REVIEW

The Deepest Cuts: SOCIETY (1989)

By Madelyn Sutton · July 22, 2015

The Deepest Cuts is a weekly invitation into some of the sleaziest, goriest, most under-explored corners of horror and cult film online. Every title will be streamable and totally NSFW. Whether it’s a 1960s grindhouse masterpiece, something schlocky from the 90s, or hardcore horror from around the world, these films are guaranteed to shock, disturb, tickle, or generally blow your mind.

We all know that the members of high society are different from us hoi polloi – they drive fancier cars, they wear designer clothes, their hair is always perfect. But these are just aspects of the shiny spectacle of wealth and good breeding that they present to the public, and while shows like Keeping up with Kardashians give us a so-called inside look, we all know that there’s a fair degree of editing and staging involved. What does high society really do behind closed gates, hidden from the masses’ view, free to revel in their own advantages? Society reveals just that – and be warned: it is sick and oh-so-twisted.

Plagued by nightmares of unidentified moans and groans in his family’s mansion, visions of squirming worms, and a feeling of increasing alienation from his family and wealthy peers, Bill Whitney is convinced that there is something altogether different, definitely unsavory, and perhaps even sinister going on just out of sight.

This suspicion only increases when he catches a glimpse of his sister in the shower the day after her Coming Out dance, with her head seemingly facing the wrong direction as she noisily, lustily lathers up, and even more so after he first sleeps with his mysterious new lover only to find that her leg is peeking out from under the covers, impossibly bent backward. After the apparent death of his only comrade in conspiracy theorizing, Bill cannot back away from the pursuit of the truth; what he finds during his family’s next “dinner party” is completely outside the bounds of ordinary behavior – and that’s just as the members of “society” want it.

The final twenty minutes of Society are truly phantasmagoric, unforgettable, stomach-churningly brilliant and anything but subtle, and the same can be said for the message conveyed. I really don’t want to give it away, but just to tantalize your nasty imaginations, the film posits that the rich and privileged have discovered a new fashion for enlivening their sex lives that revolves around consuming those less fortunate. Literally. If you’re not excited enough yet, just note that even after edits were made that were intended to assuage the MPAA’s demands, the film was still rated NC-17 and banned in several places.

Two major factors contribute to the effectiveness of this delightful denouement. The first is the slow build-up to the dinner party; we are afforded mere glimpses of abnormality, and the film encourages viewers to experience Bill’s self-doubt – until the run-up to the final reveal, it’s still possible to write everything off as symptoms of Bill’s crumbling sanity. But the hints are so striking and unusual, beginning with the opening credits, which feature slow-motion, definitely sexual and blood-covered, writhing flesh while the “Eton Boating Song” (“Society waits for you!”) plays quietly in the background. And this is the second thing that makes the film so memorable: the inimitable practical effects work from “Screaming Mad” George.

Besides Society, which is generally considered his masterpiece, “Screaming Mad” George (as he is always credited) provided the gross-outs and gore for a number of films known for their non-CGI creatures/features, including Big Trouble in Little China, Predator, and Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.

The collaboration with director Brian Yuzna was particularly successful, likely due in part to Yuzna’s enthusiasm for the genre (evidenced in work on horror classic The Re-Animator); on top of this, Yuzna was just coming away from writing for a film originally inspired by 1950s gem The Incredible Shrinking Man, a project whose tone changed drastically when Disney Studios added personnel and eventually released it as the positively non-horror film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Yuzna’s rage against the machine permeates the film from beginning to end, and must be given some credit for the revelatory abandon of this conclusion.

Though Society is definitely a product of its time, its message retains power and entertainment value long after the Reagan era; if anything, it’s richer – pun intended – today. And really, if you are a fan of horror or gore or just balls-to-the-wall grossness, you have to see it.

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You can find Society streaming free on YouTube.

For more insight into the best (and worst) of cult horror classics, check past editions of The Deepest Cuts here.

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