15 Comments
User's avatar
Alicia's avatar

Ever since I started having severe vision problems in my early 40s, body horror has held special meaning for me. You nailed it: the loss of control over these vehicles we use to go through life. When they stop working properly, and you can't do anything about it, you experience a very particular type of nightmare. Great recommendations!

John Watson - Horror Author's avatar

Sorry to hear that. My body betraying me and making it impossible to do the things I enjoy is a terrifying thought.

Mac Sitko's avatar

Yess

The In Between's avatar

I both hate and love body horror. I'm eerily drawn to it but then end up closing my eyes half the time.

John Watson - Horror Author's avatar

If it gets too extreme, I tend to shut it out. I’m a big chicken.

Wendy's avatar

The Thing is one of my favourites.

I can't do eye horror and that handcuff scene from Gerald's game.

Fragments and the Dark's avatar

Great read, John! 🖤 „The Thing“ traumatised me, because I think I didn‘t know what was coming when I went in. 😱

John Watson - Horror Author's avatar

Going in blind is always great.

Fragments and the Dark's avatar

Always? Try to tell that my scared young adult soul! 😉

Patrick L. Parker's avatar

I think you’re 100% right about The Thing and The Fly being the genre-defining crème de la crème. I’m rewatching The Fly right now and it hasn’t lost anything in the last 25 years.

Totally looking forward to the next 23 installments of this a-z series!

John Watson - Horror Author's avatar

Cheers. The Thing is absolutely timeless.

Patrick L. Parker's avatar

The thing and the fly and Aliens are my top 3 sci-fi horror stories ever. The order changes every time I watch one of them.

Horror Literati (Jen Smith)'s avatar

The Thing is top-notch for me. I get squeamish about eye horror, but I've been forcing myself to watch wide-eyed (pun intended) graphic eye horror scenes, such as the one in Fulci's Zombie.

John Watson - Horror Author's avatar

Eyes are the big no-no for me, too.

Albert Kivak's avatar

Agent orange. Nuclear radiation. During world war 3 a profound sense of understanding the realities of body horror will be rampant as millions of human flesh hair teeth nails will fall off. Get ready!