If you think body horror cannot get any weirder and creepier than The Substance, we have compiled a list of more twisted movies that live up to Coralie Fargeat’s recent outing. The Substance, starring Demi Moore, tells the story of a fading celebrity who is desperate to regain her youth and fame. So she turns to a mysterious liquid that miraculously transforms her into a younger version of herself. However, this transformation comes with horrifying twists, and she’s forced to face the dark consequences of pursuing youth.
The Substance has set a new benchmark for the genre by diving into the gory and bizarre side of horror and leaving viewers in awe. Critics have praised the movie’s visuals and its bold storytelling. The body horror subgenre itself is one that pushes boundaries of what audiences can stomach, both visually and emotionally. And in the last few decades, it has evolved by delivering the most unsettling and equally captivating movies. For fans of The Substance, these movies are particularly fascinating as they burrow into your fears and take you on a wild ride.
10 Audition (1999)
Takashi Miike is a distinguished J-horror maestro known for directing the most violent and bizarre movies of all time. Audition is a movie that starts deceptively slow and then descends into jet-black madness in the final act. In it, a widowed movie producer holds fake auditions to find a new love. He chooses the kind-looking Asami Yamazaki. But it doesn’t take long for Asami’s facade to fall and become a scathing nightmare for Aoyama.
Builds Unbearable Suspense
Audition begins at an unassuming pace, as a subtle psychological drama. But towards the end of the movie, which is what most of the body horror scenes are reserved for, it curdles into a disturbing display of manipulation and violence. Miike peels back layers of both Ryo Ishibashi and Eihi Shiina’s characters to make sure the visceral horror hits harder as the trauma materializes. Critics praised Audition particularly for the “gruesome final section,” noting how it “makes Stephen King's Misery look wholesome.”
9 Excision (2012)
Excision is a feature-length adaptation of the 2008 short film of the same name written and directed by Richard Bates Jr. An unsettling horror, it follows Pauline, a curious teenager who is obsessed with morbid things like surgery and bodily taboos. Her dream is to become a surgeon, so while balancing her home life, she works to gain entry to medical school. But Pauline’s dark interest twists with her good nature, and she ends up performing lung transplant surgery on her young sister, Grace.
Strange and Nasty Character Study
Featuring a searing lead performance from AnnaLynne McCord, the movie is so graphic it makes you queasy. It haunts you and challenges your perspective like any good cult classic. Pauline’s fervor for all things medical leads to a series of body horror scenes but you also almost sympathize with her for her whimsy obsession. Excision’s bold aesthetic and unflinching look at the main character falling prey to their own mind is similar to The Substance’s core theme.
8 Tusk (2014)
A black comedy horror from legendary director Kevin Smith, who is otherwise known for directing lighthearted canon films falling under View Askewniverse, Tusk follows an arrogant podcaster named Wallace Bryton, who travels to Canada to interview an eccentric sailor, also called the Kill Bill Kid on the internet. But as it turns out, the host has a weird obsession with walruses and warped plans to perform surgery and transform his guest into, well, a walrus.
Smith’s Most Shocking Return to Form Yet
Marked “funny, strange, disquieting, and occasionally gory” by critics, Tusk stars Michael Parks, Justin Long, Genesis Rodriguez, Haley Joel Osment, and Johnny Depp. Despite the ridiculous premise, which sounds almost comical (and is, to a large extent), the movie manages to spark unease. It tests the limits of taste and physiology with demented glee, making the absurd body horror scenes look sickening and sincere at the same time. Even among the genre, Tusk is unique because while it makes you wish you hadn’t seen it in the first place, the movie also leaves you utterly transfixed.
7 Starry Eyes (2014)
Thematically, Starry Eyes is very similar to The Substance. It is a Hollywood satire that revolves around Sarah Walker, an aspiring actress stuck waiting tables at a restaurant. Desperate for her big break, she pushes her luck and auditions for a role, only to be rejected. Sarah screams and rips her hair out, which attracts the attention of the casting director, and he gradually subjects her to more humiliation after inviting her for an exclusive casting call. As the director’s demands spiral, Sarah finds herself and her body decaying into utter madness.
Another Unsettling Cult Favorite
What stirs most about Starry Eyes, according to critics, is Sarah’s “transformation of living through an actor's worst cosmetic nightmare and still forcibly taking what she wants.” Told with a creeping sense of dread under Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer’s careful direction, the movie brings out the paranoia associated with the film industry and paints a grim picture of the corporation, much like The Substance. It dissects ambition through the eyes of Alex Essoe’s character, in a way that’s gruesome but gorgeous.
6 Raw (2017)
The first of Julia Ducournau’s two movies on this list is Raw. It follows Justine, a young girl who has been vegetarian all her life, as she begins veterinary school away from home. At a week-long hazing ritual, she is forced to eat raw rabbit kidneys, and for the first time ever, she’s tempted to feel freedom and carnality. The act not only awakens a strange and insatiable hunger within Justine, but it also urges her to explore her emerging desires, both sexual and primal.
