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m00707236 · 2 years ago

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Transhumanism in horror media: Part 1- Body Horror

Following the previous post I will be outlining how transhumanism is depicted in horror media. Transhumanism has become a prolific aspect within horror seen manifested in monster horror and body horror.

Body horror and monster horror are similar with many overlaps but their key distinction is that body horror is an inescapable change, a metamorphosis of the body that cannot be reverted or controlled that comes from within, whereas monster horror is an external threat, a separate being or entity.

Body Horror:

In Mutations and Metamorphoses: Body Horror is Biological Horror, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Body horror, Ronald Cruz describes the genera as a ‘trope that showcases often graphic violations of the human body, is also justifiably called biological horror’ that tackles evolution, mutation, hybrids and metamorphoses. Filmmaker David Cronenberg, considered a principal originator of body horror through his works ‘Shivers’(1975) and ‘Rabid’(1977) described the body horror in his work: ‘It's a fascination with the human body. But it's also a willingness to look at what's there without flinching, and to say: 'This is what we're made of, as disgusting as it might seem at times.' Because I'm really saying that the inside of the human body must have a completely different aesthetic. I could conceive of a beauty contest where people would unzip themselves and show you the best spleen and the best-looking viscera.’ Cronenberg holds a mirror to the audience, displaying the disturbing facets of the body, highlighting its flaws and weaknesses as it is unable to fight its transformations. When interviewed he was asked how his fascination with the human body has changed over his time working in film and he responded that ‘its probably changed with my body changing… I have hearing aids, I’ve just had cataract eye surgery so I’m now looking at you through plastic lenses instead of the original lenses in my eyes which I used to make all my films up to now... I am bionically enhanced… and it produces a different reality’ Cronenberg is acutely aware of the transhuman changes present within himself as well as his works, but unlike most body horror he takes a compellingly optimistic stance on bodily transformations, similar to the optimism of the transhumanists, saying ‘It’s like a diamond that has many facets. You’re looking into the same interior, but from different facets of the diamond, and you’re saying, what if we stopped fighting this? What if in fact, what’s happening is a good thing? It’s easy to see that it could be bad, but what if it’s actually good? Let’s just imagine that and spin a narrative where that’s actually the case. Let’s see where that leads us.’

(The different stages of Seth Brundle's gradual transformation, David Cronenberg, 1986, 'The Fly')

Body horror can range in its ruinous effects on the body, this can range from recognition of the horror of the body, to partial transformation, and finally to complete destruction of the original and familiar body. For instance in the movie ‘Teeth’(2007) the protagonist has no great transformation where her body becomes wholly unrecognisable, the ruin is the unearthing of knowledge about her body. In comparison the movie ‘An American Werewolf in London’(1981) has a transformation of the protagonist David that may be painful, however, it does not require his human form to be completely destroyed, he can exist between two worlds and two bodies. In some cases the destruction of the body is imperative to the transformation of the body and is necessary for something stronger to be created like in David Cronenberg’s film ‘The Fly’(1986), or ‘Tusk’(2014). In the movie ‘Tusk’ the protagonist is kidnapped by a mad mammal-obsessed scientist and his body cut and reshaped to be a walrus. By the film's end, the protagonist still exists but will forever be a human man-made walrus. Body horror, no matter where it sits on the spectrum of transformation, is ultimately about rebirth, whether for better or for worse, the subject is forced to exist in a new way, losing the body and often the self that they were so familiar with.

(Davids transformation into a werewolf, John Landis, 1981, 'An American Werewolf in London')

