Society (1992) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

In this world, we either want to be part of a club or a part of Society. And either way, fitting in somewhere unfamiliar is bound to go awry.


PLOT


The 1992 film follows William Whitney who lives in Beverly Hills with his parents, Jim & Nan (Charles Lucia & Connie Danese), and his sister Jenny (Patrice Jennings). Recently, he’s been telling his therapist, Doctor Cleveland, that he hasn’t been able to trust them due to their odd behavior. It comes off validated to point out Jenny’s ex boyfriend David Blanchard (Tim Bartell) plays him an audio tape in which he overheard the family engage in some kind of murderous orgy. He plays the tape to Cleveland, but it appears to have changed and the conversation played is about preparing for Jen’s debutante party. Bill goes back to David hoping to get another copy, only to discover he died of a car accident and wasn’t allowed to see the body. He later attends a party hosted by classmate Ted Ferguson, who confirms the tape he first heard is real and claims he was the one who caused David’s crash. He later leaves with his crush Clarissa Carlyn and loses his virginity to her, ending his relationship with his girlfriend Shauna (Heidi Kozak). When confronting his family the next day, they don’t take him serious. He then attends David’s funeral with his friend Milo only to notice the body on display is fake. Bill is later contacted by school rival Martin Petrie to meet him at a park to discuss what’s going on, only to find him dead and when he tells people at school what he saw, he ends up returning alive & well. When Bill intends to confront his family again, he gets drugged by Cleveland and is taken to a hospital. When waking up, he thinks he hears David crying for help, but doesn’t find him. When he returns home again, Milo follows him to infiltrate. At home is a party hosted by his family who admit he’s adopted and Cleveland explains everyone at the party, that is social elite, including Clarissa who’s visibly uncomfortable being there, is in fact a completely separate species from Bill and they demonstrate by killing a still alive David via melding their bodies to absorb his nutrients, a ritual they call the ‘Shunting’. Bill evades this temporarily until seeing his family engage in this activity upstairs. He gets pulled back downstairs and gets forced to fight Ted, but he is able to defend himself by pulling his body inside out. As the party pauses in shock, intending to keep the party going, the film ends with Bill escaping with Clarissa and Milo.


THOUGHTS


Because of Brian Yuzna’s involvement with the Re-Animator franchise, I assumed I would handle what he would provide here. Little did I expect this is a body horror film unlike anything that was done in the 80s and I was far from ready. With every chance I had, I kept asking aloud ‘What the fuck’ because I couldn’t believe what I was watching and I’m not sure if that was a good or bad thing. When you hear about the shunting, you just assume it’s a straightforward murder ritual but it’s not as simple as you’d expect. Effects artist Joji Tano aka Screaming Mad George lets loose on the grossness of the scenery where every moviegoer is bound to get uncomfortable as they should. It’s foreshadowed from the very beginning when hearing ‘Blue Danube’ play in the opening credits and you something terrible is gonna happen, but not this. And it goes without saying you better not be having dinner while watching this. Every frame of people's bodies merging in a matter that pleasures them but not their victim is where it falls into the body horror category so easily. I really wish there never was a movie of an actual butthead, but here we are. Multiple times, I've looked back and said this is pregame for the elite orgy that we'd see in Eyes Wide Shut due to how unexpected it got. The main reason this movie has has such an affective presence over the years is because it shows how dehumanizing it is differ people from class and think it's okay to look down on them for it. Every single person that is part of this movie's upper class are equally metaphorical parasites as they are physical since they use the innocent as prey and don't look back even when they lose one of their own. Seeing them continue to normalize their monstrous actions is a stomach squirming thing to notice because no matter how hard one would try, they don't intend to change their beliefs. You're already creeped out with how the Whitneys get too comfortable getting into each other's skin and you're shocked in how much of a manipulator Ben Slack made out of Cleveland the whole time, it is really Ben Meyerson who does it best in chewing up the dialog as the shunting parasite Ted Ferguson. He's the easiest to hate because way before the twist is fully out there, he's most shameless about it as in not caring who he had to kill to remain powerful. Luckily, we had a protagonist who was smart enough to break free from Hell. Billy Warlock was amazing as Bill because his paranoia was validated and you just respect his validation to find the dark truth of his reality. He definitely messes up cheating on Shauna, but he doesn't let that mistake define him because he ain't stone cold of that or the life he had to take to save himself. Thankfully, he wasn't alone in the odds that were against him. While it is straightforward in Evan Richards being a loyal friend as Milo, Devin DeVasquez was the real shakeup as Clarissa. While she was comfortable with what she was capable of, as in twisting her body around the way Jen does, she wasn't exactly in the same vein everyone else was. The more time she spent with Bill, the more she accepted he didn't deserve what would come next, hence helping him in the climax. Whatever they do together, we can only hope it's as far away from the dark side as possible. In short, Society is a body horror classic for knowing exactly how to make you feel multiple things at once but uncomfortable first. If those are the kind of movies you prefer, good luck with this one.