We invite you to Kino Iluzjon for the body horror review "Something Is Inside Me," organized by the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute. 📍 Kino Iluzjon, ul. Narbutta 50A, Warsaw First screening of the series: 🗓️ Sunday, November 2 | 20:00 - “The Blob”, dir. Chuck Russell, USA, 1988, 95’ Introduction: Piotr Mirski Tickets available at the box office and online on the Iluzjon cinema website The review reflects the historical evolution and cultural diversity of body horror – in addition to well-known American productions, we will show Japanese and Polish works, B-movies and festival films, as well as contemporary feminist, trans- and posthumanist reinterpretations. The cinema of masters – David Cronenberg and John Carpenter – is combined here with the achievements of contemporary filmmakers such as Julia Ducournau and Jane Schoenbrun. The screenings are arranged around the most important themes of this horror subgenre. Each screening will be preceded by a film studies introduction. Complementing the review is a collection of animations addressing similar themes – such as “Film grozy” by Julian Józef Antonisz, or “Kompleks” by Natalia Dziedzic – available on the Ninateka platform. NOVEMBER SCREENINGS: Dangerous Matter - 2.11 | 20:00 – “The Blob” (1988, Ch. Russell) - 8.11 | 20:30 – “The Thing” (1982, J. Carpenter) Tissue and Metal - 13.11 | 20:00 – “Tetsuo: The Iron Man” (1989, S. Tsukamoto) - 15.11 | 20:00 – “Titane” (2021, J. Ducournau) Tactile Media - 22.11 | 20:00 – “I Saw the TV Glow” (2024, J. Schoenbrun) - 27.11 | 20:00 – “Possessor” (2020, B. Cronenberg) Pain and Pleasure - 29.11 | 20:00 – “Amer” (2009, H. Cattet, B. Forzani) - 30.11 | 20:00 – “From Beyond” (1986, S. Gordon) Part II of the series – December 2025 – details coming soon Horror cinema has always been fascinated by the body – monstrous or fragile, which could be wounded, cut, or consumed. This fascination turned into obsession in body horror films, which turn bodies inside out – both materially and philosophically, pondering the relationship between humans and what lies beneath the skin. With pain, desire, illness, or maturation. As part of the “Something Is Inside Me” review, we will present a selection of films showcasing the spectrum of this horror subgenre – its historical development (from David Cronenberg, through Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna, to Julia Ducournau and Jane Schoenbrun), cultural contexts (in addition to well-known American films, we will show Japanese and Polish works, B-movies and festival films, as well as contemporary feminist, trans- and posthumanist reinterpretations), but above all, the most important themes that flow through the bloodstream of body horror. Initially, we will reduce the body to its organic foundations, beyond anatomical norms, a body that pulses, changes, and aggressively spreads into other bodies – “dangerous matter,” the theme of the first screenings, is the essence of the genre by showing the breakdown of boundaries between the inside and the outside. The next two thematic threads will be related to the relationship of bodies with the artificial – cold, inorganic, but increasingly merging with modern humans, changing their identity and forms of being in the world. “Tissue and Metal” is dedicated to films in which human bodies are supplemented, extended, enriched, or harmed by contact with cold steel, silvery titanium, or heavy iron. Human anatomy is also deformed in films representing “Tactile Media,” where contact with screens turns us into a naturalized interface. The following themes bring closer the basic ideas circulating around body horror: “Pain and Pleasure” are films that reflect on the norms of feeling, as well as how culture limits the needs of the body. “Anatomy of Disease” is represented by films showing bodies infected and contaminating the surrounding reality, where the mind gives way under the influence of degrading biology. And finally, in “Nightmares of Maturation,” we confront the body that escapes control and begins to give orders, a process so natural and yet so radical that body horror could not help but address this experience. After all, there is something non-human in the very word puberty. Perhaps also in corporeality itself. You are welcome!
