"Body horror movies focus on depicting the physical body as ruined, contaminated, deformed, or infected. There's a fascination with showing the breakdown of the body, its transformation into something else—something other, something inhuman. To be clear, not every film that features themes of bodily violence counts as a body horror movie. The genre specifically emphasizes the human body as emblematic of something greater. Often, there are allegories at work and there are deeper meanings beneath the surface vileness. Indeed, meaningfully grotesque disfiguration is the name of the game. As such, slasher films that showcase the violent hacking of body parts typically don't count as body horror. Similarly, fantastic allegorical horror films about the abduction of the body aren't exactly body horror because they don't feature corruption of the body as a symbolic focus. With the term now defined, here are our picks for the best body horror movies of all time." - whatnerd.com
