Neurohumanities of Horror by Mattia Rosso & Charlie Palmer.
What is Body Horror?
Body Horror is an artistic genre encompassing many art forms over decades. It is a treatise on the meaning and complexities of possessing a body. As such, it is of central interest for neurohumanities, a study of the significance and meaning of existing as a being with a brain.
One of the most notable periods for body horror was the 1980s, as exemplified by the films of David Cronenberg, Clive Barker, Brian Yuzna, and John Carpenter. Common traits of 80s Body Horror are (i) dedication to practical effects used to show body deformations, transformations, and alterations; (ii) a grounded story with realistic and believable humans; and (iii) subject matter focusing on anxieties surrounding body ownership, instances when the body becomes independent and disengaged from the mind, such as during malady, and the effect of new technologies on the mind-body problem. In contrast to horror movies of the 1950s which played on Cold War fears of defending against outside invaders, the body horror films of the 80s focus on invasion and corruption coming from within.
Taking a closer look at specific examples:
Specimen 1: The Thing
John Carpenter’s "The Thing," set in the desolate Antarctic in 1982, follows a group of researchers who discover a buried alien spacecraft and its occupant, an extraterrestrial creature capable of imitating any living being it touches. As the team unwittingly brings the creature back to their research facility, it escapes, triggering a deadly game of paranoia and suspicion. The shape-shifting alien infiltrates the group, sowing discord and fear as it assimilates its victims. Amidst the snow-blanketed isolation, the researchers must uncover the alien's disguise to survive, leading to a tense battle where trust is shattered, and no one is who they seem!!
The body horror of “The Thing” focuses on a malevolent force taking over a body and in its fulminant stages grotesquely transforming it until, while it still resembles the initial person inhabiting it, it clearly has changed and now more resembles the disease. This force is unknowable and resilient, taking many forms- akin to autoimmunity, infection, or malignancy. It is a very familiar sight in the hospital- patients with uncontrolled diabetes with blindness, limb amputations, numerous pressure ulcers, and severe neuropathy; patients with large strokes, dragging half of their body, incontinent, with drooping face and at times uncontrollable shaking due to clonus; heart failure patients with anasarca, multiple lines coming from their body, and flooded lungs. These patients often barely resemble the vibrant person they started as their own personal “Thing” took over their life.
In the movie, the Thing transmits itself through physical touch and saliva; when there is suspicion that one has contracted it, they isolate the person, boarding them up where they cannot have contact and continue to cause spread. How alike to C. difficile infections- or tuberculosis- or especially at the beginning of the pandemic, Covid-19? Like the Thing, all can cause uncontrollable spread with difficult or impossible cures and potentially fatalities. The Thing is also described as an ancient entity, a clear “other” compared to one’s own body, which throughout the movie is predominantly purged by fire, evoking more historical comparisons to disease.
Carpenter teaches us a lesson on loss of agency. The horrors experienced by the characters in the film reminds us of the same loss of agency in patients with functional neurologic disease (FND). For patients with FND, the body seems to pathologically attain a level of freedom from the brain that arises as tremors, globus, and weakness. The often-syndromic constellation of symptoms can be thought of as the mind awakening to the often-hidden nature of our organs. Carpenter’s practical effects serve as a masterclass in what happens when the viscera become “un-hidden” and enter our awareness, with a visceral disgust and discomfort projected onto the viewer.
Specimen 2: The Fly
"The Fly," directed by David Cronenberg in 1986, revolves around the brilliant but eccentric scientist Seth Brundle, portrayed by Jeff Goldblum. After successfully inventing a teleportation device, Brundle becomes the unwitting victim of his experiment when a housefly enters the teleportation pod with him. As a result, Brundle's genes merge with the fly's, leading to a gradual and horrifying transformation. Initially, he gains superhuman abilities and boundless energy, but his transformation takes a grotesque turn, both physically and mentally. As he descends into madness and his body deteriorates, his girlfriend Veronica, played by Geena Davis, desperately tries to save him from his insectoid fate.
