UK Running Time: 99 minutes
Film Quality: 4/5
Gore Content: 3/5
Entertainment Value: 4.5/5
Originality: 5/5
Introduction
Having achieved some success within the horror genre producing two H.P Lovecraft adaptations for Stuart Gordon (‘Reanimator’ and ‘From Beyond’), ‘Dolls’ and some mainstream success as co-producer of ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’, Brian Yuzna was finally given the chance to take the helm on a film of his own. Holding the rights to a sequel to ‘Reanimator’, he used this as leverage to sign a two film deal so that he could direct his own project. He had a script that interested him and insisted on doing this before ‘Bride of Reanimator’ (1989 was definitely Yuzna’s year!) and so ‘Society’, one of the most truly bizarre films of the year, was born.
In a nutshell
Bill always felt that he didn’t quite in fit in, always on the outside and never truly happy despite leading a privileged lifestyle in Beverley Hills. Little does he know that society has a plan for him, and it’ll be revealed all in good time.
So what’s good about it?
Despite its outward outlandishness it is incredibly smart and witty and has an absolute ball in poking fun at the American dream and its elitist pretentions. Take away the truly jaw-dropping practical effects and you’re still left with a biting satire which came at a time, very late in the 1980s, that takes ten years of ‘Dallas’, ‘Dynasty’ and a decade of excessive style over substance and subverts it brilliantly. Basically this does what horror does best and holds a mirror up to the current zeitgeist and sinks its teeth right in.
Faces merge into each other, people are consumed, heads appear from backsides, eyeballs are gouged out from the inside and in one unforgettable sequence a man is pulled inside out through his own arse. It’s like some sort of surreal orgy made all the more disgusting with each character sporting prosthetic appendages of some description and greased up to the eyeballs. It’s grotesque, even for body horror, yet strangely bloodless but serves its purpose well in conveying its overall message which I’ll get into later.
And a final word on the photography and cinematography, which is wonderfully rooted in soap opera. The film really didn’t go down well at all in its native US and, given that ‘Beverley Hills 90210’ came out just a year later without a hint of irony probably says it all. It is ripping the heart out of the American dream, as it was, of wealth, country clubs and popularity above everything else. It’s everything you saw in soap operas such as the aforementioned ‘Dynasty’ and ‘Dallas’ and it is filmed in the same, slightly cheap and soft focussed manner, perfectly resembling the very thing it is pointing its finger at.
And what about the bad?
It certainly wouldn’t trouble the acting categories at awards bashes with some pretty wooden performances which have the unintentional benefit of further reflecting soap operas and making the script more interesting. That said, there are some pacing issues and, shocking though the conclusion is, it is strongly foreshadowed and the game is given up a little early for my liking. Some of the characters also have ‘victim’ tattooed on their foreheads, Bill’s friend who discovers what’s happening way earlier than the slightly dim-witted Bill was never going to make the end of the film. At times he acts as if he’s strayed in from an ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ remake such are his insane, paranoid ramblings.
Any themes?
First and foremost it’s a social commentary on the class system with the rich leaching off the poor, consuming them in a literal sense. It’s rich and poor, popular and unpopular, attractive and unattractive, honest and dishonest with the question of what people are prepared to do be accepted in society. Coming at the end of the decade of excess, opulence and the ‘greed is good’ culture, ‘Society’ lays it on the line and shows that there is genuine ugliness at the heart of the American dream.
Family values are questioned as the film adopts some pretty creepy undertones in terms of incestuous sexuality. All of what happens in the film surrounds Bill’s sister’s coming of age party where she is projected as this thing of beauty and sexuality by her own family. For me it draws disturbing parallels with those creepy children’s beauty pageants where the morality of projecting beauty outwardly from within the family takes on sexual overtones.
It’s a film that stands up very well today. Such is the power of its attack on society as a whole, particularly in the era of social media where that search and striving towards popularity extends to people we haven’t and never will meet.
Release history
A massive hit in the UK, partly due an almost complete lack of actual blood, it never suffered any issues with censorship, in fact quite the opposite…it was a critical success and generally hailed as a smart, if gruesome triumph. It didn’t receive such praise in the US however.
It wasn’t even released stateside until some three years after its initial release and even then it was limited and largely overlooked. Much of ‘Screaming’ Mad George’s effects were removed and even then it was given the dreaded NC-17 certificate which pretty much sealed its fate as a flop. Thankfully Arrow Video got it through completely uncut with a wealth of contextual material giving the cult hit the treatment it so richly deserves
Cultural Impact
Very slight which is a shame as it has a lot to say and uses its body horror for social comment very well. Yuzna went on to direct the equally quirky ‘Bride of Reanimator’, the excellent ‘Return of the Living Dead Part 3’ (in my opinion the best of the series) and the underrated ‘The Dentist’ along with its sequel. I don’t think he’s ever been given the credit he deserves for serving up some pretty decent, edgy horror films at a time when horror was suffering from a lack of originality. ‘Society’ is undoubtedly his best film and it’s a real shame that it was virtually rejected in his homeland.
A sequel was in production at one point but this was never completed. One of the inserts from Arrow Video’s limited edition release contained the official comic book adaptation of this sequel. This is now incredibly hard to get hold of unless you’re happy to part with the best part of £100 on eBay!
Final Thoughts
The 80s was a great decade for practical effects, probably the best in horror movie history thanks to the censor ridden 90s and CGI driven noughties and teenies (is that was it’s called?). ‘Society’ holds its own when compared with the likes of ‘The Thing’, ‘An American Werewolf in London’, ‘Reanimator’ and ‘The Fly’ and provided us with a fitting end to the decade in terms of body horror. A wonderfully gruesome body horror on the outside wrapped around a scathing satire, it’s originality and inventiveness has won over a number of fans who hold it very dear to their hearts and would personally like to thank Mr Yuzna for an 80s highlight.
Memorable quotes
Jim: “Well son, you were right…I am a butthead.”
Bill: “I feel like something’s going to happen and if I scratch the surface, there’s something terrible underneath.”
Bill: “We’re just one big happy family…with a little incest and psychosis.”
Bill: “I’m not paranoid, all my fears are real.”
Dr Cleveland: “You’re going to make a wonderful contribution to society.”
You’ll like this is you enjoyed…
‘Bride of Reanimator’, ‘Heathers’, ‘Serial Mom’, ‘Flesh Eating Mothers’
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