Editorials
Stay Home, Watch Horror: 5 Body Horror Movies to Stream This Week
Of all the subgenres of horror, body horror tends to bring the most repulsive, cringe-worthy offerings. There’s something inherently terrifying about your own body turning against you, transforming it against your will into something grotesque and inhuman. Even when not afflicted by supernatural diseases and bizarre horrors, the human body is capable of doing some pretty disgusting things. There’s no end to the creative ways body horror violates, mutilates, and mutates basic biology, finding endless ways to test the gag reflex in the process. Body horror has also long provided fertile ground for groundbreaking filmmakers to explore the psychologically and physically disturbing ways human anatomy can be abused.
Whether you’re in the mood for macabre humor or squeamish frights, these five body horror movies put the emphasis on horror with abnormal growths, bodily fluids, and immense pain.
All are available to stream now.
The Brood – Criterion Channel, Kanopy
Typically, the first name associated with this subgenre tends to be David Cronenberg. So, it only seems fitting to include at least one of his many significant contributions to horror. While The Fly might be considered his crowning achievement, this week’s pick goes to his more personal film, The Brood. Parenthood gets monstrous when a group of demonic child-like beings terrorize a man and his young daughter. They’re connected to the man’s estranged wife, who is receiving a radical form of psychotherapy at a remote institute. The body horror takes a good while to present itself, but when it does, it’s nothing short of shocking. The disturbing imagery in the final act, complete with a riveting yet unhinged performance by Samantha Eggar, will sear itself into your skull forever.
Body Melt – Prime Video, Tubi
A subset of body horror is melt horror, a specific flavor of genre films where, expectedly, the flesh melts, oozes, and dissolves into goo. In other words, these types of films are best viewed on an empty stomach. Body Melt is an Australian horror-comedy that sees a community being used unknowingly as guinea pigs for a new dietary supplement. Too bad it causes rapid decomposition and excruciating death. It’s as over the top as it is goopy, and as zany as it is ultra-gory. If you love Peter Jackson’s early splatter works, then you’ll love this.
Clown – Vudu, Tubi, Pluto TV
Presenting a new angle in body horror, Clown sees a dad trying to compensate for a cancellation to his son’s birthday party by donning a clown suit he finds in the basement of a house he’s selling. Once the party is over, he finds the clown suit is fusing itself to his body. The more it takes over, the higher his drive to slaughter children. It’s a demonic possession turned slasher movie, by way of grotesque body horror. Scenes featuring attempts to remove the clown skin make for excellent, cringe-worthy horror. Look for Peter Stormare to steal scenes while delivering needed exposition on the mythos. Clown isn’t perfect, but it does entertain and eschew the typical body horror blueprint.
Starry Eyes – Prime Video, Tubi
Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer use body horror to showcase the darker side of Hollywood. Alex Essoe stars as Sarah, an aspiring actress desperate to land a breakout role and become a star. When presented with a rare, insidious opportunity to join the Hollywood elite, Sarah’s willing to do whatever it takes, including selling her soul. Starry Eyes bides its time until an explosive final act. Expect shocking violence and utterly revolting body horror as Sarah undergoes the most gruesome makeover. Ambition has never looked so ghastly.
Antiviral – Hulu
Brandon Cronenberg’s feature debut demonstrated that perhaps the apple doesn’t fall from the tree. Caleb Landry Jones stars as Syd, an employee at a company that acquires diseases and pathogens from celebrities and then, for a pretty penny, injects them into fans that long to connect with their coveted idols. Syd injects himself with an unknown pathogen from celebrity Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon) to incubate and sell on the black market but finds himself drawn into a deadly mystery instead. Surreal, twisted, and grisly, Antiviral explores the lust for fame with buckets of blood.
Editorials
‘The Vampire Lestat’ Concert Event Launches New Season With The Ultimate Expression Of Fandom
There are thousands of passionate fans decked out in gothic chic and champing at the bit like feral creatures. They’re screaming for Lestat, a legendary vampire-turned-rock star, as if the entire crowd has been glamored into submission.
The entire experience is magic, but not because some supernatural thrall has been activated. What’s going on is even more special. It’s the power of the effusive fandom that’s been authentically assembled by AMC’s sublime Immortal Universe, namely Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, now, The Vampire Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat is far from the first Anne Rice adaptation, and it’s not as if there’s been a lack of erotic vampire material for audiences to sink their teeth into. On June 2nd, during a one-night-only spectacle, New York City’s prestigious Beacon Theatre shook from Sam Reid’s bravado performance and an audience full of adoring fans who had already memorized Lestat’s songs.
It’s clear that The Vampire Lestat just hits differently than its predecessors. It’s become more than just a TV series at this point, and this opulent display of ego, swagger, and pure sex is the perfect way to premiere the new season and give back to the fans who helped make Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat such a breakout success. It’s exactly the sort of hyperbolized hedonism that would make Lestat cackle.
For all intents and purposes, AMC has successfully created the illusion that this concert/premiere is just one of the many destinations on Lestat and his band’s 54-stop tour that is simultaneously playing out on this season of television. It’s such a sophisticated and thorough level of interactive fan engagement that the audience doesn’t just understand, but also manages to accentuate through its involvement.
It’s a level of seamless synergy that’s not unlike the give-and-take relationship of vampire and victim.
Before the concert started, “LeStans” were sitting in the Beacon and flipping through a fake Rolling Stone issue with Lestat emblazoned on the cover, complete with interviews with the undead frontman inside. Other fans were admiring the vinyl pressing of Lestat’s EP as they walked past a section of undead band merch. Fandom and fantasy blur together, and it all becomes this elaborate, immersive experience. Fan celebration, erotic gothic fantasy, and a lavish rock concert transform into one beautiful thing.
To this point, AMC Global Media’s Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios, Dan McDermott, introduced the event by reiterating to fans, “You are the heartbeat of the series.” That’s abundantly clear on nights like this as that heartbeat collectively pulses to this performance. In terms of how AMC engages with The Vampire Lestat’s fans, it’s as bold a reinvention as the season itself.
This intuitive gamble speaks to AMC’s creativity in this department and a fandom that is eager to seize such opportunities. It’s the same innovation that led to zombie walks for The Walking Dead and real-life Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant pop-ups from Breaking Bad. It’s a great way to pump up the audience for The Vampire Lestat and then maintain that enthusiasm for the whole season.
For most series, a rock ‘n’ roll concert just doesn’t make any sense as a promotional tool. The Vampire Lestat finds itself in a very unique position where it can deliver an excellent concert at an iconic theater, but also use it to showcase The Vampire Lestat’s music by Daniel Hart (who was shredding on stage alongside Reid and the rest of their band) and, more than anything, Sam Reid’s endless charisma.
The way in which Reid feeds off of the crowd’s energy, modulating his performance and giving different sections of the Beacon life, is a perfect distillation of the series’ thoughtful relationship with its audience and how it’s become such a breakout success for AMC. AMC Studios President Dan McDermott emphasized that the fans are the reason that the show is still here and why an event like this is even possible. It’s rare to see a series in which every single cog in the machine is so perfectly attuned to its fans. Reid’s fans already cheer whenever they see him, so why not translate that to a concert setting?
It’s clear in this season of television that Reid was born to be a rock star, but it’s surreal to see him effortlessly command the stage — and the audience — at every step of the concert. He recites Shakespeare monologues and bitches out Armand between songs, all while the audience screams in support. For the duration of this concert, Reid is Lestat, and he’s given thousands of fans a memory that’s as immortal as any vampire.
Now bring on the encore and get this show on the road!
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