Summary
The modern horror landscape wouldn’t look the same without the influence of body horror maestroDavid Cronenberg.Since his debut,Shivers,a sticky satire about an apartment complex infected with an erotic virus clearly meant to critique the sexual revolution, his work has provoked by combining metaphysical with the very-physical on screen, plumbing the depths of the human animal’s urges by testing its boundaries, usually proving them much too porous for comfort, fromThe FlytoThe Brood, toVideodrome.
The once-polarizing Cronenberg has become an elder statesman in horror over the years.Where his auto-eroticCrashwas venomously boo’d at Cannes (several jurors had to stage a revolt to deliver his Special Jury Prize),Crimes of the Futurereceived a six-minute standing ovationin 2022. His new film,The Shroudsfeels like one of his most experimental. While critics have traced his influence as far back as films like Peter Jackson’sBraindeador Shinya Tsukamoto’sTetsuo: The Iron Manhis unique, clinically fleshy influence has only grown, its juicy mark dribbling down the edges of the silver screen.
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Sliver
Cast
Sliver is a psychological thriller film based on the novel by Ira Levin. The film stars Sharon Stone as Carly Norris, a book editor who moves into a luxury New York City high-rise building known as Sliver. As Carly becomes acquainted with her neighbors, including a handsome and mysterious novelist, she begins to uncover dark secrets and mysterious events that threaten her own life.
Penned by Joe Esterhaas, the most financially successful shock jock of the ‘90s erotic thriller boom fresh off thesuccess of Paul Verhoven’sBasic Instinct,Sliverfalls perfectly under the “Cronenbergian” rubric. When a wealthy divorcé (Sharon Stone) moves into a swanky new apartment building, she’s quickly seduced by her handsome, videogame designer landlord, Zeke (William Baldwin), who gets his kicks watching tenants on his high-tech surveillance cameras.
Its erotics and apartment-building set-up bringShiversto mind, while its slick, Y2K play with voyeurism is aVideodromeredux perfectly suited for the Blockbuster adult section (and it worked––Sliverwas the eighth most rented tape of 1994 in the US).When things heat up and the tenants tell Carly she looks just like the previous tenant, the movie throws in a littleVertigotoo.
American Mary
American Mary, directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska, follows Mary Mason, a medical student drawn into the world of underground surgeries and body modification. As her career advances, she becomes increasingly entangled in a subculture where her skills are in high demand but ethics and morality are questioned. Starring Katharine Isabelle, the film explores themes of ambition, vengeance, and the desire for control.
A riff on the classic mad scientist tale,American Maryfollows a medical student (Katharine Isabelle, better known for her standout performance as a pubescent werewolf in another body horror classic,Ginger Snaps,)into the most extreme subcultures of body modification to pay her loans.
The film demonstrates an erotic curiosity for the power of self-transformation that’s a hallmark of Cronenberg’s work, effectively presaging his most recent filmCrimes of the Futurewith its credo, “surgery is the new sex.”For Mary, whose job as a stripper leads to her turn as a goth-DIY-surgeon, as well as her clients, this slogan fits like an elbow-length latex glove. The Soska sisters (Dead Hooker in a Trunk), who directed the film, have been so inspired by Cronenberg over their careers that they remade his second feature,Rabid,in 2019.
Kuso
Kuso, a 2017 film directed by Flying Lotus, presents a surreal and grotesque narrative set in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. The movie explores the bizarre and often unsettling lives of survivors as they navigate a world affected by an earthquake. Featuring an ensemble cast, the film blends live-action, animation, and experimental storytelling to create a unique cinematic experience.
Like some of Cronenberg’s best,Kusotriggered walkouts during its festival premiere in 2017.This gonzo anthology film tracks a motley crew of mutants through the landscape of a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. While its liberal use of abstract animation and collage as well as its experimental jazz score bring it into conversation with older erotic horror films likeBelladonna of Sadness, its penchant for the goopy stuff is very Cronenberg (though it winks towards Lars von Trier and John Waters––Kusoisn’t for the faint of heart in the gore or feces department).
The film’s director, Flying Lotus (also known as Steve) has called the film a“hallucination that feels like David Cronenberg meetingRen & Stimpy.”From its raunchy sex scenes to its scenes of graphic mutilation, this macabre, playful film definitely meets that description.
Slither
Written and directed by James Gunn, Slither tells the story of a small town that gets invaded by an alien mind-controlling parasite. Starring Nathan Fillion as Police Chief Bill Pardy, Elizabeth Banks as Starla Grant, and Michael Rooker as Grant Grant, the 2006 horror comedy marks James Gunn’s directorial debut.
James Gunn’sSlitherwas a box office bomb upon its release for its off-kilter blend of horror and comedy. Starring Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks,it boldly plays Cronenberg’s first two films (ShiversandRabid) for laughsalongsideThe BlobandBrain Damage, reveling in the kinds of physical transformation that define the gross-out aesthetic typified inThe Fly.
When an alien meteorite crash-lands in the middle of a small town, all hell breaks loose for its residents––especially the husband and wife who found it first. The alien’s decidedly anatomical design and hornily parasitic tendencies make this openly movie a perfect slumber-party-style pick for fans of the genre.
Tusk
When Wallace Bryton interviews an eccentric old sailor, Howard Howe, for his podcast, the old man tells him of a walrus named “Mr. Tusk” who once saved his life. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there, as Howard’s obsession with Mr. Tusk means he has some disturbing plans for Wallace.
The only horror comedy more famously Cronenbergian thanSlitheris Kevin Smith’s wacko gross-out meta-cult-classicTusk. Inspired by an episode of his stoner-friendly podcast SModcast, the film draws on “The Walrus and the Carpenter” to tell the story of a podcaster who, after a shipwreck, is saved by a walrus. Most of the loose and vaguely episodic plot can be chalked up to a series of unfortunate events, but, long story short, the walrus is trying to turn the podcaster into another walrus.
