Anatomy of fear: Sukanya Datta’s essential body horror watchlist

The genre has been shaped by improvements in special effects, as well as by our real-world obsessions with cosmetic surgery, technology, societal standards.

A still from Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989). Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto, the Japanese thriller revolves around a metal-fetishising young man who slowly turns into a flesh and metal hybrid. Visceral, extremist, the film explored themes of industrialisation, obsession and human fragility.

The Pink Opaque is a TV show about fighting monsters that teens Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) can’t get enough of. One day, Maddy goes missing and all that’s left of her is a burning TV set. Years later, she reappears, finds Owen, and claims she has been living inside the violent TV show. Director Jane Schoenbrun has explained it as a metaphor for the “egg-crack moment”, the moment a transgender person realises there’s a whole other world to their identity.

A captivating coming-of-age horror film, Tiger Stripes (2024) follows Zaffan, an audacious 11-year-old, as she navigates puberty, patriarchy and societal taboos. Director Amanda Nell Eu draws on themes from Malaysian folklore to giver her young protagonist a primal rage, and mythical, animalistic power. The film won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at the Cannes film festival in 2023.

A still from The Quatermass Experiment (1955), one of the earliest explorations of storytelling in this genre. Directed by Val Guest, space exploration, curiosity about extraterrestrial life and horror blend in this story about a space mission survivor who returns to Earth after an alien-like creature mutates into his body. As his transformation accelerates, he becomes a growing threat to humanity.