‘They’re just live experiments’: the dark and deadly world of looksmaxxing

The three-part series Get Huge: Looksmaxxing to Death offers a harrowing look into the 'biohacking' subculture that drives young men to extreme lengths for aesthetic perfection. The documentary, released on Disney+ and Hulu, focuses on the influence of supplement guru Tony Huge and the tragic fate of his associates.

While the series does not center on the prominent streamer Clavicular, it explores the ecosystem that shaped his worldview. Clavicular, born Braden Peters, has over 2 million followers and advocates for 'hardmaxxing' and 'bone smashing' to increase sexual market value.

The film’s director, Stacey Lee, followed Tony Huge and his clique, including Elon Muscular and Connor Murphy, in Pattaya, Thailand. Lee captured the group’s daily routines, which involved frequent steroid injections and a pursuit of physical augmentation.

Lee, a mother of a nine-year-old son, sought to understand the appeal of this radical lifestyle. She found that the influencers were not merely sharing information but were performing characters for the internet.

The documentary delves into the mysterious death of Leo Longevity, whose real name was Laith Abdullah Algaz. Leo, a self-proclaimed penis enlargement expert, was found dead in January 2023 at the home he shared with Tony Huge. Authorities ruled the cause of death as blunt force trauma with an unknown source.

Lee discovered that Leo was not the first associate of Tony Huge to die under questionable circumstances. Four other close associates of Hughes have either died or disappeared since 2018, ranging from overdoses to a house fire.

The series also documents the tragic death of Connor Murphy, who drowned in a lake behind his house in July at the age of 32. Eyewitness and police accounts suggest he was experiencing a psychotic break at the time.

Murphy had recently documented his attempts to inject himself with pure gold. Lee noted that he seemed to become more unstable over the 18 months of filming.

Tony Huge, born Anthony Hughes, is a former bankruptcy attorney turned bodybuilder who relocated to Thailand in 2017 to avoid regulatory scrutiny. He advocates for 'a day natty [natural] is a day wasted' and promotes extreme substances like DNP.

Lee’s approach to the documentary was to ask questions about the systems driving this nihilistic philosophy. She aimed to puncture the performance and reveal the human beings behind the online personas.

The series concludes that the solutions to this crisis lie in consuming more authentic content and cultivating skepticism. Lee hopes the documentary will prompt viewers to have difficult conversations about the role of online influencers.