This perspective is captured by Nadine Smith in her essay talking about body horror and M. Night Shyamalan’s film ‘Old’(2021): ‘in ‘Old’, bones shatter and re-heal in record time, only to break again; tumours grow at a massive rate; and infections eat the human body in fast-motion. By condensing all the physical changes we undergo over the course of a lifetime into a few hours, Shyamalan shows how disturbing it is to feel your body becoming foreign to you… ‘Old’ is ultimately a film about an accelerated loss of autonomy’. Body horror makes the viewer acutely aware of their body and the changes it is constantly experiencing, though these may not be transformations like those depicted in the movies, they are still ‘flaws’ or challenges that people face because of existing in a human body, whether that be ageing, body dysphoria, pregnancy, menstruation, or disability. Body horror encompasses the horror of living in a body that will be faulty and someday expire expressed by award winning horror fiction writer Caitlin Starling, ‘Body horror is in some ways the easy option. It hurts. It disgusts, by definition. we all have bodies, and the entry fee of being embodied is the certainty- not the risk, the certainty- that eventually, something will go wrong with it. We will lose control of it, we will suffer indignities large and small, we will at some point (at multiple points) have to redefine what it is to be ourselves as our bodies change in ways we can’t predict. And even when our bodies are working “normally”, there are still little horrors that we’ve all learned to welcome: pregnancies, painful growth spurts, aging. That familiarity is what makes body horror such a visceral, overwhelming, powerful tool in storytelling.’ Both Smith and Starling highlight two key factors that create the fear in body horror, the loss of control and the familiar becoming foreign.

We all have bodies, so will all be able to relate to the characters depicted within body horror; Smith relates her views on body horror to her gender dysphoria and transitioning, saying that ‘Old’ ‘mirrors, however unintentionally, the experience many trans people have with their bodies.’, Starling relates body horror to her miscarriages ‘The pain was probably the easiest part to deal with. It was cathartic, and followed a narrative, and had an end point. The hardest part, by far, was the loss of control…You have, somewhere in you, a very personal understanding of what it’s like to be inside a body that both is and isn’t you. That is what you need to reach for, whether your body horror is mundane or magical, prosaic or operatic. You may have never experienced having your intestines rerouted into an impossible object, but you know what it is to be afraid, to not understand what’s happening to your body.’. And, finally, Cronenberg relates his experiences with body horror to his aging and transhuman enhancements as seen above. When related to transhuman changes related to technology he states ‘It’s sort of saying, okay, let’s say that this transformation of the human body that I believe, in fact, is happening because of technology, because of the internet, because of digital media and all of that—I think our nervous systems are adapting to that and are actually changing,” he explains “Therefore we are literally physically quite different from human beings 100 years ago, not to mention 2,000 years ago.” Body horror is scary because it is real, we are all transforming, in different ways, every day, and even though change may be an inherent human fear, it is inevitable.

Cruz Ronald Allan Lopez, (2012), Mutations and Metamorphoses: Body Horror is Biological Horror, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 40:4, 160-168, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01956051.2012.654521

Smith Nadine, (2021) How Body horror movies helped me process my gender dysphoria, Them, https://www.them.us/story/body-horror-gender-dysphoria-essay

Starling Caitlin,(2021), Why Body Horror is such an evocative tool in storytelling, Body Horror is powerful because it is personal, Crime Reads, https://crimereads.com/on-body-horror-ableism-and-miscarriage/

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catwhisker · 2 years ago

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click to read my abt me + this blog, my dni, and my stimboard requesting guidelines !

(this is a sideblog, i interact/follow from @foggybruise )

active requests: 1

About

hello ! this blog is run by one person , my name is Ori. im a 22 year old trans masc individual who uses he/they pronouns. i have autism, adhd, ocd, cptsd, and severe anxiety. i created this blog because stimboards help me a lot when i am overwhelmed, and i wanted a place to share the ones that i create for myself and potentially make them for others!

i interact and follow from @foggybruise . it is my main blog , and is an amalgamation of weirdcore/liminal spaces/dreamcore/traumacore and the like

all gifs i use will be credited with their source. please let me know if i incorrectly credit someone, i try my best but i sometimes struggle because others don't credit correctly.

my icon and header were both created by me!

Tag Guide

#my boards - boards i made !

#boards - boards i reblog from others !

#requests - stimboard ask requests that have been completed and are posted / queued for posting!

#denied - stimboard requests that have been denied

#file.txt - text posts i write

Requesting Rules and Guidelines:

-please do not send more than one request in one ask. i ask that you send multiple requests separately.

-please include the name and source of any character you are requesting

-feel free to be as specific or vague as you like! if you want / don't want certain types of stims in your board please let me know or i will choose what i feel fits best for your request.

