Society (1992)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I'm probably one of the few fans of this movie that enjoys the whole buildup to the infamous ending more than the ending itself, although you really can't deny that it's absolutely due to that insane climactic sequence why this movie is even remembered and loved today, and it really ultimately makes it a worthwhile viewing experience, I just enjoy all of the movie though and not just the end of it. I love all the deliciously offbeat tense atmosphere as young Bill grows fearful of his own cold condescending family as he grows increasingly suspicious that something rotten lies at the heart of his affluent Beverly Hills lifestyle. I thought Billy Warlock was very good and charming, I can see why he got the part, it's like he's the only truly normal person out of most everyone that he encounters and you see the far out events from his outsider perspective. I like all of the strange edgy stuff with his family and acquaintances playing around with him and clearly lying right to his face and hiding something. The exaggerated bad apple at the prologue scene seems to suggest that Billy is already starting to lose it before he even starts seeing things, and they could've easily played the angle that you're not really sure if it's all in his head or not. I like the sitcom-esc schlocky veneer and all the weird little moments like the snails and the backwards shower that are really just icing on the cake, although I hate everything with his annoying vapid girlfriend, his totally pointless friend Milo, and the beastly walking tank of a woman who just grunts and has a fetish for hair! Don't know what they were thinking there, she was like a cartoon, way too goofy for me.. She was the Society member the others don't talk about.. To my way of thinking it's a horror film with depth to it. Rather than all the black comedy which is a lot of fun too, I like it best for its deeper more unsettling themes like the fear and paranoia that those around us who we trust may have dark ulterior motives towards us, what horrors await when the secretive polite masks come off, and the frightening notion of the wicked and deranged aristocracy living in decadent impunity and eating the helpless poor... It's creepy! As the plot progresses you can feel everything building up to the ghastly truth, that the elite of his world including who he always thought were his family are actually degenerate twisted life forms who may be less or more than human, who are able to morph and meld their bodies together as they leach off and consume alive very unfortunate chosen victims of what they consider the lesser/lower species of mankind in horrendous ritualistic orgies of gooey shapeless piles of intertwined devolved inhumanity that engage in hellish displays of vile hedonistic nightmare flesh that's ecstasy for them, but torture for the poor sap that's getting shunted! They're basically The Thing, if it had a kinky side and a whimsical sense of humour! At the end it really goes full-on loony toons, some of those gags like the giddy psychiatrist turning is head into a giant grinning hand, the hysterical legendary dad having his face where his asshole should be, and the truly frightening upside-down and back-to-front mom thing that has no arms, is walking on the dad's arms, and has the daughter's head pop out of her lower half are just insane, it really feels like anything goes! The judge has gotta be the scariest one for me though. Just the image of his sweaty fat old man face with the cigar in his mouth and when he sucks out the guy's beauty mark and shows it off like a prize - ugh, so revoltingly disturbing! The off-key music of the awesome sequence gives it a grand twisted circus-like feel that just made all that human amalgamated stew move so wonderfully... After all that insanity the movie ends on a most abrupt and weak note. Billy doesn't resolve anything, he just manages to kill the resident arrogant champ dick of Society and everybody is so stunned that he's able to drive away with his lame friend and new sexy mutant girlfriend! It's awfully open-ended. I love the big ending sequence though, it's completely disgusting, ridiculous and over the top, and it cemented this flick in my head forever. The first time I saw this as a kid alone late one night that part left me mesmerised and stunned, I'd never seen anything remotely like that sh*t before. You see the age of those special makeup effects now but they're still excellent, there's a real kind of artistic flair of perverse sexuality about it all, it's repulsive, yet weirdly appealing at the same time, it's beautifully grotesque. This was one hell of a film for Brian Yuzna to make his directorial debut with and he and Screaming Mad George really made some sick silly crazy horror magic together. I love horror movies like this that are proud to stand out as oddities, and I'm glad this has found new life and a place over the years as a quirky surrealistic body horror classic in its own right. To Society!

