Body Melt (1993); A Hidden Gem of Body Horror

April 9, 2021 ● Ed Murden

I was having one of those days, the skies were grey and there was nothing at all to do but to indulge in some ‘retail therapy’. So I wandered into town and flicked through records, books, CDs and DVDs in various shops until I came across it. As an avid body horror fan, the title of this particular DVD immediately jumped out at me; ‘Body Melt’ written in dripping green goop across the cover. I’d never heard of it before. I put down the 'any 3 for £15' offer I was holding - Jaws (1975), Casablanca (1942) and Planet of the Apes (1968), and immediately purchased it, deciding that I had found the cure for that days particular blues.

I had a sneak-peak at a few screen grabs online, from the liberal use of blood and some kind of green puss-like liquid, I knew I was in for a treat but I had no idea of the full artistic extent of this films ability to make you want to throw up. Once my pot noodle was stewing and my beer was cracked open, I put Body Melt (1993) into my laptop and sat back. The film is about a quiet Australian suburb called Homesvilles whose residents are unknowing test subjects of an experimental drug administered by a health spar. Finally! A film that preaches about the real dangers of healthy living which are described in the film's tagline; ‘The first phase is hallucinogenic... The second phase is glandular... And the third phase is... Body Melt.’

The film's director, Philip Brophy is an all-around artist and interesting guy. Before making Body Melt, he had made films, videos, live theatre and music with his group → ↑ → (which I understand is pronounced ‘tsk tsk tsk’). This background in punk experimentalism gives Body Melt the same feeling as you get with Gregg Araki movies in the States but this movie is defiantly all-Australian. This setting is the perfect home for body melt, a sort of perverse, extreme sweating.

In some scenes, the skin melts, in others tentacles grow out of a man’s throat, or a women’s placenta drops out and attacks her. This movie is so disgustingly unpredictable that it can’t be anything but a joke. Like the Scream franchise is a perfect satire on slashers, Body Melt is a perfect satire on body horror. Though there isn’t any uniformity to the deaths, as a body horror fan you get to see everything you’d want to see - even a guys cock exploding.

With its endless streams of blood, snot and puss, the end scene of Body Melt calls back to another Australian classic; Peter Jackson's Braindead (1992), and I believe that any self-respecting body horror fan should hold it in the same regard. But this is a point of pride for me, Body Melt was the first hidden gem of horror I found before our ever-prolific editor, Meltem Yalçin Evren. This film was my christening into a fully fledge weird-horror-guy.

Ed Murden ● Writer

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Manchester based writer/filmmaker, mainly writing for and about horror films but with an interest in anything strange and surreal.