There Is Only One Real Contender For The Greatest Body Horror Movie Of All Time

French director Coralie Fargeat's latest film "The Substance" is proving to be a bloody, brilliant, bonkers bit of body horror, which means we here at /Film have body horror on the brain. While all horror movies find a way to wriggle their way underneath the skin, body horror movies focus on what that would literally look like while tapping into our inherent, primal fears about our own bodies. As invincible as we might feel, our mortality is intrinsically linked to the vulnerability of our physical forms — which are vehicles for our identities and how we relate to the world around us. There's something so visceral about watching a body horror movie, with the often-times practical special effects of physical transformations presented with grotesque, graphic visuals. While we should hope that we'll never have to worry about our flesh mutating into something otherworldly and disgusting, body horror is rooted in just enough reality to draw out phantom pains we've never actually experienced.

At the same time, as body horror is often in response to very specific emotional discomforts, there's usually a social critique at the core. "The Substance" very much deals with Hollywood and the way it mistreats women in the public eye for daring to commit the crime of *checks notes* aging, while something like Brian Yuzna's "Society" is an exploration of what it would look like if the internal, incestuous rot of the corrupt elite became physical. David Cronenberg is undoubtedly the master of body horror, so much so that we once ranked his filmography based on how much they make us horny and disgusted at the same time. But when it comes to body horror in its purest form, there's only one film that best tackles both the monstrous manipulation of the body and the emotional turmoil of what that shapeshifting causes. I'm talking of course, about "The Fly."

David Cronenberg's "The Fly" is undoubtedly his masterpiece, a perfect blend of body horror, science fiction, psychological torture, and a biting dissection of humans destroyed by their own hubris. Jeff Goldblum shines as the brilliant scientist Dr. Seth Brundle, who uses himself as a test subject on a teleportation device, unknowingly using it at the same time a fly flew into the device. The result is Brundle's DNA merging with the fly, transforming him into a gooey, gross, and downright disturbing creature. But what makes "The Fly" so incredible is that this transformation progresses over time, and the people around him who love him (and we as the audience) are forced to watch his body give over to the inevitable.

It's like watching a car crash in slow motion, if that car crash featured ears falling off, barfing up obscene amounts of liquid, or the nightmare of birthing a maggot. The monstrous metamorphosis happens in tandem with Brundle's psychological deterioration, so "The Fly" isn't just a gross body horror film, it's also a character study of a man obsessed with playing God.

Chris Walas' special effects were groundbreaking at the time, but still hold up as some of the best in cinema history even today. As he becomes more fly than man, Dr. Brundle's appearance unravels into something unrecognizable, but we never lose Goldblum's touches. This makes it even harder for his partner Veronica (Geena Davis) to process his change, because she can always see the man she loves within the creature. This is where the true tragedy of the film sinks in — it's not just about Seth Brundle losing himself, it's about the people in his life losing him in the process. "The Fly" is a relentless, painful, and often-times beautiful watch, and it's hard to imagine another film ever surpassing it.

We ranked the best body horror movies on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast, which you can listen to below:

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