Movies
Dinner, Party of 1: Autophagia in Horror
The prevalence of autophagia (also known as self-cannibalism, auto-cannibalism, or the act of eating oneself) is so common today that most people don’t even realize they take part. Autophagia applies to the self-consumption of any part of the body, including fingernails, dead skin, scabs, hair, blood, and, of course, meat. Give me a “Hello Clarice” if you just found out you’ve taken part in auto-cannibalism before.
Now, typically, the most devastating cases of self-cannibalism, where they go for the meat, are attributed to severe mental health crises.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health emergency, reach out for help. You can call 988 or talk to someone at the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988lifine.org.
Although autophagia is incredibly common in its lesser forms, it’s all around pretty terrible for us. Nail biting can lead to infection. Hair eating can lead to hairballs (or that unfortunate scene in Raw). Human blood consumption can lead to toxic iron levels. To top things off, human meat has little caloric value (especially compared to beefier counterparts).
Crossing the line into extreme self-cannibalism is an unfathomable boundary for many people for countless reasons – so naturally, the horror genre is here to explore it. Gore is the theme this month at Horror Press, and the following adheres to it. Let that be a warning as we delve into eight horror movie moments that explore how the line into self-cannibalism is crossed.
Autophagia in Horror Movies
Talk to Me
The introduction may have left you feeling unsettled, so let’s start things off small with some innocent self-blood consumption.
In what was arguably one of the most disturbing moments in 2023’s Talk to Me, a possessed teen recovering from numerous head lacerations begins slamming the back of his head into a wall until it cracks and bleeds, where he then starts frantically lapping his blood off the hospital floor.
Now, I may have misled you a bit about it only being innocent blood-drinking because there most certainly had to be bits of cranial matter mixed in there. This scene showcases one of the most unsettling aspects of the extreme forms of auto cannibalism: A person taking place in something that is not only so far outside of their character but also goes against every survival instinct that we have. The resulting physical pain of those actions is inconceivable, yet the person carries on, overriding every failsafe our body has to protect us. This next entry is another glorious example of that.
Splatter: Naked Blood
The 1996 Japanese horror film Splatter: Naked Blood works on the premise that a drug is being tested that turns pain into pleasure. You may recognize it from my list of best eyeball horror, and the same scene referenced places it here.
To get right to the point, a woman scoops out her eyeball with a fork and proceeds to eat it. But it’s the cheerful, orgasmic delivery that makes this scene the most unsettling. In most other examples of auto cannibalism in horror, there are malicious undertones or frenzied acts. In this scene, she dines on her eyeball like she’s having the best time of her life.
This moment captures a complete and total disconnect from reality. Being so immersed in the delusion that a person seems sane while doing something crazy gives me the heebie-jeebies, worse than this subject matter.
I should hold that thought.
In the Tall Grass
If you look up incidents of auto cannibalism today, the mass majority of notable incidents tend to happen against one’s will. If you’re not following, let’s look at In the Tall Grass.
In the movie, Becky DeMuth finds herself in a seemingly inescapable field of tall grass. Inside, she meets a man with heavy cult-like ideals. This spells incredibly terrible things for her pregnancy, which a half-conscious Lucy discovers after said cult man hand-feeds her the contents of her womb.
Speaking of being forced to dine on one’s progeny:
Spell (2020)
In a tale reminiscent of Misery, Spell features a man named Marquis T. Woods, who, after being injured in a plane crash, is taken in by a stranger.
The stranger (played by the amazing Loretta Devine) begins controlling Marquis with voodoo. Until he can fight back, he has no choice but to eat what she gives. But unbeknownst to him initially, she fed Marquis his son’s hand.
While I know this doesn’t directly fall under auto-cannibalism, a philosophy reminiscent of Ouroboros is happening here: the snake eating its tail symbolizes the everlasting cycle of destruction and creation, life and death. It’s meant to be a positive symbol, one of the snake’s few positive symbolic associations culturally.
Since this meal happens as a pretext for the final battle that our protagonist wins, he successfully subverts the enemy’s tactics against them. The destruction of his creation led to her creating this meal, leading to her destruction. Ouroboros.
If you feel like this has slid off track, let’s get back on it.
Anthropophagus (1980)
This 1980 Italian film by Joe D’Amato goes by many names: The Beast, The Savage Island, The Grim Reaper, or Anthropophagus.
Another name could be “the movie where the cannibal eats the baby out of a pregnant lady and ends with him eating his own intestines.”
That title may be lengthy, though.
