So, Body Horror. I talked about it a little bit in my first post on this blog, about how it was the aesthetic or subset of horror that I was playing with in The Troop. Simply stated, it's horror about bodies changing. The breakdown of the body or the alteration of the body, usually without the consent of that body's owner—or maybe their consent at first, but then, as things go steadily more haywire, that character comes to deeply regret his or her decision.
BODY HORROR WIKIPEDIA PAGE
Of course, as a Canadian, my first exposure to this style of horror was through David Cronenberg. For my money, in a modern-day sense anyway, he's The Man. I mean, just look at a few indelible clips to get a sense of what I'm talking about.
... I don't know what kind of bullets James Woods was using in that pistol, but they were some kinda nasty!
Two other fellows who were, to me, real body horror genuises—producer Brian Yunza and director Stuart Gordon. Two of their films, From Beyond and Society, are real body horror gems. You could throw The Reanimator movies in there, too.
Here's the "Shunting" scene from the end of Society. Beware: gross if you're not properly prepared ... or even if you are, I guess.
... anyway, this is a lot of the ideas I was working with in The Troop. Bodies beset from within. As I've said before in other places, it's one thing to be chased/beset by an external evil, a zombie or werewolf or vampire. But it's another thing entirely when that evil is inside of you, under your skin. You can't outrun your own skin, right?
Here's a Buzzfeed list of Body Horror books ... and yeah, mine is there but there are plenty of incredible books on that list that'll provide a great inroads to the subgenre. Give 'er a read, and surf around YouTube for some more of the "good stuff" in body horror!
BODY HORROR BOOKS
Also, here's a weird thing a frenemy of mine wrote about movie trailers:
FUN WITH MOVIE TRAILERS
Yrs,
Nick.
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