Inside Film

Stomach-churning, creepy and surreal: David Cronenberg’s return to body horror

With Cronenberg’s latest film ‘Crimes of the Future’ about to screen in Cannes, Geoffrey Macnab looks at the director’s morbid fascination with body horror, and says it’s a real achievement if it provokes as much outrage as his bloodiest earlier works

Friday 29 April 2022 08:46 BST
Comments
<p>Poster artwork for David Cronenberg’s iconic body horror film ‘Scanners’ (1980)</p>

Poster artwork for David Cronenberg’s iconic body horror film ‘Scanners’ (1980)

It’s the most famous scene in Scanners (1981). A bespectacled, white-collar business executive (Louis Del Grande) sitting at the front of a lecture hall, grimaces and writhes. His fingers fidget in an ever more manic fashion. The audience looks on in grim fascination. Finally, his head explodes in a huge, orgasmic eruption of blood and gore.

In Videodrome (1983), a VHS tape begins to pullulate and throb. Max (James Woods) is asked to “open up” before the cassette is inserted into a horizontal slit in his stomach. When Max sticks his hand into his own entrails, the cassette has mysteriously changed into a gun. A voice in his head tells him: “Kill your partners.”

Then there’s Rabid (1977). Following a road accident, Rose (Marilyn Chambers) has radical plastic surgery, which results in a blood-sucking, phallic stinger sprouting from her armpit.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in