Our anthropophagus became a cannibal first out of starving necessity. After having to eat his family to survive, he lost every ounce of humanity. It triggered an animalistic rampage culminating in the film’s impactful finale I referenced earlier.
Interestingly, the word anthropophagus means cannibal, especially in old myths and fables. But the aforementioned loss of humanity calls into question whether a person who’s become devoid of all humanity is a cannibal.
Sure, scientifically, they’re still human. But there’s a philosophical question of choice and at what point a person’s ‘self’ is no longer them. Should that be considered? To explore this further, let’s look at another moment of auto cannibalism in horror.
The Evil Dead (1981)
In Sam Raimi’s 1981 The Evil Dead, we see Shelly eat off her hand in Deadite form. Should this be considered auto cannibalism? The consensus is that when a Kandarian demon possesses a person, their soul goes to hell or limbo, making it fair to say that the Deadite version of them is no longer them, at least for the time being.
From Mia in 2013’s Evil Dead, we know someone can return from Deadite possession, proving they’re not entirely gone. But most people who change to Deadites do not come back. This transformation from human into Deadite encapsulates the absence of the Id and the ego, the conscious and unconscious mind.
It calls into question at what point is the person no longer the person who’s eating themself? And if the person is not present, should it be considered auto-cannibalism?
This subject got complicated; let’s finish with some less philosophically debatable cases.
Raw (2016)
Typically, cannibalism in films is used as a metaphor for love or exploring sexuality. The film Raw, where a vegetarian develops a hunger for human flesh, is an excellent example of the exploration into cannibalism serving as a fill-in for sexual exploration.
Yet, while cannibalism shows a closeness with others and the discovery of oneself, auto-cannibalism tends to show the opposite: a separation between mind and body or the chasm between force and free will. Rawdipped into auto-cannibalism with some hair-eating and wrist-biting, showcasing them as compulsory acts. Yet, self-cannibalism happening out of acts of compulsion is exemplified strongest in our final entry.
Eat (2014)
In the film Eat, struggling rising star Novella McClure’s autophagia begins in a way that’s familiar to many of us: she bites her cuticles when she experiences anxiety. As she can’t find work and can’t pay her bills, her anxiety grows, as does the compulsion to chew on herself. The incidents of autophagia continue until she’s bitten off and eaten whole body parts.
She attempts to hide her self-mutilations from those closest to her, even putting heels on over her freshly mangled foot. It speaks to the underlying mental health factors that contribute to auto-cannibalism, as well as a hefty metaphor for the feeling of being eaten alive by anxiety. This film gives us a vulgarly realistic depiction of anxiety personified; we tear ourselves apart. But most importantly, even in its radical displays, Eat humanizes the act of auto-cannibalism, showing us the boundary between it happening and not isn’t quite as large as we’d like to believe.
After all of this, I’d be remiss not to mention that some people take place in extreme auto-cannibalism willingly to see what it’s like. One Reddit user shared that after he had a foot amputated for medical reasons, he had it prepared into foot tacos for him and his closest friends because they all had said they’d be interested in trying human meat if they ever ethically had the chance.
Someone cue the “you can’t eat at everybody’s house” music.
By and large, the extreme forms of auto-cannibalism fit so well into horror because the notion of losing one’s grip on existence to the extent of extreme self-consumption is equal parts horrific and possible. Perhaps you didn’t realize how possible until now, so enjoy going through your day with this information. May you be slightly unsettled, from one horror fan to another.
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I was late to the Radio Silence party. However, I do not let that stop me from being one of the loudest people at the function now. I randomly decided to see Ready or Not in theaters one afternoon in 2019 and walked out a better person for it. The movie introduced me to the work of a team that would become some of my favorite current filmmakers. It also confirmed that getting married is the worst thing one can do. That felt very validating as someone who doesn’t buy into the needing to be married to be complete narrative.
Ready or Not is about a fucked up family with a fucked up tradition. The unassuming Grace (Samara Weaving) thinks her new in-laws are a bit weird. However, she’s blinded by love on her wedding day. She would never suspect that her groom, Alex (Mark O’Brien), would lead her into a deadly wedding night. So, she heads downstairs to play a game with the family, not knowing that they will be hunting her this evening. This is one of the many ways I am different from Grace. I watch enough of the news to know the husband should be the prime suspect, and I have been around long enough to know men are the worst. I also have a commitment phobia, so the idea of walking down the aisle gives me anxiety.
