Body horror

subgenre of horror that showcases graphic or psychologically disturbing violations of the human body

Body horror is a subgenre of horror. This genre shows disturbing changes to the human body, like disease, decay, destruction, and mutation. The genre originates in gothic literature, especially novel Frankenstein by English writer Mary Shelley.

Famous representatives of this genre are movies of David Cronenberg (The Fly, Scanners, Shivers, Rabid, Videodrome), Saw, The Thing, Braindead, the Alien movie series, many Japanese horror movies (Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Ichi the Killer) and so on.