Body horror is a sub-genre of horror, that is all about the destruction, transformation, and degeneration of the body, as well as one of my favorite sub-genres. Here’s three titles I hope you’ve all seen.

Cabin Fever

The tale of five college friends who rent a cabin out in the woods, to have a nice little get-away, and instead catch a deadly flesh eating disease. Cabin Fever is Eli Roth’s first movie, and a pretty solid entry, but it enters body horror with the disease it’s self. The slow rotting process, that you watch these characters go through is pure hell.

The Fly

The Fly is one of the many body horror movies that David Cronenberg has directed, I could  write, and plan to, an article all about his work in body horror, so I’m going to just keep it to this one. The tale of Seth Brundle’s tragic transformation into a fly is one of the few movies that lets you feel bad for the villain. The transformation from Seth Brundle, to Brundlefly is one of the most terrifying examples of body horror today.

Society

Society is Brian Yuzna’s first movie behind the chair, and far from his last. Society is a mystery film, with a lot of WTF moments, and a body horror finale that blows you out of the water, almost out of no where.  I don’t want to give too much away, but the body horror elements of Society are some of the strangest in the genre.

A Bay Of Blood, more commonly known as Twitch Of The Death Nerve, is a 1971 Mario Bava film, that was made to give Bava and actress  Laura Betti, a reason to work together again. The film was first met with with disappointment, but over the years would gain popularity, later being listed as one of the 50 horror films of all time, in a 2005 issue of Total Film.

The story is a quite convoluted tale of murder and suspense, all regarding who will inherit  a bay, in which lives only a handful of residents. The film has no heroes, as it turns out everyone is willing to kill anyone else, to reach their goals, all stemming from fiances. While this sounds very vague, it  really is all there is for plot, and if I go into to details, it will take away from the viewing experience.

This is one of only a handful of Mario Bava film’s I’ve seen, yet it makes me crave more. The stylistic approach, use of colors, and interesting shots, really make it fun to watch, and the fact Bava spares no time in getting to the first few deaths, doesn’t hurt either. The deaths in this film seem to come in handfuls, with four coming in shotgun succession near the first half hour, that while gruesome, really bothered me. It seemed the four characters were brought in, only to add to a body count, as their characters have nothing to do with the murderous plot.

The kills are interesting enough to keep you going, with everything from slit throats, strangling, and even a double spear impalement, of a couple having sex, which would later be echo’d in the Friday The 13th series. While the gore it’s self is quite tame, it’s interesting to see where the film, and the deaths will go next. The score really helps bring home the murders, specifically in the case of a decapitation, the score really shines.

While the film is quite a lot of fun, I don’t believe it deserves a place on any list  of the best horror movies of all time, but it does deserve a place in any horror films film collection. The biggest flaw of the movie, is the ending, which is so random, and so out of place, it leaves a taste of pure shit in your mouth. If not for the ending, the film would have a much higher rating.

Score – B
Gore – 6/10
Quality Of Gore – 5/10

The vampire film is one of the oldest sub-genres of horror, and are prone to both fantastic hits, and utter failures. As with any genre, there are some great films that slip through the cracks, and find themselves lost in the minds of the viewer, with the memories of more recent, or lasting films. Here, for your pleasure this weekend, are three of my favorite, oft underrated, vampire films.

Bitten

Bitten stars Jason Mewes, of Jay and Silent Bob fame, as a lonely night shift paramedic who brings a troubled women in off the streets. The catch? She’s a vampire. The romance  angle played in Bitten is how a vampire love story should be.

Dracula 2000

This may be the most well known of these films, as well as the one most likely to raise criticism. Dracula 2000 is not a great film, in same sense Let The Right One In was, but it is an absolute balls to the wall fun journey, suffused with sexuality and blood, and Gerard Butler as Dracula!

The Night Flier

The Night Flier is based on a Stephen King short story of the same name. The film follows a reporter who is trying to get a lead on a story, about a killer who’s victims all seem to be that of a vampire. The vampire in The Night Flier is one of the most interesting looking,  with great fangs, and captivating vampires on screen, even taking a piss is interesting.