Grace Under Fire
Ready or Not is a horror comedy set on a wealthy family’s estate that got overshadowed by Knives Out. I have gone on record multiple times saying it’s the better movie. Sadly, because it has fewer actors who are household names, people are not ready to have that conversation. However, I’m taking up space this month to talk about catharsis, so let me get back on track. One of the many ways this movie is better than the latter is because of that sweet catharsis awaiting us at the end.
This movie puts Grace through it and then some. Weaving easily makes her one of the easiest final girls to root for over a decade too. From finding out the man she loves has betrayed her, to having to fight off the in-laws trying to kill her, as she is suddenly forced to fight to survive her wedding night. No one can say that Grace doesn’t earn that cigarette at the end of the film. As she sits on the stairs covered in the blood of what was supposed to be her new family, she is a relatable icon. As the unseen cop asks what happened to her, she simply says, “In-laws.” It’s a quick laugh before the credits roll, and “Love Me Tender” by Stereo Jane makes us dance and giggle in our seats.
Ready or Not Proves That Maybe She’s Better Off Alone
It is also a moment in which Grace is one of many women who survives marriage. She comes out of the other side beaten but not broken. Grace finally put herself, and her needs first, and can breathe again in a way she hasn’t since saying I do. She fought kids, her parents-in-law, and even her husband to escape with her life. She refused to be a victim, and with that cigarette, she is finally free and safe. Grace is back to being single, and that’s clearly for the best.
This Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy script is funny on the surface, even before you start digging into the subtext. The fact that Ready or Not is a movie where the happy ending is a woman being left alone is not wasted on me, though. While Grace thought being married would make her happy, she now has physical and emotional wounds to remind her that it’s okay to be alone.
One of the things I love about this current era of Radio Silence films is that the women in these projects are not the perfect victims. Whether it’s Ready or Not, Abigail, or Scream (2022), or Scream VI, the girls are fighting. They want to live, they are smart and resourceful, and they know that no one is coming to help them. That’s why I get excited whenever I see Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s names appear next to a Guy Busick co-written script. Those three have cracked the code to give us women protagonists that are badasses, and often more dangerous than their would-be killers when push comes to shove.
Ready or Not Proves That Commitment is Scarier Than Death
So, watching Grace run around this creepy family’s estate in her wedding dress is a vision. It’s also very much the opposite of what we expect when we see a bride. Wedding days are supposed to be champagne, friends, family, and trying to buy into the societal notion that being married is what we’re supposed to aspire to as AFABs. They start programming us pretty early that we have to learn to cook to feed future husbands and children.
The traditions of being given away by our fathers, and taking our husbands’ last name, are outdated patriarchal nonsense. Let’s not even get started on how some guys still ask for a woman’s father’s permission to propose. These practices tell us that we are not real people so much as pawns men pass off to each other. These are things that cause me to hyperventilate a little when people try to talk to me about settling down.
Marriage Ain’t For Everybody
I have a lot of beef with marriage propaganda. That’s why Ready or Not speaks to me on a bunch of levels that I find surprising and fresh. Most movies would have forced Grace and Alex to make up at the end to continue selling the idea that heterosexual romance is always the answer. Even in horror, the concept that “love will save the day” is shoved at us (glares at The Conjuring Universe). So, it’s cool to see a movie that understands women can be enough on their own. We don’t need a man to complete us, and most of the time, men do lead to more problems. While I am no longer a part-time smoker, I find myself inhaling and exhaling as Grace takes that puff at the end of the film. As a woman who loves being alone, it’s awesome to be seen this way.
The Cigarette of Singledom
We don’t need movies to validate our life choices. However, it’s nice to be acknowledged every so often. If for no other reason than to break up the routine. I’m so tired of seeing movies that feel like a guy and a girl making it work, no matter the odds, is admirable. Sometimes people are better when they separate, and sometimes divorce saves lives. So, I salute Grace and her cathartic cigarette at the end of her bloody ordeal.
I cannot wait to see what single shenanigans she gets into in Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. I personally hope she inherited that money from the dead in-laws who tried her. She deserves to live her best single girl life on a beach somewhere. Grace’s marriage was a short one, but she learned a lot. She survived it, came out the other side stronger, richer, and knowing that marriage isn’t for everybody.
My New Year’s resolution is to spend more time watching my favorite app. Luckily, Shudder is not taking it easy on us this holiday season, so I may meet my quota this January. The streamer is bringing in the new year with quite a few bangers. We have classics from icons, a new title from the first family of indie horror, and a couple of lesser-known films that have finally found a home. So, I am obviously living for this month’s programming and think most of you will too. I have picked the five films that I believe deserve our collective attention the most. Get into each of them and start your 2026 off on the right foot.
