Coralie Fargeat’s critically adored The Substance, featuring commanding work by Demi Moore, has been making quite the splash since its release in September 2024. And for those who missed it in theaters and need to catch up before Oscars night, the often surprising and thought-provoking body horror film is now available to stream with a Mubi subscription. With a satirical edge and some seriously impressive practical effects, it’s a movie that evokes memories of the best members of its gruesome subgenre, immediately putting itself in the ranks of the very best alongside the works of David Cronenberg and John Carpenter.
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Another movie recently made available to rent, Wolf Man, is also very much a body horror movie, proving itself to be far more focused on the transformation of the “Man” in the title than it is the “Wolf.” Not to mention, there are always the classics, like the late David Lynch’s Eraserhead, Cronenberg’s Videodrome and The Fly, or Carpenter’s The Thing.
Black Swan
Like The Substance, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is one of the very few body horror movies to get any sort of Oscar consideration. And deservedly so, as it’s a thoughtful, memorable viewing experience propelled by A-plus work from Natalie Portman.
Portman essentially plays two characters. The first is Nina Sayers, a ballerina with an insurmountable drive to play the title character in Swan Lake. The second is who, or what, she becomes after landing the part. She’ll get her chance, but in the process, she may not only break her body, but lose her soul, as well.
Stream Black Swan on Max.
Color Out of Space
Color Out of Space was Richard Stanley’s first film in over 20 years after the disastrous (but, honestly, kind of fun) The Island of Dr. Moreau. This time, he’s able to bring his full off-kilter sensibilities to the project, resulting in a perfect merger of his vision and the works of H. P. Lovecraft. In fact, Color Out of Space ranks right up there with Re-Animator as one of the very best adaptations of Lovecraft’s bibliography.
Color Out of Space follows Nicolas Cage’s Nathan Gardner as he moves his family to his recently deceased father’s farm. When a meteorite lands in their yard, then disappears, he and his family are exposed to its bizarre effects on the local terrain. By film’s end, every member of the family is seeing bizarre, illuminous things and the matriarch has been warped beyond recognizability.
Stream Color Out of Space on AMC+.
Overlord
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One part war film, one part John Carpenter reference, one part mystery, and one part body horror, Overlord checks a lot of boxes and manages to check them well. As for the Carpenter reference element, Overlord may very well be the ultimate companion piece to his perfect film, The Thing. For one, it tries to get close in terms of stylistic flourishes such as visuals and musical cues, and not to mention one of the leads is Kurt Russell’s son, Thunderbolts star Wyatt Rusell.
This oddball WWII flick follows a whittled down platoon of American soldiers dropped behind enemy lines just before D-Day. But it turns out there were greater threats during this take on the war than Normandy, as the few soldiers come across a group of Nazi soldiers conducting horrific, body-warping experiments. And, once a Nazi has taken the serum at the film’s core, it takes a lot more than a few bullets to put them down for good.
Stream Overlord for free with ads on Pluto TV.
Planet Terror
The best part of Grindhouse may have been the fake trailers (which then became the very real Thanksgiving and Machete), but the two main midnight movies weren’t half bad. One might expect that, between one movie directed by Quentin Tarantino and one directed by Robert Rodriguez, the one by Tarantino would be the winner, but that’s not the case.
Whereas Tarantino’s Death Proof is languid (though bolstered by a great Kurt Russell antagonistic performance), Rodriguez’s Planet Terror is a nasty good time from front to back. This zombie tale features a game Rose McGowan as Cherry Darling, an exotic dancer whose leg gets torn off and replaced with a machine gun. Naturally, she uses her new, Ash from Evil Dead-like appendage to get to the bottom of this zombified conspiracy.
Stream Planet Terror on STARZ.
Possessor
Brilliantly acted and visually stunning, Brandon Cronenberg, the son of body horror master David Cronenberg, doesn’t disappoint with Possessor. Starring Oblivion‘s Andrea Riseborough, Wolf Man‘s Christopher Abbott, and Game of Thrones‘ Sean Bean, it’s an unsettling merger of the psychological horror film and the body horror film, with an impact perpetually propped up by a smart script from director Cronenberg.
