I’m sure there’s a better name for it floating around which I just haven’t heard, but I like the sound of Aphrodite Anathema. It's what I call the genre which examines the horror, trauma, and assorted forms of violence that come with upholding the aspects of that beloved goddess on her seashell.
You must be beautiful. You must be desired. You must love. You must be loved. You must be a balm. You must be a smiling servant-mother-lover. You must be pure. You must be sexy. You must pursue these pretty features. You must do everything you can to shed these ugly features. You must pursue affection. You must accept when others pursue. You must wish to be pursued. You must be mild, palatable, weak. You must conform. You must comply or suffer. And when you do, suffer anyway.
Taking these barbs and scrubbing the pink off to reveal the blood underneath has always been one of the tastier horror flavors to me. Some of my favorites are as follows:
SPOILERS BELOW
Belladonna of Sadness (1973) – A gorgeous Faustian treat. Luscious psychedelic art abounds, ranging from erotic to idyllic to gothic to purely acidic. Too bad for Jeanne, the dazzling visuals really don’t soften any of the hell she gets dragged through during the tale; literally or figuratively. Really hits the nail on the head when it comes to the core of, ‘If you’re a woman who draws attention, you will never win dignity or respect from a society that calls for your blood whether you’re a virgin, a whore, a saint, a witch, or anything other than a martyr.’
Carrie (1976) – Carrie White, my friend, my daughter, my girl of all time. While Stephen King’s novel really gets into the layers of all the misery this girl went through, I have to admit I like the film a little better than the book. It pares everything down to the meat of Carrie’s torment. A teenage girl brutalized into a monster for the sin of not being the kind of girl anyone around her wants her to be, even as she desperately tries to appease everyone and belong. When she finally does seem to succeed in the desired performance, all the prom-pink shimmer and acceptance gets washed away in a tide of blood.
Grafted (2024) – Lots of layers in this one. The plot revolves around a young woman with a prominent birthmark, a factor in her awkwardness among shallow peers. She manages to perfect the science of instant flawless skin grafts. And wouldn't you know it, the bodies of her bullies begin to pile up. Thankfully with their pretty faces still intact. As a whole it amounts to a grisly monkey's paw answer to 'What if I could just have a prettier/preferred-by-society look?' Peak body horror on display and a massive knife twist of a tragic ending.
Hard Candy (2005) – Starring a pre-transition Elliot Page, this is one of my few favorite non-supernatural and/or fantastical thrillers. It’s beautifully shot and brutally bitter. It seems to take real pleasure in ripping a number of familiar infuriating arguments out of murky what-aboutism and into stark reminder of blunt facts regarding older men on the hunt for dangerously young girls as their company (or corpse) of choice. Barely a drop of blood to be seen in the whole thing, but one of the most intense and stressful watches I can recall.
Perfect Blue (1997) – Haven’t seen another film yet that so excellently highlights the knife’s edge that girls and women balance on. The cutting line between Am I a girl or am I a woman? Is it better to be one or the other? Is one happier, one sadder? The world wants me (the Girl) young and sweet and sugar-pink perfect forever. The world wants me (the Woman) sexually engaging and punished for being sexual, for being mature. Do I want one more than the other? If I do, am I wrong? If I don’t, am I making a mistake by not trying to cling to the performed innocence of girlhood identity, or by failing to grow up and get free of it? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?
The Substance (2024) – The self-destruction element is really the part I love beyond the body horror and general message of anti-youth/beauty obsession. You are one, the Substance sellers warn. Despite Elisabeth and Sue’s denials, it’s true. Elisabeth is Sue, but ‘Sue’ happily disassociates herself from the increasingly haggard and abused elder self of Elisabeth. The version of herself she grows to hate and will hide at any cost. The lesson isn't just about toxic treatment by external societal and commercial factors, but internal abuse. If Elisabeth's self-loathing wasn’t there, if she hadn't invested all her self worth in admiration and accolades, if she had simply loved herself from the start, she could have dodged the whole nightmare. But where's the movie in that?