The Best Movies to Stream on Shudder This Month
Carrie (1976)
A sheltered teen finally unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated for the last time. Carrie is the reason I thought proms might be cool when I was a kid. This Brian De Palma adaptation is one of my favorite Stephen King adaptations. It is also an important title in the good-for-her subgenre. I cannot help rooting for Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) when I watch her snap at this prom and then head home to accidentally deal with her mom. The only tragedy of this evening is that Carrie had to die, too. I said what I said, and I will be hitting play again while it is on Shudder. This recommendation goes out to the other recovering sheltered girls who would be the problem if they had powers. I see you because I am you.
You can watch Carrie on January 1st.
Marshmallow (2025)
A shy 12-year-old gets sent to summer camp and finds himself in a living nightmare. While Marshmallow did not land for me, I know plenty of people who love it. Which makes this the perfect addition to the Shudder catalogue. I am actually excited to see more folks fall in love with this movie when it hits the streamer. If nothing else, it will help a few folks cross off another 2025 title if they are still playing catch-up with last year’s movies. It also gets cool points from me for not taking the easy route with the mystery it built. I hope you all dig it more than I did, and tell your friends about it. Perhaps you could even encourage them to sign up for the app.
You can watch Marshmallow on January 1st.
Chain Reactions (2024)
Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre cemented his horror legacy over fifty years ago. So, it is long overdue for a documentary where horror royalty can discuss its impact on them and their careers. I have been waiting for a couple of years to hear Karyn Kusama and Takashi Miike talk about Hooper’s work and how he inspired them. So, I am super geeked that Shudder is finally giving me the chance to see this film. The streamer is also helping the nerds out by adding The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2 (1986) this month. If you are also an overachieving couch potato, I will see you at the finish line next week.
You can watch Chain Reactions on January 9th.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
An insurance investigator discovers the impact a horror writer’s books have on people. I love chaos, and John Carpenter chaos happens to be one of my favorite kinds of chaos. While we talk about The Thing and Halloween all the time, this maestro has given us plenty of horror to celebrate. In the Mouth of Madness is very much one of those titles vying for a top spot among the best of his filmography. To sweeten the batshit pot, this movie features Sam Neill. You know that he only shows up in our genre if the movie is going to be legendary. You cannot tell me this is not a Shudder priority this month.
You can watch In the Mouth of Madness on January 10th.
Mother of Flies (2025)
A terminally ill young woman and her dad head to the woods to seek out a recluse who claims she can cure her cancer. The Adams Family has been holding court on Shudder for years, so it feels right that Mother of Flies is a Shudder Original. More importantly, this fest favorite has one of the best performances of 2025. Which makes it a great time for people to finally get to see it and get in line to give Toby Poser her flowers. Whatever you think your favorite Poser role is, it is about to change when you see her as Solveig. I am being serious when I say that this movie might be the first family of indie horror at their best.
You can watch Mother of Flies on January 23rd.
New year, but same Shudder. I would not want to go into 2026 any other way, personally. I hope these horrific recommendations bring you the good kind of anxiety. Or at least distract you from the state of the world for a bit.
‘Night Patrol’ Review: Vampiric Cop Horror Undone by Messy Execution
The 10 Most Satisfying Deaths in Horror Movies
‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ Review: Nia DaCosta Has the Cure
The Horror Press Podcast Episode 54: Heated Rivalry & Yahtzee
‘Sleepy Hollow’ Review: Seeing Really Is Believing
‘Ready or Not’ and the Cathartic Cigarette of a Relatable Final Girl
‘Carrie’ Review: A Look At Two Adaptations
The Best Horror You Can Stream on Shudder in January 2026
The Best Horror You Can Stream on Netflix in January 2026
‘The Taking of Deborah Logan’ Review: An Overlooked Gem
‘The People Under the Stairs’ Review: A Brilliantly Bizarre Horror Classic
Slappy Was the Blueprint: How the Dummy from Goosebumps Became A Horror Icon
‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ and The Story of William Afton Explained
Glen and Glenda: Don Mancini’s Reverence for Queerness in ‘Seed of Chucky’ (2004)
‘Truth or Dare’: Who Did it Best?
V/H/S Franchise Ranked, Best to Worst
Everything You Need to Know About Jason Voorhees
The 11 Most Disturbing Horror Movies Ever, According to an Actual Horror Fan
[REVIEW] ‘Cherry Falls’ (1999) Brittany Murphy Shines in This Cult Classic Slasher
