Alison Foreman 
19 Skin-Crawling Body Horror Movies For and About Women
At the controversial intersection of graphic violence in pop culture and women’s liberation in politics, you’ll find the taboo and too often overlooked subgenre of feminist body horror.
These extreme scary movies wield over-the-top gore and violence like exacting scalpels, peeling away society’s thick skin of deference and niceties (you know, the surface-level subjections too many men regard as pre-requisites for women deserving safety and respect?) to reveal an insidious underbelly of gendered violence, gendered shame, gendered betrayal, gendered hell.
As with other body horror films, these themes can play out on the flesh of the hero, villain, or both. What sets them apart is not who wins and who dies, who suffers and who laughs, who has a penis and who doesn’t, but the emotional and sociopolitical motivations behind the filmmakers’ decision to shock — and even brutalize — their audiences with violent story pieces applied to specific characters. From puberty, sex, assault, and rape to conception, abortion, birth, and motherhood, literal arenas of femininity and womanhood can be used as narrative vaults to consider abstract concepts of cyclical oppression, exploitation, and bias that many women and gender nonconforming people face.
Though a sizable number of entries in this niche category of nightmares are helmed by men (David Cronenberg, his son Brandon Cronenberg, Darren Aronofsky, and Alex Garland make their predictable appearances on the list to come), “Raw” and “Titane” writer-director Julia Ducournau is the category’s reigning scream queen, having won the Palme d’Or for the latter at 2021’s Cannes Film Festival. Ducournau’s films apply a frenetic energy to fear that exquisitely explores sexualized and gendered trauma, while triumphantly pushing feminine characters toward the raging, lustful limits too often reserved for the masculine and villainous.
Alice Lowe, Marina de Van, and Mimi Cave, as well as Jen and Sylvia Soska and more, join Ducournau in this collection of 19 thought-provoking body horror films for and about women. It should go without saying, but proceed with caution: the following titles run through a wide range of sensitive subjects with varying degrees of consideration for audience comfort.
This article was published as part of IndieWire’s Seven Days of Scream Queens. Visit the series’ schedule for more.
Related News & Content
-
Use wp.media templates to create totally custom modal
Use wp.media templates to create totally custom modal,Following up on this answer I'm trying to determine how to create a modal with completely unique menu items/content than the media modal. If you add a new state you can add a new menu tab and hav... -
Get post by tag
Get post by tag,I want to get several post by tag. So I try to use get_posts() function: <?php $args = array( 'numberposts' => '3', 'post_status' => 'publish', 'tag' => 'travel' ); $ -
Elementor + ACF: How to insert dynamic JSON-LD formatted code into ACF field without sanitizing the script tag?
Elementor + ACF: How to insert dynamic JSON-LD formatted code into ACF field without sanitizing the script tag?,On a normal website, I am able to add JSON-LD structured data, such as below, into a Elementor HTML widget, in a proper way. However, as soon as I insert JSON-LD format into an ACF field (Textarea)... -
Gutenberg InnerBlocks noallowedblocks on parent but allowedblock on Child
Gutenberg InnerBlocks noallowedblocks on parent but allowedblock on Child,This is a continuation of the following post: Custom Gutenberg block with nested InnerBlocks renderAppender not displaying add button I solved one problem but created a different problem. I'm recr... -
Delay Issue: Using Wget with JSON Endpoint – Need Help Understanding Headers
Delay Issue: Using Wget with JSON Endpoint – Need Help Understanding Headers,On a WooCommerce website, I have a REST endpoint created with register_rest_route that returns a JSON response. To perform a routine with a certain frequency and urgency, I have added this instruct... -
How do I change top header background color
How do I change top header background color,Please refer to website: https://virginiafrank.com I cannot get the top header background color (or phone numbers) to change color. I would prefer the background gold and text black. I can't make t... -
How to display the_tags() as plain text
How to display the_tags() as plain text,the_tags by default is displaying as URL. I need to display it as plain text to insert inside HTML attribute. <?php $tag = the_tags(''); ?> <div class="image-portfolio" data-section... -