Riseborough takes center stage as assassin Tasya Vos, who accomplishes her missions by taking control of other people’s bodies to get closer to her intended target. But this process has started to take a toll on her mind, with thoughts of extreme violence interrupting her family life. Soon, it affects her work life too, as the next time she tries to inhabit a body (the fiancé of one of her targets), the two become merged for far longer than usual, resulting in disaster for Vos’ family.
Rent Possessor on Prime Video.
Raw
Naturally, no body horror movie is for the faint of heart, but Raw is really not for the faint of heart. Mixing the coming-of-age drama with grotesque body horror, it’s a highly unusual film that packs a serious punch.
The story follows a vegetarian who begins veterinary school. There, she gets her first taste of meat, which doesn’t so much lead to her wanting to go from chicken to lamb so much as she wants to go from chicken to human torso. And she does. And it’s gross. Worse yet, that carnivorous inclination gets tied in with her budding sexuality, which leads to some pretty terrible nights for the boys in her orbit.
Rent Raw on Prime Video.
The Skin I Live In
Accurately described by genius director Pedro Almodóvar as “a horror story without screams or frights,” The Skin I Live In packs a devastating punch that’s unshakeable from the memory. Antonio Banderas plays well against type as Robert Ledgard, a plastic surgeon who has been working on a burn-resistant artificial skin. His research is discontinued when he lets it slip that he’s been conducting experiments on humans, not just mice.
Ledgard is also keeping a young woman named Vera captive. As it turns out, Vera is at least one of the individuals whom he’s tested his skin on. But Vera’s true identity is best left fully unexplained for prospective first-time viewers.
Rent The Skin I Live In on Prime Video.
Slither
An early fan favorite from DCU co-head James Gunn, Slither is a blast of a slimy midnight movie. As far as directorial debuts go, Slither is one of the aughts’ most impressive, with Gunn already proving himself to be a knowledgeable figure when it comes to blending genres in a way that doesn’t alienate prospective viewers. And, for those hoping to see some of his favorite cast members, fret not, because Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry, and Michael Rooker are all here.
Banks and Rooker are put to particular good use as a couple driven apart by an extraterrestrial meteorite and the parasite on board. After the meteorite crash lands in a remote town, it comes down to the police chief (Fillion) to find out just why a bunch of slugs have turned the townsfolk into nasty zombies, and it’s up to Banks’ Starla Grant to try and save her husband’s soul even if his body has been absolutely ravaged by the parasite.
Rent Slither on Prime Video.
Teeth
It takes guts for a movie to cover the old vagina dentata (vagina with teeth) folklore. The movie has to strike a certain tonal balance for it to work at all. Fortunately, the comedy horror Teeth is just that film, never taking itself too seriously while simultaneously never getting too silly.
The narrative follows Jess Weixler’s Dawn, a proud virgin who meets the boy she’s willing to give herself too. But, when she does, she learns that the old vagina dentata myth is far less a myth and far more a reality. Her reality.
Stream Teeth for free with an Amazon Prime subscription.
Upgrade
One of the best and most underappreciated horror movies of 2018, Upgrade is a terrific showcase for director Leigh Whannell’s talents. The future director of Universal Monsters reboots The Invisible Man and Wolf Man creates here what can best be described as cyberpunk meets John Wick meets body horror, and the results never lose audience interest.
The action-horror film follows Prometheus star Logan Marshall-Green as Grey Trace, a man living in the tech-run world of 2046 who nonetheless has an aversion to the very thing that keeps the world around him going. After he’s mugged and paralyzed, Trace gets a chip implanted in him that not only allows him the ability to walk again but goes so far as to give him superhuman strength. But that comes at a physical cost, just not one as high as what he imposes on the men who put him in this position to begin with.
Stream Upgrade on Netflix.