” For extreme illnesses, extreme treatments are most fitting – Hippocrates ” appears over a blank screen, and as it fades we’re treated to credits, flowing around the blood stream, pulling out and showing us our title character, performing open heart surgery. Our title character being that of the insane Dr. Giggles, nicknamed so because he thinks he’s a doctor, and because he is always giggling, and the patient being one of the many kills in the opening sequence of the doctor escaping the hospital.

Dr. Giggles has a great start for what looks by all means, to be a terrible movie, and for the most part, manages to keep the film going moderately strong through out it’s 95 minute  run time. The film follows Jennifer Campbell around, her mother’s recently been in an accident, she has a heart condition, her boyfriends lack of understanding, her fathers new girlfriend, you know how it goes with slasher films, while the character does have a rich background, it’s all boring in wait for the doctors visits.

The film really work’s best because of Dr. Giggles, played by Larry Drake, who uses these wacky home-made surgical tools, while sprouting off terrible one liners ( ” It’s a good thing I make house calls”), and all the while letting out a high pitched giggles. The doctor speaks to the best of B-horror killers, such as Horny The Clown, or Jack Frost, and plays it rather straight-faced, which always leaves a funnier impression than winking at the camera.

While the acting is weak on the most part, what it lacks in acting it makes up for with early 90s fashion disasters, and some great camerawork. The film is surprisingly engaging, showing a technical understanding one wouldn’t expect from a film with such a concept. The film also managed to have a few gruesome scene’s on a caliber I wouldn’t of expected, such as a small child climbing out of the inside of a corpse, which was rather unsettling.

I highly recommend Dr. Giggles, it’s a fun slasher film, that does just what it sets out for, to have fun, and even manages to deliver some chills along the way. While some of the acting isn’t the best, Dr. Giggles steals every scene he’s in, albeit there’s not enough with him.

Score – B+
Gore – 8/10
Quality of Gore – 7/10

Nightmare Concert, aka A Cat In The Brain, is one of legendary director Lucio Fulci’s final movies, and what a crappy note to go out on. Nightmare Concert is designed to showcase gore, gore, tits, gore, and more gore, using stock footage from an assortment of different Fulci films, and for gore’s sake it works.

The story this time around is the weakest point of the film, and put me asleep the first couple times I tried to watch the film. Lucio Fulci plays himself, a horror director who’s having visions from his movies weaving their way into his everyday life, and driving him mad. This allows for the use of stock-footage to work, and make sense, since it is all from films that he has done. Fulci decides to speak with a shrink, who in turn decides to take advantage of Fulci’s mental state to have him kill for him. While this story sounds like it could be fun, it’s really a let down, it goes no where, the pacing is terrible, and it’s clear the film was just meant to be gory.

Like mentioned, a lot of the movie is made up of stock footage, with Lucio having gone out and shot a wrap-around story to incorporate the footage. The wrap-around stuff is poorly one, mostly consisting of a shot of Lucio afraid having a vision, cut to gore, cut to lucio, cut to gore, repeat, over and over, for the rest of the film. We also see a lot of he same footage used over again, leading to the great gore effects just feeling bland and boring.

The gore is all over the map, from chainsaw decapitations, to a head in a microwave, to a man who’s run over until he’s nothing more than mush. Anyone who has seen a Fulci film knows what they are getting into here, he is one of the goriest directors of all time, and this film might be the masterpiece where that is involved.  Every five minutes your either getting gore thrown in your face out of no-where, or some breasts, leaving you no time to really slow down. My favorite moment of gore in the film, would have to be in the first five minutes, when you flat out see ‘A Cat In The Brain’, which is just random gore for the credits.

While Nightmare Concert might be the goriest film Fulci has ever done, it’s far from his best, but if you just want to take a look at what the master of gore is capable of, it’s a great ninety minute romp through the stickiest bits of his filmography.

Score – C
Gore – 10/10
Quality Of Gore – 8/10