-i have the right to deny any request with no explanation.

-please be patient. i am the only person running this blog, and i have real world responsibilities as well. you are free to send a follow up ask/pm if it's been a while since your request, but please note constant messaging may result in me denying your request.

media/subjects i will happily fufill!:

-webkinz

-littlest pet shop

-build a bear

-kidcore (and most other -core aesthetics!)

-the sims franchise

-pride flag boards

-animals

-art

-minecraft

-slime rancher

-among us

-roblox

-phineas and ferb

-disney children's movies

-adventure time

-food (note: i always tag any and all stimboards that include gifs of food with #tw food)

just because something is not listed above does not mean i will not do it. feel free to still send your request! However, if it is listed below, I will not do it.

media/subjects i will auto-deny due to personal reasons:

-Steven Universe

-World of Warcraft

-Real People*

-Horror

-Harry Potter

-Insects

*by this i mean celebrities/YouTubers/anything based in real life. For example, I will not do a board based on YouTuber JackSepticEye, or Actor Jeff Goldbloom, or about the Netflix Da*mer series. I would, however, do a board based on Seth Brundle, a character he played in the movie The Fly.

Do Not Interact If:

-you're blog is sexual or gross in nature. this includes but isn’t limited to d*lg, t*acher cr*sh, tr*e cr*me, etc.

-you are a terf/swerf, map, transmed, lgbtphobic, racist, etc. go be weird somewhere else.

-your blog is th1nspo/nsfw/k1nk, or you just generally do gross things

Not really part of my DNI, but I want to reiterate I am an adult (22). If you are a minor and this makes you uncomfortable, I have no hard feelings if you block me if I happen to interact with you.

#file.txt #stimboard requests #stimboard request guidelines #about me #about the blog #dni list

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phantomofthepairofdice · 4 years ago

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Double Features 2: Splatter, Splicer, Slander, Slasher

Considering the fact that we’re locked down and most folks aren’t going out much, why not settle in on a weekend with double feature. As part of a series of articles, I’ve decided to suggest some titles that would make for an interesting pair. It’s a time commitment like binging a few episodes of a TV show, and hopefully these double features are linked in interesting enough ways that it has a similar sense of cohesion. They also can be watched on separate occasions, but the lesser the distance between them, the more the similarities show. Do it however you want, really. I’m merely a guy on the internet, and that qualifies me for absolutely nothing! Enjoy at your own risk.

This template is back! I wanted to suggest a few more double features, but this time keep them in a specific genre: horror. I love horror movies, and I realized that I hadn’t really given them their due on this here blog, so I wanted to remedy that by showing a lot of love across a lot of different movies. I’ve put together some international movies, some classics, some that are silly, some that are serious, and even a bonus suggestion hidden in one of these blurbs. So without any more ramble in the preamble, here are four new suggested double features.

Note: The pairs are listed in the order I think best serves them being seen.

Hausu & Evil Dead II:

Hausu aka House (not to be confused with 1985 American horror film of the same name) has sort of transcended cult movie status to become a staple of off-center horror-comedy. Directed by recently deceased Nobuhiko Obayashi, the film shows his roots in advertisements with every shot designed for maximum effect, a (still) cutting edge approach in the edit, and a joyous, playful approach to special effects. It’s a gauzy and dreamy romp about a group of schoolgirls who head to the countryside on vacation. While staying at one of their aunts’ house, the supernatural hauntings begin, and heads start to roll (as well as bite people on the butt). It’s the type of movie where the main cast of characters are named Gorgeous, Kung Fu, Melody, Prof, Mac, Sweet, and Fantasy and they each have corresponding character traits. I was lucky enough to catch this at a rep screening at the Museum of Fine Arts a few years ago (further proof that this has gone beyond the cult curio status), and this is absolutely a movie that benefits from having a crowd cheer and laugh along - but it’s fairly easy to find and still has lots of pleasures to be enjoyed on solo watch. I’m pretty much willing to guarantee that if you enjoy it on first watch, you’ll want to share it with others. Now, where does one start when talking about Evil Dead II? Sam Raimi is rightfully as well known for his start in the hair-brained splatter genre fare as he is for his genre-defining Spider-man films. The influence of the Evil Dead movies is nearly unquantifiable, apparent in the work of directors like Edgar Wright, Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino, and the Korean New Wave filmmakers like Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook. There’s a reason that the second film of his Evil Dead odyssey is the one that people hold in highest esteem, though. There is an overwhelming gleeful creativity, anything goes, Looney Tunes approach to it that makes the blood geysers, laughing moose heads, and chainsaw hands extend beyond gore and shock into pleasure. It’s been noted over and over by critics and Raimi himself that the Three Stooges are probably the biggest influence on the film, and by golly, it shows. Evil Dead II and Hausu are pure in a way that few other movies can be. Both of these movies are an absolute delight of knowing camp, innovative special effects, and a general attitude of excitement from the filmmakers permeating through every frame. They’re a total blast and, in my mind, stand as the standard-bearers for horror-comedy and haunted house movies.

