Body horror, or, alternatively, biological horror, is horror fiction in which the horror is principally derived from a sense of physical "wrongness" with the body. Body horror mainly focuses upon radical physical transformations, bodily degeneration, mutant births, and the invasion/violation of the body by a disease or foreign organisms. Works of body horror integrate the psychological horror of one's body undergoing disturbing and irreversible changes with grotesque and shocking imagery. Frequently body horror is allegorical. The Fly has been said to have been a metaphor for debilitating disease and the ravages of old age upon the mind and body. Alien as an allegory for birth. Rosemary's Baby certainly draws from fears of rape and birth defects.
In literature, body horror can be found in many of the works of Clive Barker and William S. Burroughs. Classic literary examples include Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and Eugène Ionesco's Rhinocéros. Comic books and graphic novels are no strangers to body horror either, with one of the best examples being Black Hole. In the horror films, David Cronenberg is largely attributed as introducing the concept to mainstream audiences. Other seminal examples of body horror movies include John Carpenter's The Thing, several films of Shinya Tsukamoto including Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and the movie Alien.
The animated television series Æon Flux by Peter Chung frequently makes use of body horror elements as plot devices, particularly amputation and disease. Amputation, body modification and loss of identity are key elements in the semi-cybernetic Borg from various Star Trek franchises.
