A Different Man, The Substance, Wolf Man… Body horror films have seen a sudden surge in Hollywood. We take a look at why that might be.
The human body has long been violated, penetrated and torn apart on the silver screen. Horror has always thrived on gore and the multiple ways you can make people suffer, especially physically. The early 2000s even saw the rise of ‘torture porn’, a genre which focuses primarily on extensive, almost silly gore.
2024 was a particularly strong year for body horror with both The Substance and A Different Man making their ways into UK cinemas. The Substance, which we awarded the full five stars in our review, is a strong contender at this year’s Oscars, especially after Demi Moore took home one of the Best Actress awards at the Golden Globes. A Different Man’s Sebastian Stan also took home Best Actor in Musical Or Comedy, suddenly making Aaron Schimberg’s dark comedy into a potential Oscar-contender.
At a glance, A Different Man doesn’t seem like a body horror film. It follows Edward (Sebastian Stan, initially under heavy prosthetics), a man with neurofibromatosis, who gets a life-changing procedure which transforms his face into Stan’s. Edward’s old face peels off, painfully and bloodily and he rips off chunks of it.
Edward, under the new identity of Guy, later auditions for his neighbour Ingrid’s new play inspired by her friendship with Edward, whom she believes has killed himself. Edward/Guy digs out a mask made from his old face to play the part, but his world is further thrown into chaos as Oswald (Adam Pearson, who has neurofibromatosis) makes his way into the play.
If Edward was timid and almost scared of his own reflection, Oswald is the complete opposite. He’s loud, happy and a bit of a ladies’ man. He’s everything Edward was and is not. Without spoiling the entire film, which I thoroughly recommend you check out, Edward’s life begins to unravel at an alarming speed.
The source of horror in A Different Man isn’t Edward’s looks, but his attempts at looking “normal” while Oswald thrives just as he is. The film ends with Oswald jokingly noting that Edward hasn’t changed a bit after he struggles to choose what he wants to eat at a restaurant. It’s true; Edward’s attempts at changing his look haven’t actually changed him and if anything, his life has completely fallen apart due to his obsession with his looks and Oswald.
Read more: The Substance review | Carolie Fargeatās body horror is outrageously good
Ultimately, A Different Man is an education in accepting differences and most importantly, accepting yourself. Coralie Fargeat’s sublime The Substance also shows off the worst in ourselves as we watch Moore’s Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging Hollywood star, turn to a strange procedure which allows her to give birth to a “better” version of herself.
Enter Sue (Margaret Qualley). The pair are supposed to alternate weeks when they’re out in the world, but Sue becomes greedy and starts staying in the world for longer and longer, leaving Elisabeth to rot and disintegrate in a secret bathroom. Like Edward, Elisabeth has done this to herself, forced by the society’s harsh ideas of what’s considered worthy and how our looks seemingly communicate our “real” value to others.
Both A Different Man and The Substance preach self-acceptance, but their narratives do ring true. We’ve all had those days where looking into the mirror feels like a punishment, much like when Elisabeth checks her lipstick in the mirror just to smear her makeup all over the place in disgust moments later.
Perhaps Hollywood is finally coming to terms with the unrealistic, obsessive beauty ideals that have ruled the industry for so long. No one can stay young and perfect forever, and they shouldn’t have to strive for that, either. Recent years have seen a lot of meaty roles made available for actresses over 50, and you could argue Jamie Lee Curtis is currently turning in her best work, earning herself an Oscar for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Nicole Kidman is currently charming audiences in Babygirl, in which her character engages in a steamy romance with a much younger intern. Cate Blanchett starred in a wacky comedy horror, a videogame adaptation and a miniseries directed by Alfonso Cuarón in 2024 alone.
The Substance premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and even took home the festivalās Best Screenplay award for Fargeat. Itās not the first time the festival has embraced extreme body horror; Julia Ducornauās Titane, in which Agathe Rousselleās Alexia is impregnated by a car, won the Palme DāOr in 2021. The filmās themes of sexuality involving motor vehicles drew comparisons to David Cronenbergās Crash, which took home the Jury Prize at the festival in 1996 but missed out on the top prize.
Cronenberg is one of the forefathers of body horror and now an entire new generation of filmmakers, grown up on a steady diet of the Canadian auteurās visceral films, are attempting ā whether consciously meaning to or not ā to bring that same intensity into the mainstream. And it seems like itās working. Body horror has been making its way into films that arenāt traditional horror films even before the films listed here. Josh Trankās Fantastic Four was at its best when it focused on the horrific bodily changes the characters went through, and one of the most disturbing sequences in 2012ās Looper included a man in the future suddenly beginning to lose limbs as his past self was being mutilated.
The 2025 year of horror begins with the release of Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man. Christopher Abbott plays family man Blake who is bitten by a creature as he’s moving into a rural home inherited from his father, presumed dead after going missing. Of course, Wolf Man wouldn’t be a horror film if that bite didn’t have consequences, and Blake quickly begins to transform into something scary.
Read more: Wolf Man review | A gnarly monster movie
Arguably, Wolf Man is more of a creature feature than full blown-body horror, but it’s still another film thoroughly interested in the body and what happens to it when it comes across an infection of sorts. Whannell wrote the film with his wife Corbett Tuck in the middle of the Covid-19 lockdown, inspiring the film’s unique take on the classic movie monster. Abbott’s Blake begins to slowly transform and is unable to stop it from happening.
Another one of January’s horror offerings is Companion. Directed by Drew Hancock and produced by Barbarian’s Zach Cregger, the film finds Sophie Thatcher’s sexbot Iris taking revenge on her selfish, violent owner, played by Jack Quaid. The film clearly adapts a much more comedic approach, but there’s something chilling about the idea of a sentient robot enduring all of this abuse to her body.
At first glance, Companion doesn’t fit the description of a body horror film. If anything, it’s more of a rape revenge film as Iris seems to get even for potentially years of abuse at the hands of Quaid’s Josh. And it’s this abuse exactly that makes Companion at least flirtatious with body horror.
In the trailer, we see Iris’ arm on fire, no doubt ignited by Josh. She has no choice but to horrifically observe these things done to her body. The trailer doesn’t show any sexual content, but it’s noted on the film’s rating. She also has no power over her own body as it’s controlled by her owner and he is able to force her to do anything, it seems. Unlike films like M3GAN, Companion asks us to sympathise with the unliving thing that has been moulded by humans and whose body is then mishandled and molested.
Director Marielle Heller also tipped her toes into body horror with Nightbitch, a film that arguably had the opportunity to go further with its premise but pulled its punches. Amy Adams plays a suburban mum on the verge of breakdown who begins to believe she’s turning into a dog. Only known as Mother, Adams’ character begins to physically transform into a dog, finding patches of fur on herself and growing extra nipples.
Body horror has always been one of the more extreme subgenres of horror, but it’s only now that mainstream Hollywood is starting to include it in films. Nightbitch arguably isn’t a full-blooded horror, but it certainly dips in and out of it at times. Hollywood and all entertainment industries have always been fascinated by the female body, especially in horror, so it’s not a surprise it’s still mostly women who go through these monstrous changes within themselves.
We probably won’t be seeing a major uptick in hardcore body horror films at the local multiplex, but the success and critical acclaim of The Substance and A Different Man suggests that a door has opened.
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