20th Century Studios

Body horror appears to be back in a big and eye-wateringly painful way. Demi Moore's star vehicle, "The Substance," got plenty of awards attention in 2025, and the latest trailer for "Clayface" proves that even comic book movies are willing to get gross with human anatomy. When looking through these contorting, skin-morphing movies, there's one film that so many body horror entries have since drawn their DNA from, and a classic that, besides defying the laws of science, broke the rules that general movie fandom can't abide seeing broken.

After turning heads (and blowing them up) with the likes of "Videodrome" and "Scanners," director David Cronenberg was proving to be a name in the horror world worth keeping an eye on.…