Total Runtime: 88 minutes + 84 minutes = 172 minutes aka 2 hours and 52 minutes

The Thing (1982) & The Fly (1986):

Feel free to roll your eyes as I explain the plots of two very famous movies. The Thing is John Carpenter’s body horror reimagining of Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World and the story that was adapted from, “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell Jr. The film is centered around a group of men in an arctic outpost who welcome in a cosmic force of shape-shifting annihilation. What ensues is a terrifically scary, nihilistic, paranoid attempt to find who isn’t who they say they are before everyone is replaced with the alien’s version of them. The film is a masterpiece of tone in no small part due to Dean Cundey’s photography and Ennio Morricone’s uncharacteristically restrained score. The real showstopper here, though, is the creature effects designed by Rob Bottin with an assist from Stan Winston – two titans of their industry. There may not be a more mind-blowing practical effects sequence in all of movies than Norris’ defibrillation – which I won’t dare spoil for anyone who hasn’t seen it. The story is so much about human nature and behaviors, that it’s good news that the cast is all top-notch – anchored by Kurt Russell, Keith David, and Wilford Brimley. While The Thing is shocking and certainly not for anyone opposed to viscera, David Cronenberg’s The Fly is the best example of a movie not to watch while eating. Quite frankly, it’s got some of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen on film. Chris Walas and Stephen Dupuis’ makeup effects are shocking, but the terror is amplified because this builds such a strong foundation of romance in its opening stretch between Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis in what might be their career-best work. The story is simple: a scientist creates a teleportation device that he tries out himself, but unknowingly does so with a fly in the chamber with him. When he reatomizes on the other end, his DNA has been integrated with the fly. Slowly his body begins to deteriorate, and he transforms into a human-fly hybrid. While this is first and foremost a science-fiction horror film, it’s truly one of the most potent love stories at its center. The tragedy is that the love, like the flesh, is mutated and disintegrated by the hubris of Goldblum’s Seth Brundle. Here are two remakes that – clutch your pearls – outdo the original. They both serve as great examples of what a great artist can bring by reinterpreting the source material to tell their version of that story. The critical respect for Carpenter and Cronenberg is undeniable now, but both of these movies make the case that there are real artists working with allegory and stunning craft in less respected genre fare. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to transpose the thematic weight of the then-new AIDS crisis onto both films, but they both have a hefty anti-authority streak running through them in a time where American Exceptionalism was at an all-time high. If you want to get a real roll going, fire up the ’78 Invasion of the Body Snatchers first to get a triple dose of auteur remakes that reflect the social anxieties of the time and chart from generalized anxiety to individualistic dread to romantic fatalism.

