"The first phase is hallucinogenic. The second phase is glandular. And the third phase is... AAAAAARGH!!"
A 1993 horror film from Australia, Body Melt is pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin. A health farm by the name of Vimuville is sending free samples of their new wonder vitamins to the residents of Pebbles Court. Unfortunately, these new vitamins have some rather nasty side-effects; after suffering the two symptoms mentioned, the people who use it have a bad habit of mutating and, well, melting. After one of the farm's employees tries and fails to warn the residents not to take the drugs, much nastiness ensues...
Body Melt provides examples of:
- Back for the Dead: Halfway through the film, Brian Rand is arrested under suspicion of murdering his wife (who actually exploded due to the side-effects of the vitamins). At the end, after Dr. Carrera and Shaan have been dealt with, the two police officers return to their precinct, where they discover Brian in the midst of a projectile vomiting spell that would make Mr. Creosote envious, which soon causes his internal organs to give out before anything can be done for him.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Dr. Carrera and Shaan. The former is actually the more reasonable of the two (relatively speaking), since he wants to take the time to fully test and develop the formula, while Shaan just wants to get them on the market as soon as possible and make mega-bucks.
- Bland-Name Product: One of the two teens who ends up on the farm of freaks is carrying an LCD gaming device... which is simply called "Game."
- Body Horror: With a title like "Body Melt," you'd kind of expect to see a lot of it. And we do.
- Death of a Child: We even get an infant dying before birth! Firstly, Cheryl's unborn child apparently dissolves into gas and causes her stomach to explode (killing her as well), then later on Brandon does a Face Plant into Vimuville's skate ramp, which in turn seems to cause his body to start breaking down due to the effects of the Vimuville vitamins.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The song performed over the end credits is performed by the film's director and the production designer, who also appear in various Fake Shemp roles.
- Driven to Suicide: Cornered by the police, Dr. Carrera has a bit of a Motive Rant before blowing his head off.
- Dull Surprise: The other patients in the doctor's surgery near the end of the film don't seem overly concerned about the fact that a woman's tongue just grew to be about three feet long and choked her to death.
- Facial Horror: The movie's most memorable Jump Scare (and one of the most seen stills) is a Gross-Up Close-Up of a poor Vimuville victim's face, his brow grossly swollen, eyes swollen, bloodshot, crying blood AND with eyelids apparently destroyed, nose dripping blood and mucus, and lower face looking like it exploded from the inside out.
- Feel No Pain: This seems to apply to Carrera, likely due to his past experiments. He demonstrates it near the end of the film by shooting himself through the hand and not even flinching.
- Fetus Terrible: Possibly the craziest variant ever; instead of the fetus, it's the placenta that's dangerous.
- Final Girl: Insomuch as there is one, it's Elloise Noble, though the two detectives are really the main heroes.
- He Knows Too Much: Shaan gets rid of the Vimuville employee who was planning to blow the whistle on the whole operation by spiking his glass of water with a lethal dose of the vitamin. Strangely enough, he still manages to find his way to Pebbles Court, but dies crashing his car before managing to warn anyone, though it does tip off the authorities that something is going on.
- Hillbilly Horrors: An Australian version. The two teens who were supposed to report to Vimuville get lost on the way and find themselves on the land of an outback family of degenerate inbred freaks.
- I'm Melting!: Again, you'd kind of expect to see this. In actual fact, only about three people out of the dozen or so who die in the film truly melt, though that's not to say that the other ones have it any better.
- Karma Houdini: Dr. Carrera's former research partner knowingly withheld a vital part of the vitamin formula, ensuring that it would be fatal to anyone who takes it. This makes him directly culpable for every death that happens in the film, yet he never faces any form of punishment for it. Well, unless you consider living on a farm with a bunch of mutant freaks for a family as punishment...
- Larynx Dissonance: One of the two Vimuville bodybuilders has a hilariously high-pitched voice, likely a nod to his steroid use.
- Orifice Invasion: A man gets attacked and nearly choked to death by the placenta of his unborn child. Yes, you read that correctly.
- Out with a Bang: Two examples; one of the bodybuilders at Vimuville strangles a woman to death while he has a meltdown during sex with her (likely killing him as well), and another bodybuilder has a literal explosive orgasm while reading a porno magazine.
- The End... Or Is It?: The ending reveals that while Dr. Carrera and Shaan are both dead, and Vimuville shut down, their vitamins still made it into mass-circulation, and are readily available on supermarket shelves.
- Transformation Horror: The entire premise of the film.
- Visual Pun: One of the body builders dies when his testicles explode after masturbation; you could say he literally bust a nut.
- Your Head A-Splode: A rare inversion; near the end of the film, Elloise finds Shaan with her face half-melted off and babbling incoherently. Elloise slaps her around the face to try and knock some sense into her, which instead causes her head to collapse in on itself by melting.
