A Constant Visual Feast

Every time a movie on the festival circuit is decreed as “gross,” I know there is a high probability it isn’t actually all that gross. Personally? The detail about Booger that churns my stomach hardest is the title. That’s one heavy duty onomatopoeia. Blech. Blurch. Blorg.

Regardless, I liked Booger a good deal, and think it’s an especially fitting movie for a broad discussion of body horror – a subgenre I generally see as misunderstood, not just by audiences but by filmmakers, too. Yes, the definition of the term is pretty broad; no, that broad definition doesn’t justify body horror movies that simply rest on violations of or alterations to the human form. There’s more to it than that. Booger truly “gets” what is so vital to body horror, by interlacing the mutative aspect with an emotional, thematic aspect so tightly that they’re basically one and the same. 

You can read further thoughts on the matter here, at Fangoria.