In 2020, body horror movies have risen in popularity. With up and coming talent such as director Brandon Cronenberg living up to his father’s legacy and Misha Green’s impeccable depiction of metamorphosis in its most gruesome way, this lesser known, underrated sub-genre has been slowly re-emerging and gaining recognition in unexpected places. It has been one of the greatest years for the body horror sub-genre, despite the visceral reactions it often evokes in its audiences. Body horror sometimes gets a bad reputation because it is known for being gory, whether it’s through approaching phobias by tapping into exploitation movie tropes or psychologically disturbing depictions of the human body, sexuality, gender, disease, or sex acts.
David Cronenberg has been recognized as the originator of the body horror sub-genre with his movies, which include The Fly, Scanners, Dead Ringers, and Videodrome. He utilized the platform in order to critique discourses on sexuality in North America, most notably in The Fly, which has been cited as a metaphor for the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. However, Cronenberg’s rendition of the movie is actually a remake that originated in the 1950s. Some scholars have even traced the history of body horror all the way back to Mary Shelley’s 1818 sci-fi horror novel Frankenstein due to its graphic content, which features the scientific reconstruction and reanimation of a corpse. With this in mind, body horror has always been popular, but 2020 has been a special year for the sub-genre.
With releases such as Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor, Misha Green’s depiction of gruesome bodily transformation in Lovecraft Country, the massive amount of zombie movies, and The Beach House’s disturbing imagery of aquatic parasites—among others—body horror is at an all-time high. In November 2020, even more movies in the sub-genre are set to release, including Rot. Despite the fact that movies in this subsect can be overwhelming and uniquely unsettling, body horror movies have become increasingly popular in 2020 — here’s why.
The year 2020 is filled with fears of the unknown, especially in regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. While zombie movies have been deemed an ill-effective metaphor for this major historical moment, they mirror the fears of what could happen when an unknown virus sweeps across the world. It’s entirely plausible that body horror has become popular in 2020 based on the fear of what will become of humanity as a result of the pandemic, specifically in regard to the biological makeup of human beings. The Korean horror movie #Alive features an eerily familiar depiction of the early days of lockdown. The majority of the movie takes place inside of an apartment complex where, if residents are to leave, they could contract the deadly zombie virus. As food resources and outside communication depletes, the loneliness of the early days of the pandemic are directly apparent in #Alive.
Among these 2020 fears, The Beach House sent out an important message about the irreversible impact that humanity has had on the environment. Climate change has been a hot button topic for several years, but as more activists draw attention to the fact that everything could change in just seven years if the issues of the Earth’s environments are not addressed immediately, it’s become a more prominent discussion for the horror genre to tackle. When Emily and her boyfriend take a vacation to a beach house, their interactions with sea life causes them to grow ill and filled with ancient parasites. If the temperatures of the ocean hadn’t warmed to the extent that they had, these ancient parasites would not have risen to kill them. Climate change and COVID-19 are two of the major fears that exist at this moment, and both provide perfect inspiration for body horror movies.
Sexuality and gender have long been the center of debate. In the HBO series Lovecraft Country, Misha Green’s use of Christina’s metamorphosis into William and Ruby’s into Hillary blatantly critiques the complicated relationship people can have with their own bodies. Ultimately, body horror movies have become popular because they takes the fears that permeate society and make them real. They force audiences to recognize the increasingly complicated relationships human beings have with their surroundings by using shock-value and bodily horrors.