Total Runtime: 109 minutes + 96 minutes = 205 minutes aka 3 hours and 25 minutes

Theatre of Blood & The Abominable Dr. Phibes

That old Klingon proverb that Khan tells Kirk about revenge being a dish best served cold is challenged by these two Vincent Price tales of the macabre. They posit that revenge is best served in extremely convoluted and thematically appropriate predecessors to the Saw franchise. Where Saw trades in shock and extremity, though, these classic horror tales offer an air of panache and self-satisfied literacy. In Theatre of Blood, Price plays a disgraced and thought-dead stage actor who gets revenge on the critics who gave him negative reviews with Shakespeare-themed murder. There’s good fun in seeing how inventive the vengeful killings are (and in some cases how far the writers bend over backwards to explain and make sense of them). It’s a little rumpled and ragged in moments, but Price is, of course, a tremendous pleasure to see in action as he chews through the Shakespeare monologues. Imagine the Queen’s corgis with a chainsaw and you’re on track. Phibes came first and, frankly, is the better of the two. The story is about a musician who seeks to kill the doctors who he believes were responsible for his wife’s death during a botched surgery. The elaborate angle he takes here is to inflict the ten plagues from the Old Testament. I hesitate to use a word that will probably make me come across as an over-eager schmuck, but it really feels best described as phantasmagorical. It’s got this bright, art deco, pop art sensibility to it that’s intoxicating. It also has a terrifically dark sense of drollery - it knows that you can see the strings on the bat as it flies toward the camera. Aesthetically, it feels adjacent to the ’66 Batman show. The music is great and the indelible image of his tinker toy robot band, The Clockwork Wizards, is a personal obsession of mine. Both Theatre of Blood and The Abominable Dr. Phibes feature great supporting turns from Diana Rigg and Joseph Cotton, respectively. Settle in for a devilishly good time and enjoy one of cinema’s greatest vicarious pleasures: getting back at those of criticized or hurt you.

Total Runtime: 104 minutes + 94 minutes = 198 minutes aka 3 hours and 18 minutes

Blood and Black Lace & The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

The final pairing comes from beyond American borders and, to some, beyond the borders of good taste. Mario Bava and Dario Argento are likely the two biggest names in Italian horror, and that’s for very good reason. Bava, who started as a cinematographer, has made loads of movies (even the film which gave Ozzy Osbourne and crew the name their band name) that have tremendous visuals and terrific sense of mood. Argento, probably most famous now for Suspiria, emerged onto the Italian film scene a handful of years later and picked up that baton from Bava to crystallize the dreamy logic puzzles cloaked in hyper-saturated colors. These two films are regarded as quintessential in the giallo genre – named for the yellow covers of the pulp crime fictions that inspired them. As someone who loves the flair that can be applied to make a slasher film stand out amongst their formulaic brethren, I found that the giallo made for a smooth transition into international horror. Blood and Black Lace is a murder mystery that’s as tawdry and titillating as its title suggests. Set in an insular world of a fashion house in Rome, models are being murdered. The plot feels like a necessity in order to create a delivery system for the stunning set pieces that revolve around a secret diary. Bava puts sex right next to violence and cranks up the saturation to create something thrillingly lurid. Six years later, Argento made his first film which has often been credited for popularizing the giallo genre and already is playing around with some of his pet themes like voyeurism and reinterpretation. Built around an early set piece (that stacks up as one of the best in thrillers) in which a man is trapped but witnesses a murder, the film sees said man trying to find the piece of evidence that will make the traumatic killing make sense. Like Bava, it blends sex and violence with tons of flair, including a score by the aforementioned Ennio Morricone. The film is absolutely on a continuum between Hitchcock and De Palma. If you’re looking for a pair of exciting horror/thrillers, or even an entry point to foreign genre cinema, this is an accessible and enjoyable place to start.

88 minutes + 96 minutes = 184 minutes aka 3 hours and 4 minutes

Well, there you have it. Eight movies, and hours of entertainment curated by some guy with no real qualifications. If you’re interested in some more suggestions (in horror and other genres), stay tuned for the next entry in this Double Features series. And if you’re looking for a way to watch these movies, I highly recommend the app/website JustWatch where you can search a title and see where it’s available for streaming or rental. Happy viewing.

Thanks for reading.

#evil dead #evil dead 2 #hausu #hausu 1977 #the thing #the fly #theatre of blood #dr phibes #blood and black lace #bird with the crystal plumage #double feature

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luminousscammer · 4 years ago

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Hq boys as killers from slasher/horror movies <3

note: I just did the ones that I could find a direct relationship with the character or I could see the boys doing such things, also, take this as a horror movies recommendation lol

Bokuto Kōtarō ➜ Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th, 1980) Beefy boi who loves his mother and will do everything she says.

