Warning: Spoilers follow for The Flash.
In The Flash, director Andy Muschietti adapts pivotal moments from the DC Flashpoint story to an impressively graphic – and gruesome – effect. This isn’t surprising, considering that Muschietti previously directed the IT films and Mama, and it’s not the first time a horror director has taken the helm of a comic book movie and given it a ghastly touch. Emphasizing the superhero’s overall physical relationship with their powers is a welcome evolution for the comic book movie genre.
The Flash leans into body horror in a big way with the rescue of Supergirl (Sasha Calle) sequence, the recreation of Flash’s frankly grotesque origin, and more.
“I really wanted [the movie] to explore Barry’s powers for good and bad,” Muschietti told IGN.
In a story that ultimately shakes up the fates of DC’s greatest heroes, the director keeps in moments of great physical strife that ultimately challenge our understanding of the relationship between heroes and their powers. And along the way, he is sure to imbue the film with plenty of moments of body horror.
How Superhero Movies Are Subversions of Body Horror
While the term “body horror” is most closely associated with the horror genre and refers to the disturbing physical transformations that go against God and nature (imagine zombies, spinning heads, transmogrification, etc.), the concept as applied in superhero movies provides an interesting new perspective As works that demonstrate the human body pushing past its natural limits, most superhero stories are examples of body horror turned into body awe. There are many things the human body should and shouldn’t be able to do, and when we see those natural laws broken, there’s an innate reaction that walks the line between amazement and fear.
In fact, the “discovery” moment in most superhero movies can be seen as a descendant of horror reveals in literary classics like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. These characters realize that their relationship with the world is now forever changed – internally and externally.
The “discovery” moment in most superhero movies can be seen as a descendant of literary classics like Shelley’s Frankenstein or Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.
But really, the role of perception is key in all of this. Objectively, seeing someone stopping bullets without blinking or having limbs stretching would probably make you scream or throw up, but when you’re told that those abilities are used to protect the community, that fear is slightly neutralized. When those abilities are weaponized, however, then the fear we feel turns these superpowered people into monstrosities instead, as is often explored in stories like Hellboy and within the X-Men franchise. As mutants with extraordinary gifts, the latter characters protect humanity (and yes, some attack it), yet regardless of their heroism, they face prejudice and fear from Homo sapiens for how they look and what they are capable of. Tying fear of the abnormal to a character’s appearance has long been a storytelling shortcut, most often reserved for villains: Their outsides have to match their insides. But comic book movies have been evolving in that arena, and horror directors are a big reason why.
Body Horror in Comic Book Movies
Horror directors who have dipped their toes into making these superhero movies have played with the more fantastical elements of the genre.
Sam Raimi, of course, pioneered this approach with his trilogy of Spider-Man movies starring Tobey Maguire. He simply made Peter Parker’s transformation more organic and had his body produce webbing rather than having Peter make a mechanical one. White sticky substances coming out of the body? Uh… many of us have questions! Raimi also returned to the comic book genre with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where he shows Wanda literally shredding people, Zombie Strange, and Stephen with a freaky (but chill?) third eye.
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The first Doctor Strange movie, directed by Scott Derrickson, goes all in on Stephen’s powers and depicts astral projections like ghouls. David F. Sandberg brings some humor to the shocking and instantaneous transformation from teen to adult in Shazam. Even as recently as in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, James Gunn gave us the High Evolutionary, who ironically sought perfection by conducting heinous body horror experiments.
And what’s the one thing these directors all have in common? They all came from horror backgrounds, and Muschietti’s The Flash is the latest example of that experience coming in handy.
The Horror of Transformation in The Flash
Of course, Muchietti’s horror-directing background is filled with different kinds of body horror. Look at IT and the way Pennywise manifests for each of the Losers. The erratic, freakish nature of Pennywise is enough on its own, but it rapidly transforming into each of their fears is like psychological whiplash. Muschietti also executive-produced Netflix’s Locke & Key, an adaptation of the graphic novel by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez which features magical keys that can “unlock” certain abilities. A few of these keys work by being inserted into the body. One even turns you into a ghost when you walk through a certain door. Muschietti takes and adapts visceral concepts from the source material faithfully while delving deeper into the characters’ experience to create sympathy between us and them.
For instance, take the Supergirl breakout scene. Like in the comic, when Barry finds the imprisoned Kryptonian – in that version it’s Superman – she’s much… smaller than expected. However, Muschietti takes the conceit further than the comic and presents the sun-deprived Kara as extremely frail, looking more similar to Gollum than a teenage girl. Yet when she gets some sweet yellow sun, Kara’s entire body is restored – and then some.
“She’s emaciated,” says Sasha Calle of Kara in that moment. “She’s very weak and there’s a lot of anger, right? She’s upset that she was welcomed with so much pain. So I think she’s always … Her first response is to get out of there the moment she gains any sort of strength.”
Her vengeance on her captors is portrayed like something out of Brightburn or any evil Superman story.
“Her first interaction with humans is not a safe one. It’s painful and there’s agony. And that’s her first perception of humans,” Calle continues. “And she gets rescued by the Barrys and Batman and she’s trying to figure out who’s good and who’s bad. And her silence is just her observing. And then we get to discover obviously who she helps and her whole journey.”
When Ezra Miller’s Barry recreates the night he was struck by lightning by literally making an electric chair, we actually understand the searing pain of being electrified and burnt with chemicals that Barry has now experienced multiple times. Only because he has rapid healing do we never linger on the scarring and burns any regular human body would sustain. Still, compared to other versions of Barry’s origin, the movie gets into the damage Barry would’ve more realistically suffered on his way to becoming The Flash. And in many ways, Barry is Frankenstein’s monster, revived by a shot to the heart. They even use a kite here to attract the lightning, just as Dr. Frankenstein did when creating his monster.
Muschietti also utilizes young Barry’s loose grasp on phasing to create an uneasy visual.
If we see the cost of being a superhero, we get to empathize.
“One of the [things] that I focused a lot on is the power of phasing through things,” says the director. “It’s pretty horrific how the shards of the Kryptonian soldiers get inside of young Barry’s body. I just hurt just by thinking of it.”
Creating these visuals is meant to evoke some physical reaction and is a way that brings us closer to these heroes that adds investment to these stories.
“I think it goes more to grounding this movie so that we understand the vulnerability of these characters and the stakes for these characters,” says producer Barbara Muschietti. “If your superhero is just superhuman, and it’s always a step forward and there’s never going to be any real danger because nothing hurts and they’re invincible…”
“Then it’s no fun,” her brother Andy adds.
“Then it’s no fun,” she agrees. “And it’s impossible to empathize with it. In the end, as an audience, we need to empathize with the characters. And if we see the cost of being a superhero, we get to empathize.”
It’s been an interesting evolution of super-people dealing with their superpowers on the big screen, and while it may feel like we’re in a rut and glut of these comic book movies lately, it’s refreshing to see more creative ways of how these characters’ lives are changed by uncontrollable circumstances.
The Flash: Every Cameo in the DC Film
For more on the latest DC movie, check out our Flash ending and post-credits explained, dig in on all the cameos in the film like Nicolas Cage, or study up on how time travel works in the movie.
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