[Editorial] Top 15 Female-Focused Body Horror Films

TW: Mentions of sexual assault

Whether it's the havoc wreaked on the human body during pregnancy, emotional turmoil producing tiny murderous humans or simply a body turning on its owner, body horror films tend to be shocking. But while they're full of grotesque imagery, they're also full of thoughtful premises and commentary, especially when it comes to women, trauma, and power.

Swallow (2019)

Carlo Mirabella-Davis's quietly effective thriller Swallow shines a light into the life of a pregnant woman who develops pica, an eating disorder where people chew or swallow non-food objects. Haley Bennett stars as Hunter, who is trapped in a stifling marriage and appears to have little control over her own life (or body); she seems detached, moving through a life she never wanted. Her attempt to maintain power over her body is unorthodox; she swallows objects (including batteries and mini screwdrivers) until she winds up in the hospital. The extent to which she is damaging her own body is difficult to watch, but Bennett's subtly powerful performance (for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019) and reclamation of her own right to choose makes it impossible for anyone to look away.

American Mary (2012)

Written and directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska (a.k.a., The Twisted Twins), American Mary stars indie horror darling Katharine Isabelle as a medical student who begins performing extreme body modification on others to make money, earning her the nickname Bloody Mary. (Instead of relying on makeup or special effects, this film stars many real-life members of the body mod community.) After being assaulted by one of her teachers, Mary begins using him as a practice dummy for her body modification surgeries, slowly removing pieces of his body and seeing how much change a body can take.

Inside (2007)

A classic of New French Extremity horror, Inside (À l'intérieur) is a nauseatingly blood-drenched movie from directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo. Alysson Paradis stars as a pregnant widow spending Christmas Eve alone, when a visit from a stranger (played by an especially terrifying Béatrice Dalle) turns into a fight for her life – and the life of her baby. The pregnant body is a theme in many body horror films, but it is doubtful many pregnant bodies in the genre go through as much torture as Paradis's character here. As she is attacked again and again, the film switches to shots of her womb. Viewers are forced to watch the suffering of the fetus as well, making Inside a movie that no one can forget.

Excision (2012)

AnnaLynne McCord is excellent in her starring role as Pauline in Richard Bates, Jr.'s film Excision. Pauline, a teenager with a tenuous grasp on reality and a disturbing attraction to body mutilation, dreams about blood, is fascinated by her own blood and eventually causes quite a few people to bleed alarming amounts of blood. Her desire to operate and be inside others' bodies and her need to help her sister with cystic fibrosis collide in a disturbing climax.

Ginger Snaps (2000)

The cult classic Canadian horror movie Ginger Snaps (directed by John Fawcett and written by Karen Walton) follows a teen girl as she sharply drops into an unenviable puberty after being bitten by a werewolf. It often feels like one's body turns against them during adolescence, but for Ginger (Katharine Isabelle), it's taken to the extreme as her body mutates bit by bit. From her especially gruesome first period to her attempt to slice off her nubby tail, Ginger's harrowing transformation is stomach-churning and heartbreaking.

Contracted (2013)

Contracted (written and directed by Eric England) portrays the downward spiral of a woman (played by Najarra Townsend) who is raped, then begins to experience not just the PTSD that goes along with assault but several disturbing bodily side effects. After this violation, her body starts to waste away: her eyes become bloodshot, her skin looks as if it's rotting off her face, she begins vomiting blood, and most alarmingly, her body becomes infested with maggots. Contracted goes to extreme lengths to map on to the body the psychological effects of sexual trauma.

The Brood (1979)

David Cronenberg is the undisputed father of body horror, and The Brood is one of his most notorious films. A therapist who uses "psychoplasmics" to help his patients realize that the psychological suffering they are experiencing manifests as physical pain and unusual deformities. This takes the idea of mental or emotional pain leading to physical symptoms to the extreme. The climax of The Brood is one of the most memorable moments in body horror as a woman's rage and agony physically manifest in a multitude of dangerous entities.