The glory of "Society" is that for all its perversity, the movie functions very much in the realm of quirky eighties psychological thriller, and for the bulk of its running time, there's hardly a drop of blood or a gobbet of gore. Certainly Bill Whitney has a strained and awkward relationship with his glossy, preening, patrician parents, but at his age who doesn't? In the meantime, "Society" is a stylish, severely debauched, possibly mentally insane little romp that entertains in spades. Chiefly due to Yuzna's skill with the camera, sense of pacing, spooky use of lighting and color, and lavish set-pieces (the mansion, the car wreck), "Society" entertains on its own terms as a stylishly creepy horror film. Cinematographer Rick Fichter wields one mean camera! Fichter captures the high society ghoulishness with high style, using colored lighting in a fashion reminiscent of Dario Argento. The acting is competent, the casting inspired: all the principals (Warlock, Patrice Jennings as Sis, the parents) work like troopers, while Ben Slack as the silver-tongued society shrink and David Wiley as the cigar-chomping Judge Carter (who has a talent for getting to the 'bottom' of any problem, quite literally) steal every scene they're in.This is the single piece that is the most disappointing. While the artwork isn't bad, the story is and the characters don't really match up with their personalities in the film. Even though development in the film is very shallow, it would have been nice if that carried over to the book. It also diminishes the end of the film, and probably since it's a comic book would have been better suited if it was set right after the events of the movie not at least 15 years after.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Brian Yuzna's film debut has Billy Warlock as Bill Whitney, the youngest son of a wealthy Beverly Hills family who has felt a sense of displacement his entire life. His parents pay him little attention, doting on his débutante sister and lounging in their sprawling California mansion. After a classmate brings to Bill's attention the macabre nature of his family dynamics, it becomes clear that the high society whose fringes he lives on is much more disturbing than anyone could imagine."Society" is an oft-discussed film in the horror genre that has been opened to a contemporary audience with its recent release on Blu-ray (a scant DVD was released over a decade ago). While it can't be said for many older films that are revived in contemporary technology, I do think "Society" is a standout for fans of bizarre cinema and is worthy of modern audiences' attention, if for no other reason than its biting social commentary.Narratively, the film is a candid and no-nonsense satire on the underworld of high society, and these themes are played with in funny, creepy, and grotesque ways throughout. The film begins in the haze of late eighties L.A. and is peppered with brief, bizarre sequences, before propelling into the territory of paranoid thrillers and outright monster flicks, ending in one of the most infamous and repulsive "sex" scenes ever filmed. Jaw-dropping special effects come into full bloom in the finale, which are simultaneously silly and utterly gag-worthy. A solid performance from the dashing Billy Warlock (donning some "Full House"-era John Stamos hair) helps hold the film together, and the support from Devin DeVasquez as the sympathetic rich girl and Evan Richards as the wingman is great.Overall, "Society" is everything it claims to be, and Yuzna draws on extremes to illustrate the sickly indulgence of high society as (literally) an amalgamative blob of vice, incest, and hedonism. It's funny, it's grotesque, and, more importantly, it's one of the most inventive and memorable horror flicks of the late eighties. 9/10.

This is Brian Yuzna's first attempt to direct a flick and he succeeded. But don't think that you will see a flick like Re-animator (1985) or From Beyond (1986) that is full of gory and messy shots. Society takes a while before it shows us the effects. The acting itself was rather good and that's a reason why you could watch it until the end. Bill (Billy Warlock) did have a few weird scene's in the beginning and throughout this flick but it's really until the end that the old school effects are shown. From that moment on you will feel like you are watching From Beyond. The creatures did have a few weird performances.Sadly it's only toward the end that it becomes a horror. We do have a slashing victim in the film but was it for real or just an imagination. For the freaks out there their is a bit of nudity from Playboy Playmate of the Month June 1985 miss Devin DeVasquez.This flick is a classic but isn't for any one. Gore 2/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 4/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5