Tendō Satori ➜ Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 1974) Childhood trauma and a dysfuncional family made him lost his mind.

Yaku Morisuke ➜ Chucky (Child's Play, 1988) Small, evil and ready to kill.

Iwaizumi Hajime ➜ Ash Williams (Evil Dead, 1981) Not exactly a bad guy, but will definitely fight spirits and demons to save those who loves, even if it means having to replace his arm with a chainsaw.

Suna Rintarō and Atsumu Miya ➜ Ghostface (Scream, 1996) Partners in crime, killing and sowing terror for the laughs, just guy being dudes. (If u saw the movie u kno why I put two)

Aone Takanobu ➜ Michael Myers (Halloween, 1978) Another beefy boi, doesn't know how to open doors so he just goes right through them, will stare stalk you from the distance in silence, never speaks.

Kuroo Tetsurō ➜ Seth Brundle (The Fly, 1986) A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant fly after something goes wrong with an experiment. (This movie can be GROSS so watch it with caution)

Daichi Sawamura ➜ Maniac Cop (Maniac Cop, 1988) Nothing much to say here, just a dead cop killing random people because he can.

Goshiki Tsutomu ➜ The Boyfriend (Graduation Day, 1981) You killed my girlfriend and now I kill you. Very sweet of him if you ask me.

Shirabu Kenjirō ➜ The Surgeon (Hospital Massacre, 1981) You broke his heart, didn't like it, now he has to kill you. (Resentful mf)

Yamaguchi Tadashi ➜ Angela (Sleepaway Camp, 1983) An insane criminal wanders the rooms and showers of a strict summer camp. (I don't want to spoil it so much, just watch it)

Sakusa Kiyoomi ➜ Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984) Kills inside dreams so he doesn't get dirty, that's it.

Shigeru Yahaba ➜ Norman Bates (Psycho, 1960) A momma's boy with an Oedipus complex and a taxidermy collection is scary enough without the body count. (Everytime I look at him I see the word "MOMMY" idk)

Akaashi Keiji ➜ Jack Torrance (The Shinning, 1980) Your average writer. Accepts a job on a hotel in hopes of getting over his writer block. Not having any kind of inspiration, makes everything go downhill.

Kita Shinsuke ➜ Hannibal Lecter (Hannibal, 2001/Hannibal (tv series) 2013) more the series tbh WITHOUT THE CANNIBALISM okay. A cultured, refined man with exquisite manners and good behavior, as well as a lover of art, classical music and good cuisine. But what manifests in more private instances is a cynical, manipulative behavior with a certain tendency to punish with varying severity what he considers "bad manners." (Ngl, I'd let him manipulate me)

Kyōtani Kentaro ➜ Ben Willis AKA The Hook Killer (I Know What You Did Last Summer, 1997) Some teens killed him and left without saying anything? Bitch, you better bet he will hunt them down.

Hanamaki Takahiro ➜ Candyman (Candyman, 1992) The classic urban legend that has terrified kids. Metaphors for urban decay and civil unrest surround this unsettling story. (he probably be like "ay, u called, ready to die? 🤙🏻")

Daishō Suguru ➜ Pinhead (Hellraiser, 1987) Intelligent, and bone-chilling. A charismatic and eloquent leader with compassion for his men. After suffering a mental breakdown, however, he lost faith in the human race. He’s terrifying because he’s fully aware of what he’s doing. (There aren't many deaths in the movie, but the few there are are very bloody, so if gore is not your thing don't watch it)

Oikawa Tōru ➜ Patrick Bateman (American Psycho, 2000) A successful man obsessed with competition and perfection, who uses the most expensive men's cosmetics, gymnastic equipment, solarium and other aesthetic machinery to achieve an athletic and well-groomed body, a material identifier of social success.

Ushijima Wakatoshi ➜ Anton Chigurh (No Country For Old Men, 2007) I know is not a horror movie or a slasher, but it still pretty good Kills without compassion or remorse, but always with deliberation. He has his own set of morals, however twisted they may be. While he does not kill at random or without purpose, his reasons are at times abstract.

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