The Perfection (2018)

The queer body horror movie The Perfection stars Allison Williams and Logan Browning as two celloists who move back and forth between lovers and enemies. After meeting and connecting quickly, a drug-fueled bus ride ends in chaos and dismemberment. The body horror in this film isn't just done for shock value – there is meaning behind the body parts the two women lose, and a surprising history behind why they lose them. The film maintains a stunning tension, right up until the unsettling but surprisingly beautiful finale.

Possession (1981)

Andrzej Żuławski's revered film Possession stars Isabelle Adjani as a woman who undergoes a mysterious change, leading her to abruptly divorce her husband, played by Sam Neill. Adjani is incredible in her role as a woman who seems possessed, her body literally writhing out of her control. The most disturbing (and most well-known) scene portrays her having a miscarriage in a subway station. She screams as she throws her body against the wall and to the floor, with mysterious fluids and blood pouring from every orifice. The bodily and psychic pain she suffers practically bursts out of the screen, due to the intensity of Adjani's performance, which won her Best Actress Awards at Cannes Film Festival, Fantasporto and the César Awards.

Teeth (2007)

In Mitchell Lichtenstein's body horror/horror comedy film Teeth, Jess Weixler stars as a naïve girl who is shocked to realize her vagina contains teeth (a.k.a., vagina dentata). This can be a blessing, as it protects her from multiple sexual assaults. On the flip side, it quickly turns her into an accidental murderer. Unlike many other body horror films, the mystery lurking inside her body is what ultimately gives her back her power and allows her to defend herself in a world hostile to women.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

A woman's dead body is at the center of André Øvredal's tense thriller The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Father and son coroners must perform an autopsy on a mysterious woman (played by Olwen Kelly). Her body has a disturbing amount of internal trauma: her tongue has been cut out, her bones have been smashed, and they find poisonous jimsonweed in her stomach. The coroners search for answers about her death by furthering their exploration. This invasion leads to the discovery of even more heartbreaking abuse in Jane Doe's body.

Raw (2016)

Julia Ducournau's French-Belgian film Raw tells the bloody coming-of-age story of Justine (Garance Marillier), a young woman attending veterinary school. A life-long vegetarian, Justine's entire life changes when she is forced to eat meat as part of a cruel hazing ritual at the school. Her body initially rebels against the unfamiliar flesh she consumes, but soon, she is obsessed with meat – and her obsession is paired with her sexual awakening. In one of the most unsettling scenes, Justine's cringe-inducing botched bikini wax leads to a moment of sisterly cannibalism. Bit by bit, Raw pulls back the curtain on what bodies crave and how teen girls want to take control over their lives.

Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022)

Huesera: The Bone Woman, the directorial debut of Michelle Garza Cervera, examines a woman's bleak experience with pregnancy. Although Valeria (Natalia Solián), a furniture maker living and working in Mexico City, is initially happy to become pregnant, dread soon overcomes any feelings of excitement she has about being a mother. Just as Valeria is trapped in her pregnant body, she is trapped in a larger sense in a heteronormative life she isn't sure she wants. (In flashbacks, we see her with a girlfriend, living a less traditional and more liberated life.) She is beset by visions of bodies in pain, with the cracks of the bones a painful but necessary part of the soundtrack; the title of the film refers to a Mexican myth about a woman who collects animal bones.

Crimes of the Future (2022)

"Surgery is the new sex" is one of most quotable lines from David Cronenberg's Crimes of the Future. And it's true – in the movie, sex has been replaced by the thrill people feel when cut (or when cutting). Surgery has also become art, and two performance artists (played by Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux) have found a way to take advantage of a body that spontaneously creates new and usual organs: tattooing and removing these excess organs in public (giving new meaning to the phrase "operating theater'). The limits of what a physical body can withstand are stretched beyond imagination in Crimes of the Future, and the squeamish scenes of ultra-modern sex and art explore the lengths people will go to for new experiences of pleasure.

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