In an article for Writer’s Digest, editor Moriah Richard outlines the misconceptions around body horror in genre fiction and why it can be powerful for your story. “Body horror (good body horror) has much more meaning than just trying to gross your reader out,” she says. “It can be a symbol of societal breakdown, existential terrors, and even religion.”
Richard begins with a review of some body horror sub-genres:
- Invasion. “The basic tenant of invasion is that the threat is on the outside coming in,” Richard explains. Demonic or alien possession and diseases are popular themes in invasion body horror. Examples: Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, Stephanie Meyer’s The Host.
- Contagion. In contagion horror, society falls apart as the individual body breaks down. Zombie stories are the prime example. “Not only do you have the day-to-day fight to survive in a world where society has completely disintegrated, but you also have to worry about your allies hiding zombie bites because they’re too afraid of what will happen,” Richard says. Examples: How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, Max Brook’s World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Jose Saramago’s Blindness.
- Transformation. The horror of transformation arises when the body is turned into something else, such as via werewolf mythology. Examples: Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, the movie The Fly.
- Mutilation. “This subgenre of body horror is based on the idea that the body is sacred and some kind of force (external or internal) is working to desacralize it,” Richard explains. “Mutilation is also widely explored by feminist writing, as the erotic and horror are both about looking at hidden desires. In this way, mutilation body horror can either be negative or positive; it can be about the fear and reality of sexual abuse and trauma, but it can also be about taking back the body.” Examples: Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, the movie Teeth, The Vegetarian by Han Kang.
