Society (1989)
** (out of 4)
Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) is a popular high school teenager who has two great parents, a wonderful sister and an all around great life. That's until one day he gets a warning from a friend who believes that there's something off about the society they're living in.
SOCIETY comes from Brian Yuzna who was sitting in the director's chair for the first time after producing RE-ANIMATOR. This is a film that has a rather large cult following but I must admit that it didn't do much for me. It's weird but SOCIETY was one of those movies that I respected a lot more than I actually enjoyed it. I say this because the movie was certainly well-made and for the most part it was a lot different than what you were normally seeing out of horror movies in 1989.
You can say that this was influenced by INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS as we've got a lead character who basically begins to realize that the normal life he's in isn't so normal anymore and the people around him aren't like him. The film has a very strange atmosphere and I give the director a lot of credit for building this up and really deliver a different type of movie. The first eight-minutes or so features very little gore but that all changes towards the end when we get some really bizarre and great looking effects.
The orgy sequence is certainly the highlight of the picture and this includes several now notorious creations including the man down on all fours with a face coming out of his behind. Fans of Fangoria will probably remember this still as once you see it you're certainly not going to forget it. The performances are good for what they are and on a technical level the film is quite good.
With that said, I just didn't find the movie entertaining enough to hold my attention throughout the running time. The social satire just didn't work for me and in the end I just didn't care too much for it.
