Film

Worm

Name: Worm
Genre: Science Fiction, Horror, Romance
Released: 2013
Cast: John Ferguson, Shane O'Brien, Jes Mercer, Scott Ferguson, Sarah Shoemaker

Science fiction

A low-budget sci-fi horror about a parasitic drug that manufactures dreams in a world that's lost the ability to have them. It's uncomfortable, intimate, and genuinely strange—more interested in body horror and awkward romance than explosion and spectacle. For people who like their speculative fiction weird and unglamorous.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy body horror with a lonely, awkward heart at its centre, where the grotesque and the tender sit uncomfortably close together.

Skip it if you want a glossy, fast-moving genre thrill, since it takes its time and its romance is more uncomfortable than swoon-worthy.

What it asks of you: Ninety-four minutes, with patience for an awkward, gradually escalating set-up; it asks you to stay with discomfort rather than be rewarded quickly.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Videodrome1983

Cronenberg's masterwork about media, desire, and bodily corruption. If you loved Worm's willingness to make intimacy grotesque and horrifying, this is the ancestor—visceral, audacious, unforgettable.

But Deliberately difficult and hallucinatory. The plot is deliberately opaque; it's an experience, not a story. Some of it looks dated now.

Annihilation2018

Science fiction that trusts you to sit with unease and ambiguity. Gorgeous and terrifying, with a similar sense that the fantastic can be intimate and invasive at once. A smart film about transformation.

But Slow-moving and cerebral. The ending won't resolve everything neatly. If you need conventional narrative satisfaction, it won't give it to you.

Under the Skin2014

Another 2013 film about desire, alienation, and bodily horror. Scarlett Johansson gives a quiet, unsettling performance. The film's about connection and consumption in equal measure—austere and hypnotic.

But Extremely slow and almost dialogue-free. Some stretches feel like experimental cinema. You have to meet it halfway emotionally.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Worm

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Teeth2008

Both films literalize sexual anxiety and shame as parasitism—something living inside you that corrupts intimacy into horror.

A teenage girl discovers her vagina has teeth. Played completely straight as body horror and dark comedy. Utterly original, shockingly funny, genuinely disturbing. Shares Worm's fearlessness about desire-as-grotesque.

But The concept sounds like a punchline but it isn't. Rape scenes are present and uneasy. Structured as feminist rage, which some find bracing and others find punishing.

The Hunger1983

Eighties body horror and eroticism fused into a fever dream. Shares Worm's interest in parasitism, desire, and the grotesque. Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and pure artistic strangeness.

But Surreal and disjointed—narrative takes a backseat to mood and imagery. Some scenes are deliberately unpleasant. Not a conventional thriller.

Tusk2014

Kevin Smith's disturbing transformation body-horror-romance that's equally disgusting and heartfelt. Commits fully to its bizarre premise. Wild, unhinged, and oddly moving underneath.

But Extremely grotesque—if you have a weak stomach, this will test it. The horror is real and sustained, not played for laughs.

The Substance2024

Coralie Fargeat's new nightmare about a parasitic drug that promises bodily transformation and youth. Stomach-turning, darkly comic, and surprisingly romantic. Similar DNA to Worm but with massive resources.

But Gruesome in ways that linger. Three and a half hours of escalating body horror. Not a casual watch.

Splice2010

Sci-fi body horror about creation, obsession, and intimacy between humans and something other. Brandon Cronenberg's follow-up energy. The film commits to its perversity without flinching.

But The premise and execution will alienate some viewers. Deliberately transgressive. And the third act makes wild tonal choices that don't land for everyone.

The Brood1979

Cronenberg on psychic trauma manifested in flesh. About damaged people hurting other damaged people. Ugliness, honesty, and the horror of reproduction and intimacy twisted together.

But Bleak and cruel. Some viewers find it misogynistic. Pacing is glacial. Not a film that wants to be liked.

Lost River2015

Ryan Gosling's directorial debut—strange, low-budget, dreamlike. Gothic and intimate, concerned with decay, queerness, and small-town strangeness. Feels like a fever dream from someone who loves weird cinema.

But Narratively obscure and slow. More interested in atmosphere than plot. Some will find it precious or impenetrable.

Love Actually2003

Both understand that in the future or in real life, bodies are the problem—that desire and revulsion are closer than we admit, and that intimacy is always a form of invasion.

Gaspar Noé's explicit, unsentimental portrait of a relationship dying through exhaustion and desire. Shot in 3D for maximum intimacy. Uncompromising, raw, and structurally inventive. Art cinema at its most bodily.

But Extensively graphic sex scenes, ambition that often overshoots, and a deliberately pessimistic view of romantic love. Will alienate viewers looking for escapism.

The Fountain2006

Both use speculative futures to explore the terror of connection itself—how we use fantasy to bridge unbridgeable distances, and what it costs us.

Darren Aronofsky's baroque, three-timeline love story across centuries. Not science fiction in the conventional sense—more like magical realism in space. Ravishing, devastating, genuinely strange. About connection persisting across impossible separations.

But Symbolically dense to the point of opacity. Emotionally demanding. Some find it self-indulgent or overwrought. Divisive among critics and audiences alike.