Cronenberg has stated that this film was “intended to be a metaphor for the impact that terminal diseases have on those diagnosed and those indirectly affected”, which comes across clearly as we watch Brundle’s body slowly disintegrate while he remains aware of the changes he is going through, until they slowly begin to affect his mind as well. However, there are alternate readings of this same progression- for example, substance use disorders (especially stimulant use) often present similarly, with an initial phase characterized by a feeling of enhanced abilities, sense of well-being, and euphoria; however, as one becomes entrenched in the throes of addiction, continued use leads to physical decay, erratic behavior, breakdown of relationships, personality changes, and alteration of perception; the disease may terminate in complete body transformation, with diseased and rotting flesh and failing internal organs superimposed on a mind still craving the substance. Another universal connection to be made is that of a unique form of body horror called adolescence- as one comes of age (represented in the film by this discovery), one starts growing unusual hairs, developing new physical capabilities, discovering sex, drinking alcohol, and experiencing impaired decision-making; by the end of adolescence, through this natural (yet grotesque-feeling) transformation, one develops into something entirely different.
The transformations of “The Thing” and “The Fly” remind us as neurologists of the phenomena of alien limb whereby a part of the body bypasses the control of the conscious mind, operating as an independent entity at times even at odds with the limb’s owner. What is more, the rare patients with misoplegia also come to mind, experiencing such an extent of hemineglect and somatoparaphrenia that a neglected and paralyzed extremity is felt by the patient as an unwanted appendage.
Specimen 3: Crimes of the Future
In the recent “Crimes of the Future,” Cronenberg analyzes the body as a cross between a medicalized subject and an object of art. In a nearly post-human society, the ultimate performance art is surgery. Surgery, depicted as the ultimate form of performance art in this context, resonates with the boundary-pushing art of figures like Marina Abramovic. Within the film's world, the eradication of pain through medicine marks both the triumph over and the loss of one aspect of the embodied human experience. The protagonist, Saul, possesses a unique mutation that causes continuous organ growth. Together with his collaborator, Caprice, they leverage this condition as the centerpiece of their artistic expression, staging surgeries on his new organs. Saul's condition is a poignant reminder of patients afflicted with conditions like cachexia, dysphagia, dysarthria, and dysphonia.
Overcoming humanity is a central theme in another of Cronenberg’s films. The following observation in Dylan Trigg’s “The Thing” rings true in several of Cronenberg’s explorations in Body Horror. (1).
“For too long philosophy has labored under the assumption that post-humanism, in all its variations, offers us the only escape route from a legacy of anthropomorphism. Part of this thinking is legitimate. In the vision of an uninhabitable world, overrun with ruins and feral vegetation, an entire landscape opens, full of the possibilities of another philosophy.”
Two simultaneous thoughts come to mind while watching the film. Body modification is common in the society of "Crimes of the Future". This serves as a reminder of the connection of body horror to the punk movement. Punks in the 70s (re-)popularized body modification in the UK and then the wider Western world as a statement. (3) A separate reading of the film is medical. It is a careful study of bodies, bodies undergoing modification, both in illness and in health. The change in our relationship with our bodies and the patients' bodies is evident in our daily professions, as shown by the increasing prevalence of conditions like eating disorders and body dysmorphia, alongside the rising adoption of implants such as VNS, RNS, and DBS.
Specimen 4: In the Mouth of Madness
John Carpenter’s "In the Mouth of Madness" follows the journey of insurance agent John Trent in his attempts to track down famous horror writer, Sutter Cane. Cane’s horror novels have become infamous as they are rumored to incite violence. Trent himself is assaulted by one of Cane’s fans who attacks him wielding an axe. Suspecting a ruse orchestrated by Cane's publishing company and suspecting the frenzy around his works as a form of mass hysteria, Trent and editor Linda Styles venture further into their search for Cane.