Teeth (2007) – She’s got teeth up in there. They're very sharp and they have opinions. And she makes it the problem of everyone who deserves it.
The Ugly Stepsister (2025) – Oh, this goddamn gem of a film. It’s a period piece. It’s fantasy. It’s tragedy. It’s psychological horror. It’s the dark fairy tale twist I thought I’d never get to have. I can’t laud enough all the detailed dissections of the torture endured for beauty, approval, and frantic scrambling towards love and independence that are on display in here. It has one of the most nauseating climaxes I’ve ever seen and that is a compliment. Bonus points for having multiple climaxes in which you dare to think, Surely it can't get any worse! You're proven wrong each time. Utter masterpiece of a commentary and a retelling.
Honorable Mention -The short film, Kalley’s Last Review. A vicious treat to wash out the psychic damage caused by overexposure to beauty influencers.
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There's this new movie called Slanted coming out about an Asian girl who undergoes this cosmetic surgery to become a white person and obviously it's gonna go the same route The Substance and Grafted went and people are missing the point so bad, mainly white people who want to be offended on the behalf of minorities
"Why is she turning white ?" she gets mistreated as a POC and that's why she's pushed to get the surgery
"The white girl is getting more screen time than the Asian girl !" Movie isn't out yet, we wouldn't know that yet, but I feel like she'll get the same amount of screen time. Doesn't seem like they're alternating like in The Substance but who knows.
At the end of the day it's just a commentary on how whiteness is the beauty standard and how minorities feel pressured to assimilate and fit into white spaces, some minorities doing anything to appear white because white people get treated better and they have more privilege. Why do you think people will continuously fry their hair blonde and try to pass it off as their natural hair color ? Or all these stupid eye color changing surgeries where guess what, everyone wants blue eyes ! Or people bleaching their skin, because who would be crazy enough to bleach their skin until it's porcelain ? I remember back in 2019 watching a video of an African lady literally submitting herself to some weird acid/bleach/hot water treatment with Brillo pad brush and you could literally see her melanin and skin and blood scraping off into the tub.
That's how far people go to try to emulate whiteness, because like it or not, that have it the easiest so if there was this magic surgery that could just magically turn you white that line would sadly be out the fucking door and wrapped around the corner into the interstate, doesn't matter the side effects.
I absolutely hate The Boondocks season 4, but when Grandad made that magic hair cream that would literally explode people's hair and told Tom and Jazmine, instead of being horrified and washing it out, they screamed and ran "You can't take my beautiful hair from me !", when Grandad told the woman that the product was dangerous she said "These bitches don't care, they'll put anything in their hair as long is it's long and straight" and the hair was described as "white people hair" and " good hair"
Literally in the trailer for Slanted it's a bunch of white people who may or may not have gotten the surgery going "It feels good to be white" I'm going to need ya'll to actually watch and absorb before you get mad when ads like these have been literally going on since 1935 to Today, targeting minorities, mostly women, basically claiming that they'll have an easier and better life if they lighten their skin.
Anyways I'm probably gonna watch it because I saw a glimpse of the protagonist covered in blood at the prom in front of a horrified crowd so like I really want to see if this goes Substance/Grafted levels of Body Horror since both have similar endings
Spoilers:
The Substance: Sue ends up taking the substance again and turning into Monstro Elissasue, a gigantic mass of flesh and blood with limbs and titties and teeth and eyeballs everywhere and a screaming Elizabeth on her shoulder, she eventually gets jumped by the crowd and beaten until Elizabeth's face manages to break free and dissolve in a clot on her star
Grafted: Wei kills one of her victims boyfriends, gets found out and runs, the skin grafting serum she made to wear other people's skin gets spilled just as a homeless man hides her. Months later, her aunt is looking for her and it reveals that the serum has made her fuse with the homeless man's corpse and now she's this weird blob of Wei, fingers and flesh under a blanket. We don't know what happens to her after this.
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all streaming services are dead to me except for shudder. baby ur my forever girl...they could never make me hate u... the latest movie i just watched from there was this fun n gross body horror flick called grafted. it's nice seeing women stealing people's skin #feminism
