The best body horror movies
The top 3 according to 1,528 votes from people: The Fly (1986) · The Thing (1982) · The Substance (2024). (Updated Oct 6, 2025.)
Mutations, transformations and flesh that won't behave: the body horror films that keep topping the rankings, from Cronenberg's The Fly to The Substance, according to CBR, Collider and Creepy Catalog.
Top 12
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1
The Fly (1986)
David Cronenberg: Jeff Goldblum's scientist slowly becomes something else.
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2
The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter: an Antarctic base and a creature that can imitate anyone.
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3
The Substance (2024)
Coralie Fargeat: Demi Moore tries a black-market drug that creates a younger self.
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4
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
John Landis and Rick Baker's landmark werewolf transformation.
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5
Videodrome (1983)
Cronenberg again: James Woods and a TV signal that rewrites the body.
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6
Titane (2021)
Julia Ducournau's Palme d'Or winner about a woman, a car and a strange pregnancy.
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7
Eraserhead (1977)
David Lynch's industrial nightmare about a man and his malformed baby.
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8
Re-Animator (1985)
Stuart Gordon's gory H. P. Lovecraft adaptation about bringing the dead back.
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9
Under the Skin (2013)
Jonathan Glazer: Scarlett Johansson as an alien luring men in Scotland.
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10
Slither (2006)
James Gunn's slimy, funny alien-parasite invasion of a small town.
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11
Tusk (2014)
Kevin Smith's tale of a podcaster turned into a walrus.
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12
Dead Ringers (1988)
Jeremy Irons plays twin gynaecologists sliding into madness.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 12… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
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13
The Brood (1979)
Early Cronenberg: rage therapy that takes a monstrous physical form.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
Is something missing?
Comments (5)
The Fly deserves the top spot. Goldblum's slow decline is more upsetting than any gore
Saw The Substance in a packed theater and people were groaning out loud at the end
The Brood is so underrated. Early Cronenberg was wild
Under the Skin isn't really body horror to me, more like slow alien art film. Still great though
Where is Possessor? Brandon Cronenberg is carrying the family business