8 Movies & TV Shows Like The Beauty That Reveal the Body Horror of Perfection
Ryan Murphy continues to be one of the hardest-working people in television with the release of yet another show, The Beauty. After the critical mauling of his Kim Kardashian-starring tale of duplicitous lawyers, All’s Fair, Murphy has returned to safer genre ground. Based on a comic book, the premise of The Beauty is that there is a sexually transmitted disease that causes the infected to transform into a younger and more beautiful version of themselves. As with any good story, diving into the pursuit of perfection, this ‘treatment’ is not foolproof and comes with disastrous and often life-ending consequences.
So far, The Beauty is performing far better than Murphy’s last venture, likely due to society's obsession with beautiful perfection. If The Beauty has whetted your appetite for more stories chronicling the extreme lengths that people will go to become their most alluring, here’s a handy guide to the more depraved bids for perfection.
Although The Beauty is based on a comic book, there is no denying that the success of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance had a hand in getting the show greenlit. The film follows Demi Moore’s famous fitness presenter Elisabeth as she resorts to drastic tactics to prevent being replaced by someone younger. After taking a new secret drug, Elisabeth is given a new lease of life via the youthful Sue, but to attain her dreams, the pair must respect the balance. Sue, greedy for the fame and devotion that being young and hot brings, shirks the rules and, in doing so, causes Elisabeth to wither away. Then, during the final act, Monstro Elisasue enters the fray, turning the body horror up several notches.
The Substance also managed the impossible: a horror film that snuck into awards season, earning no less than five Academy Award nominations, and ultimately took home the award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
In 2003, television was in the chokehold of makeover shows, from America’s Next Top Model to Extreme Makeover; audiences were hooked on reality programming focused on being beautiful. It made sense then that fictional television followed suit, and so Nip/Tuck arrived. Also created by Ryan Murphy, the series followed the work and home lives of plastic surgeons McNamara and Troy.
Quite how the two managed to remain in business for as long as they did remains a mystery, as there were a series of mishaps involving desperate patients, with one memorable instance being a woman who performed her own mastectomy in the surgery waiting room after having her request denied…
The saying is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and never has that been more prevalent than in the Soska Sisters’ American Mary. Like Nip/Tuck, the film revolves around the world of plastic surgery, but not in the traditional sense: After dropping out of med school due to a horrific event, student Mary winds up being the go-to off-books surgeon for those yearning for some intense body modification.
These surgeries involved stitching twins (played by the Soskas themselves) together and helping one woman fulfil her dreams of becoming a living doll. For these patients, they achieve the perfection they yearn for, but they awaken Mary’s own drive to be the best at what she does, no matter the cost.
Before stories of attaining beauty got gnarly and grotesque, Death Becomes Her had audiences enraptured. Starring Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep, Death Becomes Her pits two frenemies against one another as they try to win the heart of the same man, whilst also fending off their biggest fear: ageing. The pair both drink an elixir that renders them gorgeous, youthful, and immortal.
Tragically, this appeases neither woman, and their war escalates, leading to necks being twisted to an inhuman degree and shotgun wounds through the midriff. A fantastic black comedy, Death Becomes Her takes some very valid shots at vanity and the beauty business.
Whilst the world of acting can be cruel to ageing stars, modelling is even worse. The world of fashion is obsessed with beauty and perfection, and as such, all models have a shelf life. With such a short span of time to make it, the modelling business is often depicted in the media as being one of the most savage, with characters backstabbing one another at every juncture.
This is exactly what Nicolas Winding Refn highlights in The Neon Demon. As the far younger Jesse enters the modelling circuit and garners all of the attention, older models Gigi, Ruby, and Sarah become jealous. In a bid to attain some of Jesse’s beauty, the trio literally consume the younger woman, leading to some rather icky sequences in the closing moments.
The obsession with beauty is not a recent thing, and the 1960 French film, Eyes Without a Face, is proof of that. Following in the footsteps of the Frankenstein model, Eyes Without a Face follows a doctor who, riddled with guilt for his part in the disfigurement of his once stunningly beautiful daughter, sets about solving the problem. His mission involves kidnapping young women, removing their faces and attempting to graft them onto his daughter’s face. Needless to say, things don’t go well.
Often overlooked because of its age, Eyes Without a Face covers a lot of themes still prevalent today and is essential viewing for fans of The Beauty.
With their feature debut, Starry Eyes directors Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kölsch explored the cult of Hollywood. In Starry Eyes, Sarah is a struggling actress, riddled with anxiety and self-loathing. Everything changes, though, after she auditions for the mysterious Astraeus Pictures. Sarah gets the part, but to keep it, she must prove how badly she wants it by shedding all aspects of her former life, including her body.
The resulting ordeal paints a grotesque visage as Sarah literally rots away in front of the viewer's eyes. This metamorphosis yields breathtaking results, but if this is the process to get into the club, what lengths will she have to resort to to remain?
Cinderella is a story that has been retold countless times in cinema, and yet somehow Norwegian movie The Ugly Stepsister managed to turn the tale on its head. Told from the perspective of one of Cinderella’s stepsisters, the plot sees the rather plain and awkward Elvira go to extreme lengths to become beautiful in time for the Prince’s ball.
Elvira’s ordeal includes a barbaric nose job, toe-curling eyelash extensions, and a ghastly weight-loss regime involving a parasitic organism. The Ugly Stepsister hammers home the body horror aspect of striving for perfection, and any viewing should very much be nil by mouth.