A Disturbing Feminine Awakening
Branded as a coming-of-age thriller, Raw absorbs viewers with its pulpy and visceral scenes and delves into appetites of flesh in the most intense manner. But the French director only uses cannibalism as a metaphor for wider social issues about sexual discovery and female empowerment. Which works because the symbolism is rich and unique. Garance Marillier is brilliant as the lead; her disquiet and eventual ferocity elevate the film’s gore up several notches, but also retain the humanity of the story.
5 Ginger Snaps (2000)
A supernatural horror that flopped at the box office but transformed into a cult classic after finding new life on home video, Ginger Snaps tells the story of two teenage sisters, Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald, who are so fascinated by death that they make a pact to die together on their 16th birthday. But when a creepy dog attacks Ginger, she becomes feral and hairy, eventually transforming into a werewolf. Ginger goes on a violent murdering spree and Brigitte races to find a cure before the full moon.
A Pulpy Werewolf Tale
Sharp, smart, and hilarious (often in a darkly comedic way), Ginger Snaps basically explores feminine power, identity, changing teenage bodies, and mortality. It just does so in the most gory way. Directed by John Fawcett, it is far more than your average werewolf movie. It combines war moments of sisterhood between Ginger and Brigitte with over-the-top splatter scenes. Like The Substance, the main characters reflect power imbalance, which offers a subversive take on the genre. The movie also uses practical effects instead of CGI, like The Substance.
4 Relic (2020)
Starring Emily Mortimer, Robyn Nevin, and Bella Heathcote, Relic is a stomach-churning horror that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in 2020. When Edna, an elderly matriarch suffering from dementia vanishes, her daughter Kay and granddaughter Sam travel to her remote family home to find her. They’re met with a decaying mold on the walls and an eerie sense of horror. When Edna reappears, her dementia accelerates and she conveys horrifying behavior.
An Outstanding Feature Debut From Natalie Erika James
Natalie Erika James crafts an unnerving generational drama and taps into our collective fear of aging by portraying a parent whose condition twists into a terrifying claustrophobic nightmare. Also, the fact that the movie ends with her passing the curse on to her daughter, who may or may not face the same fate as her, is a subtle unveiling of how it’s impossible to escape from one’s own mind. While the message of The Substance is direct, Relic blurs the line between reality and fantasy quietly but effectively.
3 Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
Directed by cult auteur Shinya Tsukamoto, Tetsuo: The Iron Man is an underground shocker that follows a salaryman who gets into a hit-and-run accident and begins developing a strange connection with him. His body morphs and takes on machine qualities, like a metallic thorn protruding from his cheek and scabs of metal all over his skin. He later realizes that the victim of the hit-and-run accident has telepathic powers and is trying to seek revenge by transforming him into a grotesque version of himself.
You Have to See It to Believe It
A terrifying movie shot on an ultra-low budget, Tetsuo: The Iron Man pushes the gritty aesthetic and hard boundaries of physical horror in the same vein as The Substance. Tsukamoto's raw, avant-garde style makes it impossible for you to look away from the disturbing imagery, and the stop-motion sequences of body transformation feel almost contrived. Sure, it’s not a movie that you end up gushing over after the first watch. It is a grower. But in the body horror canon, it is a jarring masterpiece that truly deserves more praise and recognition than it gets.
2 Titane (2021)
Julia Ducournau’s sophomore feature won the Palme d'Or when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. A genuinely fascinating follow-up to her directorial debut, Raw, it tells the story of a woman who is forced to go on the run and ends up forming a bizarre connection with a father seeking to reunite with his long-lost son. The woman has a titanium plate in her head and is oddly attracted to automobiles. It does not take long for her warmed mind to lead her to commit unfathomable murders and spiral into madness.
Delightful and Shocking
Titane is a hyper-violent movie that handles its queer themes with tenderness, making it a one-of-a-kind body horror and among the best ballets of the 21st century. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea; the messy explorations of identity and ferocious visuals often leave you in a daze. But Ducournau crafts a movie so freaky and sympathetic that it elicits discussion. Also, worth praising is Agathe Rousselle, whose dual role as Alexia and Adrien won her a bunch of accolades.
1 Birth/Rebirth (2023)
Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and directed by Laura Moss in their feature directorial debut, Birth/Rebirth revolves around Dr. Rose Casper, a hospital pathologist obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. One of his experiments succeeds, and he reanimates the body of a young girl named Lila. But in order to keep her alive, Rose must harvest biological materials from pregnant women. When Celie, Lila’s mother, discovers she’s alive, she strikes a deal with Rose and the two make desperate and unethical attempts to sustain her life.
Must-Watch for Fans of Psychological Horror
Body horror often plays around with the idea of science and ambition. Birth/Rebirth pulls no punching in exploring the dark side of the same desire and infuses it with maternal love. Chilling and thought-provoking at the same time, it raises questions about life and death and the extremes one would be willing to go to for love. The cinematography, score, and atmosphere further remind you of the border commentary made in The Substance, making it stand out in the genre.
Comments
Post a Comment