From the horrific to the downright goofy, human experimentation has a long and storied place in the history of movies. The strength of the genre lies in its flexibility, which allows it to both reference and distance itself from real-life examples. Much like how good old-fashioned slashers settled on foundational tropes, human experiment movies have discovered their own formula - pun intended - for success.

RELATED: The Best Movie Trilogies Of All Time

Unsurprisingly, many of the genre's tropes are founded in body horror, though that's not to say that body horror is exclusive to human experiment movies (cult classics like The Stuff and eXistenZ, for example, are body horror minus the experimentation). Regardless of genre or subgenre, however, these movies have the power to shock, horrify, and entertain.

10 The Human Centipede Trilogy

lomax laughing madly at something off camera

It's impossible to isolate just one movie from The Human Centipede trilogy - from the first sequence to the last, they're all insane and notoriously disgusting horror romps that no list about human experiment movies could do without.

The premise is simple: could someone turn a bunch of people into a single organism by connecting them surgically? The answer will test any audience's sanity - and their gag reflex.

9 Dark City

the strangers gathered around

One year before The Matrix revolutionized the industry, there was Dark City. Its influences on The Matrix are well documented, and the movie has since been recognized as a cult classic, despite its awful box office showing. A man named John Murdoch wakes up in a hotel bathtub with acute amnesia; in the next room is a murdered woman and a bloodied knife. It's implied he's a murderer - but how?

The answer is surprising, and worth a spoiler-free viewing. It does, in fact, involve human experimentation, but who exactly is running the experiment?

8 A Clockwork Orange

alex's eyes being forced open

Ready for a bit of the old ultraviolence? When it's time to break a milk-plus addiction, it's time to break out the eye clamps. A Clockwork Orange is a classic Kubrick movie set in dystopian Britain, where young delinquents run roughshod over the land's genteel citizenry.

RELATED: Movies To See At Panic Fest 2022

Though Alex's rehabilitation via the "Ludovico Technique" - where those eye clamps come into play - doesn't comprise the bulk of the movie, it is fundamental nonetheless to the quandary that Burgess places at the center of his novel: If a person is a product of their environment, then what does the worst among us represent? And does a person's successful rehabilitation, regardless of the methods used, absolve us, or does it only serve to further condemn us?

7 Alien

Ash and Dallas looking at something off screen

Alien is one of the most foundational movies ever made, a smudgy counterpoint to the all-too-clean world of sci-fi at the time. While later movies like Prometheus and Covenant would expand the canon beyond space truckers and xenomorphs, the first Alien remains a thrilling horror movie for how simply it's presented.

When Ash, a synthetic person (and a twitchy one at that) purposefully lets an alien creature aboard the Nostromo, he does so in the hopes of recovering a xenomorph specimen for Weyland-Yutani - I.E. that a person would be forcibly implanted with a Chestburster and enter hypersleep as a specimen.

6 Re-Animator

herbert west talking to a human head

Jeffrey Combs is a multi-genre fan favorite: from his frequent appearances on Star Trek to his horror cameos, he's a well-beloved actor, and deservedly so.

Re-Animator is foundational to Combs' body of work. In it, he plays Herbert West, a medical student at Miskatonic University who invents a serum capable of bringing the dead back to life. Its unique blend of comedy and body horror - pioneered several years prior by Raimi's The Evil Dead - combined with Combs' deadpan performance creates a surreal, funny, and unforgettable movie experience.

5 The Fly

goldblum yelling for help

Merely one year after Jeffrey Combs graced the silver screen in Re-Animator, another perennial fan-favorite - Jeff Goldblum - had audiences shocked and disgusted as Seth Brundle, a scientist who, in the middle of testing his teleportation device on himself, winds up fusing with an errant fly.

RELATED: Horror Shorts That Are Scarier Than Most Movies

As a Cronenberg movie, it shouldn't be surprising how much body horror is packed onto the screen, and yet the uncanny practical effects combined with Goldblum's performance are enough to leave even modern audiences shuddering with disgust.

4 Bride of Reanimator

herbert talking to his bride for the first time

Jeffrey Combs returns as Herbert West, medical student, and dead body enthusiast, in this uproarious sequel; Bride of Reanimator took what worked so well in Reanimator and turned the dials up to eleven. The plot centers around West's vision to create a person out of different body parts, the most notable part being the heart of Cain's current girlfriend.

However, the head of Doctor Graves returns to ruin the whole experiment - and, this time, he's flying around with bat wings and using his psychic powers to manipulate the people around him. The true horror of West's experimentation doesn't become apparent until the movie's finale, and it's too good to spoil - suffice it to say that there's a lot to appreciate for comedy and horror fans alike.

3 Day of the Dead

bub saluting the army captain off screen

Often overlooked in Romero's trilogy, Day of the Dead is a classic in its own right. Similar to Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, it's a bottle movie, only the bottle this time around is a secret research bunker instead of a house or shopping mall. The movie pits military personnel and well-meaning scientists against one another as both groups approach the limits of their patience and sanity.

One of the ways Day of the Dead stands out is Bub, a zombie domesticated by Doctor Logan, played brilliantly by Sherman Howard. Together, they form a twisted child-parent relationship - what could possibly go wrong? Another standout performance worth mentioning is Joseph Pilato, playing Captain Henry Rhodes at the other end of the scientist-military spectrum.

2 Get Out

chris staring straight ahead and crying

In 2017, Jordan Peele took the horror genre by the throat with Get Out, blending subtle humor with subverted horror tropes to create a truly unique movie.

RELATED: Home Is Where The Terror Is: Iconic Horror Movie Houses

The third act is a nod to ultraviolent endings as seen in movies like Deliverance, Straw Dogs, and 28 Days Later, and is an immensely satisfying finale for Kaluuya's character. It's a movie better watched than explained - no spoilers!

1 Aliens

ripley trying to talk to newt in the med room

If Ash shoving a magazine down Ripley's throat in Alien wasn't disturbing enough, then the actions of one Weyland-Yutani corporate goon in its sequel, Aliens, should suffice. Carter Burke, who introduces himself as "an okay guy," locks Ripley and her surrogate daughter, Newt, into a room with a Facehugger in the hopes that one or both of them will get impregnated with a xenomorph.

One could argue that the real perpetrators of human experimentation in that situation is Weyland-Yutani itself, but Paul Reiser's performance in the movie makes it all too easy to just blame it all on Burke.

MORE: Halloween Kills Made A Huge Mistake Killing Off This Character