The film descends into an increasingly confusing and gruesome sequence of events. As the film progresses, Carpenter plays with several body horror elements and practical effects to show the gradual destruction of the perception of the world. In one scene, Sutter Cane tears his own flesh apart, revealing his innards to be made of paper and the printed word. This film is a reinterpretation of H.P. Lovecraft’s "At the Mountains of Madness". Carpenter recreated Lovecraft’s view of an anarchic cosmos to an anarchic world populated by anarchic bodies. In this work specifically, Carpenter uses Cane’s work to show how easily the perception of the world can be modified and manipulated by the written word.
The next and final specimen:
Specimen 5: Videodrome
1983’s Videodrome is David Cronenberg’s exploration of body horror as a result of technology. It follows TV host Max Renn in his search for the elusive source of the TV Channel Videodrome. This unauthorized station focuses on sadomasochistic content. This search takes him and radio host Nicki Brand to media theorist Brian O'Blivion, a stand-in for the real-life philosopher Marshall McLuhan. In one central scene, O’Blivion explains his philosophy, which is the idea of television becoming more than reality. Media warping reality closely resembles real life media theorist Marshall McLuhan who famously stated that “the medium is the message”.
McLuhan thought about media as any extension of our senses. His concept of media spans different human eras and different technologies, including simple media such as the alphabet to 20th-century inventions such as the radio and TV. In "Videodrome", Cronenberg skillfully employs practical effects to vividly illustrate how media can fundamentally transform individuals. Max’s own body grows a gun as one extremity and a VHS player as one of its orifices. McLuhan also talked about whether media are cold or hot. Hot media are high in definition and low in participation, while cold media are the opposite – having low definition and requiring a lot of participation on the part of the participant. (4) Clear examples provided by this philosopher are hot media, such as film, radio, lectures, and photography, and cold media, such as TV, seminars, and cartoons.
The protagonist finds that the signal from Videodrome is designed to give viewers hallucinations and eventually brain tumors. The goal is mass manipulation, with Max becoming one of its victims. The entire film continues to play with how media affect the integrity of Max’s body and his perception of reality. In the film’s conclusion, Max attempts to destroy Videodrome. In the cryptic ending, we are left wondering whether the protagonist is far too deluded and manipulated by Videodrome to transcend it.
Conclusion
"Videodrome" and "In the Mouth of Madness" force us to reflect on the power of media and the written word, both of which are central in our practice of medicine and life as 21st-century denizens. Where the medium between patient and physician used to be air at first, written prescriptions and charts later, the phone and the fax later yet; now Epic seems to be the space where we meet each other. Outside of the office, we interact with our colleagues and friends through social media. We network more than we commune. Cronenberg and Carpenter use the artifice of body horror to shock us into reminding us of the dangers of blind media obedience.
A separate shock is provided by our first set of specimens, “The Thing”, “The Fly”, and “Crimes of the Future”. The powerful images developed by Carpenter and Cronenberg evoke a visceral reaction. Even as providers, we are not used to witnessing this level of body autonomy and mutation. This artistic exploration can serve as a novel way to think of the body and makes us reflect on the mind/body dichotomy. While medical providers study the structure and function of organs for years, the actual phenomenology of bodily states and bodily transitions are hard to grasp and nearly unknowable. We may think of the body as an extension of the mind, but these filmmakers show an artistic depiction of the horrors of a body separate from the mind.
Follow Dr Charlie Palmer on X/Twitter @CharliePalmerMD and Mattia Rosso @MattiaRosso3, who have developed an outstanding Neurohumanities Program for the residents at MUSC
Happy Halloween!
Citations
1. Trigg, Dylan, The Thing: a Phenomenology of Horror. Zero Books, 2014
2. Liotard, Philippe, Body Modification from Punks to Body Hackers: Piercings and Tattoos in Postmodern Societies, 2013
3. McLuhan, Marshall, 1911-1980. Understanding Media; the Extensions of Man. New York :Signet Books, 1966.
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