The “body horror” films from my childhood often used disease as metaphor. But when watching these fictions, an awareness of the very real physical complications associated with my diabetes lingered beneath the surface. 

I grew up in Toronto, Canada where children from my generation were obsessed with the films of David Cronenberg. But I watched these  films differently than my friends. When I discovered that the Italian director Lucio Fulci suffered physical complications from his diabetes, the visceral images of his horror films seemed to be informed by everything doctors had warned me about my disease.

As I now sit in front of my computer desktop, images from these collected films merge with my own private home movies and a medical history about diabetes. A disease that remains hidden from the public eye lurks beneath the images, slowly reclaiming them for a diabetic gaze.