Give to site admin the option to "skip confirmation email" when adding new user
Give to site admin the option to "skip confirmation email" when adding new user,in wordpress multisite when we give to site admin the option to add new users, site admin dont have the "checkbox" to add the new user without sending the user email with link activation (see the -
Facing Hamas and Tehran, Israel is left with only vengeful madness | Opinion
Facing Hamas and Tehran, Israel is left with only vengeful madness | Opinion,Despite the Terrible Disaster on October 7, and the Failures It Exposed, Israel Is Still Convinced That the Image of the Mad Man Will Ensure Its Security -
Carol Kirkwood stuns in figure-hugging dress amid BBC Breakfast technical chaos
Carol Kirkwood stuns in figure-hugging dress amid BBC Breakfast technical chaos,CAROL Kirkwood stunned in a figure-hugging dress amid a technical blunder. BBC Breakfast was flung into chaos this morning after a string of sound issues. However Carol, 61, was all smiles as she p… -
Families ‘to sue prison’ where loud inmates ‘terrorise kids’ with screaming
Families 'to sue prison' where loud inmates 'terrorise kids' with screaming,Residents living next door to a new prison who say their kids have to sleep wearing headphones and some leave during weekends due to the racket are threatening to sue the prison service -
Doctor Strange’s Secret Wars Role May Be More Important Than You Thought – Looper
Doctor Strange's Secret Wars Role May Be More Important Than You Thought - Looper,According to entertainment leaker Alex Perez, Doctor Strange will find himself confronting his inner struggles as he headlines "Avengers: Secret Wars." -
Are Katie Maloney and Tori Keeth Officially Dating?
Are Katie Maloney and Tori Keeth Officially Dating?,Is Vanderpump Rules star Katie Maloney officially dating Scheana Shay's "nanny" Tori Keeth after her tryst with Tom Schwartz? -
Blondshell and Bully Team Up For New Single “Docket”
Blondshell and Bully Team Up For New Single “Docket”,Blondshell has teamed up with Alicia Bognanno of Bully for the newly released single "Docket." Listen to the track here. -
‘What Jennifer Did’: Netflix doc explores shocking Ont. murder-for-hire case
'What Jennifer Did': Netflix doc explores shocking Ont. murder-for-hire case,Most of Jennifer Pan's entire life was made up of lies. When her parents began to catch on, she decided to bring in hired hitmen. -
What’s behind the lack of enthusiasm for this year’s music festivals?
What's behind the lack of enthusiasm for this year's music festivals?,The public sentiment about this year's crop of music festivals is an overwhelming "meh." There are good reasons for this. -
I rejected measly Dragons’ Den offer because it ‘wasn’t true to my strategy’ – now I’m turning over 50x MORE
I rejected measly Dragons’ Den offer because it ‘wasn’t true to my strategy’ – now I’m turning over 50x MORE,A WOMAN who turned down a miserly amount on the hit TV show Dragon’s Den is now earning 50 times more. Peony Li appeared on BBC One’s Dragons’ Den tonight after pitching her healt… -
Marcus Rashford to STAY at Man Utd as PSG show no interest whatsoever in pushing through transfer to Paris
Marcus Rashford to STAY at Man Utd as PSG show no interest whatsoever in pushing through transfer to Paris,MARCUS RASHFORD’S future is at Old Trafford — after Paris Saint- Germain made it clear they have NO interest in signing he struggling frontman. Rashford, 26, has been linked with a PSG move as a re…
Warning: file_get_contents(https://www.scienceradars.com/wp-output-content.php?pg=1&cat=&kw=&lvl=): Failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 526 in /home/wwwroot/xuenou.com/wp-content/themes/chromenews/template-parts/content.php on line 169
Warning: file_get_contents(https://www.bayuexiang.com/wp-output-content.php?pg=1&cat=&kw=&lvl=): Failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 526 in /home/wwwroot/xuenou.com/wp-content/themes/chromenews/template-parts/content.php on line 173
Chilling moment Iran’s Revolutionary Guards scale down helicopter & seize Israeli-linked ship as IDF vows ‘consequences’
World’s BIGGEST Wetherspoons has secret weapon that gives it an edge, say punters at pub with room for hundreds
Dan Burn sends incredible message to deaf fans DURING goal celebration as Newcastle ace labelled ‘more than a player’
Inside Bayer Leverkusen’s wild dressing room party with Xabi Alonso drenched in beer THREE TIMES as Bayern reign ends
