6 Skin-Crawling Horror Films About Beauty Standards 

Directed by Coralie Fargeat, the critically acclaimed satirical body horror film The Substance has been crucial in raising questions about Hollywood’s—and by and large, society’s—impossible beauty standards that adversely affect women’s careers and mental health.

The story follows an aging celebrity Elisabeth (played by Demi Moore) who gets fired from work. Determined to save her career and preserve her youth, she takes a black-market drug that spawns a body double (played by Margaret Qualley) who is a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of herself.

However, the drug comes with strict rules and side effects, referencing the complicated skincare routines already followed by millions across the globe, and soon Elisabeth comes into conflict with her own counterpart, building towards an iconic blood-splattered finale. 

A Different Man, directed by Aaron Schimberg, shares some of the thematic concerns of The Substance, but explores them through the lens of psychological horror and black comedy, focusing on the problems men face as a result of the societal pressure to be “handsome” or “charismatic.”

The movie follows Edward Lemuel (played by Sebastian Stan), an awkward and insecure man, struggling in his acting career and love life, due to his facial disfigurement.

After he undergoes an experimental medical procedure that cures his “condition”, Edward adopts a new persona, even as a doppelganger called Oswald (played brilliantly by Adam Pearson, an actor with neurofibromatosis) upstages his existence, confidently achieving everything Edward has ever strived for.

It’s a deep-dive into male self-loathing and bodily insecurities that uses the doppelganger trope in an inventive way.

Helter Skelter is a gorgeous Japanese horror film directed by Mika Ninagawa and starring Erika Sawajiri in the lead role, adapted from a powerfully thought-provoking manga by Kyoko Okazaki.

It delves into the ghastly repercussions of cosmetic surgery in its story about Liliko, a successful supermodel who undergoes plastic surgery to attain a perfect body, but struggles with the side effects.

As her body and career slowly break down, Liliko’s mental state spirals out of control as well, emphasizing the immense toll that the quest for eternal youth exerts on the human body.

Another enjoyable film on somewhat similar lines that explores the pitfalls of cosmetic surgery is The Neon Demon (2016)—an indie horror art film by Nicolas Winding Refn. 

The fourth episode “The Outside” in Guillermo Del Toro's The Cabinet of Curiosities, a horror anthology miniseries, doubles as a short body horror film.

The narrative focuses on Stacey who longs to fit in with her co-workers and be perceived as attractive, and uses a lotion called “Alo Glo” that eventually gives her the promised makeover, at the cost of her humanity.

The episode, based on a horror comic by E. M. Caroll, cleverly uses the metaphor of taxidermy to emphasize how the quest for beauty is often superficial, a deliberate practice of objectification with lifeless straw on the inside.

Now regarded as a cult classic, the horror film Death Becomes Her playfully blends elements of fantasy, surrealism, and black comedy.

It's a tale about two women who drink a magical potion hoping for eternal youth—and then have to reckon with unforeseen consequences, with a queer twist.

Starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, Death Becomes Her manages to be both hilarious and moving, and has even inspired a musical adaptation recently. 

This highly influential animated Satoshi Kon feature focuses on the dark side of the music/film-making industry.

It follows Mima, a member of a J-pop idol group who decides to pursue an acting career, gets stalked by an obsessive fan and slowly becomes insane—the film itself blurring the lines between reality and fantasy and confusing the viewers by mimicking the protagonist’s mental state.

Like Helter Skelter, it highlights the constant pressure on performers to “look” and “act” in a certain way, even as their job provides little security or comfort.

Thus, it emphasizes how an industry that profits from the objectification of female bodies treats the same bodies as easily disposable and replaceable.

This film also inspired Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010) which loosely follows a similar storyline and also skillfully uses doppelganger folklore to highlight industry-sanctioned exploitation and the tragic side-effects of pursuing “perfection”.