The film may have gotten mixed reviews, but for fans of theClerksdirector’s goofy oeuvre,Tuskis another sleepover classic, the kind of movie that comes with its own introduction, a laThe Human Centipede.Distributed by A24 at the early end of their rise to arthouse world domination,Tuskmay very well have gotten more attention had it been released several years later.
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Censor
A British horror film set in the 1980s, following a film censor who starts to lose her grasp on reality after watching a video nasty that echoes her sister’s mysterious disappearance.
Prano Bailey-Bond’s highly effective throwback debut feature,Censor, recalls De Palma’sBody Doubleas well asVideodrome.Set in 1985, at the peak of the controversy over British film censorship, during a panic around the so-called “Video Nasty,” of which Cronenberg’s films up to that point were all examples.
The film takes its censor protagonist down the rabbit hole as she slowly loses her grip on reality, testing the boundaries between on-screen violence and real-life carnage.The film blends the clinical style of a Cronenberg gore-fest with lively pastiche, not dissimilar fromthis year’sMaXXXine.Reviews noted that the film drew on Cronenberg’s visual (and anatomical) style to explore questions of sight, responsibility, and erotic charge.
Swallow
Swallow is a psychological thriller directed by Carlo Mirabella-Davis. The film follows Hunter, a newly pregnant housewife, played by Haley Bennett, who develops a dangerous habit of swallowing inedible objects. This condition, known as pica, reveals deeper issues within her seemingly perfect marriage and life, leading her to confront disturbing secrets and personal struggles.
Carlo Mirabella-Davis’Swallowfinds a different entry point to Cronenbergian body horror–– namely, the mouth. Borrowing the sadomasochistic gender roles of a film likeA Most Dangerous Method, the film is a portrait of repression quite literally internalized. Hunter (Carole Baraton) is a newlywed housewife whose working-class upbringing constantly keeps her on the back foot with her new family.
To cope with the impossible balancing act she faces, incapable of speaking openly with her husband for fear of losing his interest, she takes to eating her feelings–– and marbles, thread, thumbtacks, and anything else that comes her way. The film is effectively distressing, likely to get a viewer’s sympathetic gag reflex going.Where its visual arsenal is very Cronenberg, its thematic toolbox is closer to Todd Haynes (thinkSafe). An eerie combination.
Bad Biology
Bad Biology is a 2008 horror-comedy film directed by Frank Henenlotter. It follows Jennifer, a woman with a mutant reproductive system, and Batz, a man with an uncontrollable mutant member, as their paths collide. The film explores the consequences of their unique biological conditions in a bizarre and macabre manner.
The last film to date directed by exploitationeer extraordinaire Frank Henenlotter,Bad Biologyis the story of a boy and a girl with a unique set of problems. The film’s protagonist, Jennifer (Charlee Danielson), was born with an unusually expansive female anatomy and the voracious erotic metabolism to match. In true Cronenberg fashion, Jennifer’s quest for sexual satisfaction, spawned by her quasi-monstrous birth (and the rapid gestation period of the children she spawns like frogs, or like members ofThe Brood,) borders on transcendental.
Her would-be paramour, meanwhile (Anthony Sneed), was born with an equally pressing deficiency in the anatomy department thatdrove him on an odyssey of chemical enhancement so extreme that his member becomes sentient–– and murderous. This gonzo pairing is suitably zany, playing onRabidwith irreverent good cheer.
Possessor
Possessor, directed by Brandon Cronenberg, is a 2020 science fiction horror film that follows Tasya Vos, a corporate agent who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies and perform assassinations. As Vos struggles with her identity and loses control over her host, the boundaries between her own mind and her host’s begin to blur, leading to catastrophic consequences. Starring Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott, the film explores themes of control and identity.
Who could be more inspired by David Cronenberg than his son, Brandon?Possessor, the younger Cronenberg’s sophomore film, brings in many of the same hangups the older director has made his hallmark. In this world, assassins take control of their targets’ bodies to make their hits, staging conflicts or breakdowns that will make their deaths appear more plausible.On this particular occasion, though, the assassin, Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough), enjoys the swap a little too much. Suffering from dissociative symptoms, the hit didn’t go according to plan.
This film’s gender-bending treatment of social role-playing, the strangeness of family ties,and the erotic charge of dangerous circumstances feels like a blend ofCrashandScanners, though the younger director puts his own visual spin on the subject through ample use of psychedelic imagery far closer to the work of Panos Cosmatos.
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Boxing Helena
Boxing Helena is a psychological thriller directed by Jennifer Lynch. The film centers on a surgeon, Dr. Nick Cavanaugh, who becomes obsessively infatuated with Helena, a woman he once briefly dated. After an accident, he takes extreme measures to keep her in his life, leading to disturbing consequences. The film stars Julian Sands and Sherilyn Fenn, delving into themes of obsession and control.
Boxing Helenawas the feature debut of another Freudian indie auteur’s child, Jennifer Lynch, David Lynch’s daughter. This film, then, could be viewed as a blend of the two maestros' oneiric aesthetics. It tells the story of a surgeon (Julian Sands) who develops a dangerous obsession with his neighbor, Helena (Sherilyn Fenn, Audrey inTwin Peaks).He kidnaps the beautiful, sexually unavailable woman and the two begin a game of erotic cat and mouse, complicated violently by the doctor’s petulant penchant for amputation.
While the doctor’s motivations feel like something borrowed fromDead Ringers,the sexual dynamics of the amputation process speak to the radical transformations of works likeCrash, where amputations are fair collateral for the highs of erotic rubbernecking.
