This thesis explores the body horror subgenre of film, its creation and rise in popularity during the late twentieth century (1975-1995), and how the subgenre’s grotesque and unsettling examination of the human body, its form, and reproductive processes, allowed body horror filmmakers to tackle societal taboos regarding the human body and one’s sexuality. By comparing and contrasting the body horror subgenre with both its contemporary the slasher subgenre and its thematic sexual origins within Victorian Gothic fin de siècle horror fiction, this thesis will provide evidence that the subgenre makes significant strides within the horror genre to push a more progressive narrative and representation of men, women, and the LQBTQ+ community, through its deconstruction of the human body/form, sexuality, and reproductive processes. Through a detailed breakdown and analysis of Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975) and The Fly (1986), Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (1987) and Nightbreed: The Director’s Cut (2014), and Roger Donaldson’s Species (1995), this thesis will demonstrate how filmmaking techniques, themes, and narratives of these films, deconstruct previous notions of the human body and sexuality within the horror genre, and encourage audiences to re-evaluate the body, and the roles/positions/pressures society has created around sexuality and perceived sexual taboos and fears.
