BODY HORROR IN CINEMA
TOPIC
videodrome, david cronenberg
annihilation, ALEX GARLAND
how does body horror cinema use physical transformation to reflect social anxieties about identity, control and modernity?
I - THE substance, the female body under social control
- Fear of aging, especially for women
= critique of a misogynistic society.
- Female body constantly judged, corrected and controlled.
- Transformation caused by social pressure.
- Graphic and unsettling imagery
= painful and invasive mutation.
30 years
THE AGE WOMEN HAVE WHEN THEY START DISAPPEARING FROM SCREENS
MORE HERE
Ii -EYES WITHOUT A FACE, Flesh, science and surgery
- 1960s : medical science in progress (reconstructive surgery & organ transplantation).
= body as experimented material
- Post World War II : Nuremberg Trials revealed medical experiments were carried out on prisoners without consent. Response : Nuremberg Code (1947).
- Movie is about transplanting women's faces.
= medical procedure as an act of horror + complete absence of consent.
MORE HERE
CHRISTIANE
FEAR OF A SCIENCE WITH NO BOUNDARIES
THE FILM DEPICTS THE POSTWAR MEDICAL HORROR
IiI - POSSESOR, WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND MACHINE ENHANCE IDENTITY
- Technology can lead to dehumanization.
- In Possessor (2020), agents enter and control other people's minds.
- Identity enhanced artificially
= body as a machine operated from the outside. Self or other? Human or machine?
- Anxieties about Covid-19 pandemic, digital surveillance
- and AI.
Host body Resists the implanted consciousness
THREE SERIES TO WATCH ABOUT CONTROL, TECHNOLOGY AND AI
LOVE, DEATH AND ROBOTS
SEVERANCE
WESTWORLD
Concept 2
- Split identity
- Corporate control
- Workplace alienation
- Memory fragmentation
= Invasive neurogical procedure, embodied psychological torture.= single body but divided selves.
- Artificial consciousness
- Loops and repetitions
- Constructed identity
- Disposability of bodies
= Synthetic human bodies, repeated body death and repair.= Programmed pain.
- Transhumanism
- Artificial intelligence
- Organic violence : biological violence, flesh/machine hybridization, mind and body dissociation.
S101 - Sonnie's EdgeS108 - Good Hunting S309 - Jibaro
MORE HERE
THANK YOU !
When did body horror first appeared?
- Ancient myths and stories (Antiquity)
Daphne transformed into a tree ; Medusa whose hair is entangled with snakes
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley ; Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson = the body as a scientific object
- Cinema of the 1970s and 80s
David Cronenberg (Shivers, The Fly), John Carpenter (The Thing) and Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo)= becomes an identified genre, fear of disease and crisis of modern identity.
= Cold and clinical = Not gore but a moral transgression
Surgical sequence
Conclusion
Body horror cinema
- Use of physical transformation
= deepest fears visible.
- Grotesque imagery, gore, disturbing mutations and/or psychological horror.
- Human body as a site of control, manipulation and loss.
- Historical context around the movie.
= our vulnerability, relationship with technology and the unstable nature of identity in the modern world.
BODY HORROR IN CINEMA
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Transcript
BODY HORROR IN CINEMA
TOPIC
videodrome, david cronenberg
annihilation, ALEX GARLAND
how does body horror cinema use physical transformation to reflect social anxieties about identity, control and modernity?
I - THE substance, the female body under social control
- Fear of aging, especially for women
= critique of a misogynistic society.- Graphic and unsettling imagery
= painful and invasive mutation.30 years
THE AGE WOMEN HAVE WHEN THEY START DISAPPEARING FROM SCREENS
MORE HERE
Ii -EYES WITHOUT A FACE, Flesh, science and surgery
- 1960s : medical science in progress (reconstructive surgery & organ transplantation).
= body as experimented material- Movie is about transplanting women's faces.
= medical procedure as an act of horror + complete absence of consent.MORE HERE
CHRISTIANE
FEAR OF A SCIENCE WITH NO BOUNDARIES
THE FILM DEPICTS THE POSTWAR MEDICAL HORROR
IiI - POSSESOR, WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND MACHINE ENHANCE IDENTITY
- Identity enhanced artificially
= body as a machine operated from the outside. Self or other? Human or machine?Host body Resists the implanted consciousness
THREE SERIES TO WATCH ABOUT CONTROL, TECHNOLOGY AND AI
LOVE, DEATH AND ROBOTS
SEVERANCE
WESTWORLD
Concept 2
- Split identity
- Corporate control
- Workplace alienation
- Memory fragmentation
= Invasive neurogical procedure, embodied psychological torture.= single body but divided selves.- Artificial consciousness
- Loops and repetitions
- Constructed identity
- Disposability of bodies
= Synthetic human bodies, repeated body death and repair.= Programmed pain.- Transhumanism
- Artificial intelligence
- Organic violence : biological violence, flesh/machine hybridization, mind and body dissociation.
S101 - Sonnie's EdgeS108 - Good Hunting S309 - JibaroMORE HERE
THANK YOU !
When did body horror first appeared?
- Ancient myths and stories (Antiquity)
Daphne transformed into a tree ; Medusa whose hair is entangled with snakes- 19th-century litterature
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley ; Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson = the body as a scientific object- Cinema of the 1970s and 80s
David Cronenberg (Shivers, The Fly), John Carpenter (The Thing) and Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo)= becomes an identified genre, fear of disease and crisis of modern identity.= Cold and clinical = Not gore but a moral transgression
Surgical sequence
Conclusion
Body horror cinema
- Use of physical transformation
= deepest fears visible.- Grotesque imagery, gore, disturbing mutations and/or psychological horror.
- Human body as a site of control, manipulation and loss.
- Historical context around the movie.
= our vulnerability, relationship with technology and the unstable nature of identity in the modern world.