Society (1989)

I remember first seeing this film about the time it was released in the late 80's, and it immediately struck me as intensely disturbing. That's a good thing for a horror film because not too many really disturb me. It has become one of my favorite horror films, and the reason for this is that it has such an original story, memorable characters, and it doesn't care who it grosses out! From the few people who hated this movie, they're obviously weak-stomached or perhaps even members of "Society"???

If you can't stand bizarre horror movies in the vein of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Deranged, Hellraiser 1 and 2, Motel Hell, etc... then you probably will not enjoy this film...especially the last half hour. This is not for every audience and clearly doesn't pretend to be.

I've owned the video for years and recently also bought the Unrated DVD, i must say it is great finally having a very clear picture and sound...in it's uncut form! They just don't make many shockingly good horror flicks like this anymore...

Fmovies: 17 year-old Billy Whitney feels alienated in his upper-class Beverly Hills home.He hears a tape that seems to indicate that his entire family are having secret orgies.People appear dead one moment but are alive the next and then Billy's girlfriend's body appears to twist into abnormal positions.His parents insist Billy is imagining everything and try to commit him to an institution.Billy slowly discovers that his parents and the people around him belong to a different breed of people,a secret inbred Society who are capable of melding and shifting their bodies."Society" is one hell of a bizarre film.The conclusion scenes with gruesome and unsettling special effects by Screaming Mad George are truly startling and gooey.There is also some nudity and sex scenes.Check out this weird and surreal splatter flick.

The teenager Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) feels misfit with his parents and his sister Jenny Whitney (Patrice Jennings). When his sister's boyfriend David Blanchard (Tim Bartell) bugs his family, he shows the disturbing tapes to Bill showing incest and a weird society. When Blanchard dies in a car accident, Bill decides to investigate his family and find a scary truth.

"Society" is a disturbing movie of Brian Yuzna, where the fight of classes is presented in a very original way. The surrealistic story could be much better, but it is an interesting political and economical view of Marx theories, with the upper dominant classes literally and explicitly "eating "the lower classes. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Sociedade dos Amigos do Diabo" ("The Society of the Friends of the Devil")

Note: On 18 July 2017 I saw this film again.

Society fmovies. Brian Yuzna established himself within the horror genre by producing splatter flicks such as the masterpiece Re-Animator and the pretty damn good From Beyond; but Society marks his first directorial project. It's a good one too! This film is unlike the likes of Re-Animator in that it doesn't work principally from lots of gore. There are some disgusting scenes on display; but the main focus of the film is always on the surreal element of the story. It definitely shares a Lovecraftian influence with Re-Animator. Bill Whitney is pretty much the normal teenage boy; but he's pretty sure his family aren't. He's paranoid that something unusual is going down with the society around him, but his psychiatrist is having none of it and puts it down simply to teenage paranoia. This is something more than paranoia, however, and after reviewing a tape his friend made, and having his friend die mysteriously, Bill is now certain that his fears are real. But it's hard to stand out from society; and society certainly isn't going to take his accusations lying down.

Society starts out like one of those teen comedies from the eighties; but somehow manages to build into a very surreal little film. I can definitely see why many didn't like it, but it certainly clicked for me! There are a lot of things that don't make perfect sense, the acting is terrible and the script is less than perfect - but it doesn't matter, because the imagination and inventiveness is here, and that is always the most important thing in horror. While there are films like this one in existence, there aren't any that are really similar to it; and that gives this film more standing in my view, as originality should be rewarded. Another positive element about this film is the way that it handles itself. The first hour is mainly concerned with the mystery behind 'society', but unlike many mystery flicks; this one always stays interesting. When it finally builds to it's effects-laden, disgusting finale - the audience really gets paid off, and if nothing else; you'll be captivated by what is on display. This film is a spoof on real 'society', but it keeps it's points close to it's chest and doesn't hit the audience in the face with them, thus giving this an element of intelligence. I warmly recommend this film!

The best film directed by Brian Yuzna (producer of Re-Animator) is this strange horror/sci-fi satire on the yuppie way of life.

Beverly Hills teen begins to suspect that there's something very wrong with his snobbish family, is he imagining it or are they... inhuman?!

Society is one original and shocking black comedy. There's never a dull moment in the engulfing plot, which starts out as a paranoia mystery then only gets increasingly weird from there on out. It all builds to a warped finale that you won't forget! It's one of those surreal and gruesome terrors that makes you wonder if you should be laughing or screaming at what you're seeing. The makeup work of Screaming Mad George (great name) is very effectively disturbing. The direction of Yuzna is well-done and the addition of the Eton Boat Song as the films theme is a clever touch.

The cast is spot on in their performances, the best being young star Billy Warlock as our perplexed and horrified hero.

Society is one of those unique genre oddities that must be seen to be fully realized. It's one very wild trip that's well deserving of a cult status.

*** out of ****

Parts Blue Velvet and Videodrome, parts Repo Man and Braindead, this thing rocks and is surely one of the cult classics from the decade that you just have to see (forget The Warriors).

The 80's had a strange resonance. It seemed as though nothing was happening, nothing beyond spending and watching TV. It was morning again in America, but a kind of peculiarly false morning as though someone had reached out with a brush and painted false skies. You couldn't even trust it was day, much less anything else. So, something had to be happening that wasn't so clear at first sight, had to. It had to be ugly, since everything looked idyllic. It couldn't be that Watergate had been exposed and that was that.

But it couldn't be a political cinema anymore either, not in a convincing manner, since the people seemed satisfied. So Taxi Driver transformed into Videodrome. Both films are about a helpless observer of a life awash with foulness, but in the second case, he's a corporate type, and he's watching a TV broadcast, a TV broadcast that reveals something malicious in the airwaves that transmit reality that is just gnarly and insane beyond belief. Both films perceptively suggest the damage is in the retina of the mind's eye, and that damage is not a simple madness: the images madden.

This is much less strategic, of course. It was made near the end of the decade, so with enough hindsight to pass around buckets of paranoid blame. The satire is screamingly obvious, because who'd believe something so simple anyway, a conspiracy so pervasive, so blatantly evil, which is the clever little device used here: the film delivers subversive blows in the same channel as the people consumed reality on TV, the channel that played soap opera and assured life was something like it.

Watching the rich and privileged for weeks on end engage with utmost seriousness in lachrimose trifles about sex and power, is rendered here as a kind of goofy, since it was a TV lifestyle, malevolent conspiracy for sex and power over the viewer.

This alone would make the film required 80's viewing. It's a lot of fun, sunny, increasingly unhinged. It's strongly anchored on this end by having a famous TV star of the time in the role of the (paranoid) observer.

The icing on the cake is the unforgettable finale that parodies its own soap-operatic parody: the sexual games mockingly turn into an actual orgy for power. You get to see an actual 'butthead', among other slimy things.