Body horror,
biological horror,
organic horror or
venereal horror is
horror fiction in which the horror is principally derived from the graphic destruction or degeneration of the body. Such works may deal with decay,
disease,
parasitism,
mutation, or
mutilation. Other types of body horror include unnatural movements, or the anatomically incorrect placement of limbs to create "monsters" from human body parts.
David Cronenberg,
Frank Henenlotter,
Brian Yuzna,
Stuart Gordon,
Lloyd Kaufman, and
Clive Barker are notable directors of this genre. The term
body horror was coined with the "Body Horror" theme issue of the
University of Glasgow film journal
Screen (vol. 27, no. 1, Jan-Feb 1986), containing several essays on the subject.