Body horror seems to be experiencing a renaissance of sorts in the last few years with such films as 2021’s Malignant and 2024’s The Substance. A term first coined in the 1980s, the body horror sub-genre rose to fame as a gnarly, gross-out style of film that carefully juxtaposes camp and over-the-top visuals with classic horror tropes and jump scares aplenty. Body horror films are known for being funny, scary, and fantastically unrealistic. Anna Zlokovic’s 2023 offering, Appendage, attempts to balance all three traits but unfortunately fails to do any of them well.
Appendage tries to deliver a psychological horror experience with a somewhat unique premise, but unfortunately, it falls flat in execution and winds up being unfavorably compared to similar films such as 2021’s “Malignant”, which also features parasitic growths, but, frankly, does a better job of it. The story of Appendage, which revolves around a young woman’s inner turmoil manifesting as a grotesque growth with a mind of its own, initially piques interest by being off-the-wall bizarre and more than just a little icky, but quickly becomes repetitive and predictable. Hannah isn’t particularly likeable as a protagonist and the other characters in the film feel very wooden. While the effort put into the special effects is commendable and certainly unsettling (if a bit campy), it can’t make up for the overall underwhelming character arcs. Hannah’s journey feels rushed, and the supporting characters are one-dimensional, existing only to serve the plot.
The film seems to struggle to find its lane, bouncing between horror, dark humor, and body horror without executing any of them well. As a result, the scares lack impact, and the humor feels forced and a bit stilted. The pacing is uneven, with long stretches of unneeded, uninspired dialogue that do little to build tension or develop the characters.
Instead of exploring its themes of self-doubt, mental health, and identity with depth, Appendage opts for surface-level symbolism that feels both forced and uninspired. The script as a whole comes off as shallow and poorly thought out, so by the time the climax rolls around, it’s hard to care about the resolution because the emotional stakes just aren’t there and the scares are too few and too far between.
While the film might appeal to fans of grotesque visuals, it lacks the substance and psychological depth needed to stand out in an already saturated genre. Classic body horror films such as The Fly and The Thing hold up because they’re memorable for their blood and guts, but also for the heart that lies in good storytelling and relatable characters. In the end, Appendage feels more like a missed opportunity than a truly memorable horror experience.
Appendage is a Hulu original movie and is available to stream on Hulu in the United States.
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As lover of cryptids, literature, and all things horror, I am so excited to be bringing my talents to the Grimoire of Horror. I am a librarian, avid gamer, TTRPG nerd, and a Mothman fangirl. I spent several years screening films for PRIMAA’s Canadian film festival Reel Shorts, and spent some time as an amateur horror filmmaker, competing in the Frantic 48 filmmaking challenge several years in a row. I love anything horror, from true crime to grindhouse to found footage and am especially interested in horror books and movies created by LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC as I think we have a fresh take on the genre and a fascinating perspective on what horror can be.