing more sickening than body horror to appeal to fans of the macabre.

Since then, the genre has been explored and pushed in every direction from aliens to spirals, and cannibals to surgeons

Get ready - this list isn’t for the squeamish...

First up, one of the most iconic body horror movies to come out of the ‘80s.

The Thing, the 1982 film directed by horror aficionado John Carpenter that sees Kurt Russel battling a copycat alien in Antarctica.

It’s amazing to think that The Thing was slated upon its release for its nihilistic tone and graphic imagery.

And what imagery. Ten percent of the film’s budget went into creating the Thing in all its various forms. This is due to the ever-changing nature of the Thing – a nature that lends itself so well to body horror. Once a creature is assimilated, the Thing can imitate it. However, when that hastily built biology breaks down - or the Thing is forced to attack - some freaky things occur.

The creature effects of The Thing look as though someone has taken all the parts of a human body, thrown in a few organs from other creatures, then randomly reassembled them with a blindfold on. Oh, and then melted them.

In one of the most iconic scenes, where the Thing (disguised as Norris) is being defibrillated, its chest opens up into a gaping mouth and bites off Copper’s arms. The fleshy insides of the creature look mammal-esque, until Norris’s head begins to detach, and we see strings of green tendons holding it together. The green calls back to a past assimilation, possibly in another galaxy, of a distant alien creature.

And this is what makes the body horror of The Thing so terrifying. It is both frighteningly alien, yet disturbingly familiar.