Society (1992)

He problem with Society is that it doesn't realize that quirks and offbeat charm can only go so far and that it needs something more- like a substantial premise or great pacing for the other elements to work. Society gets certain quirk elements alright and the ending where a cannibalistic orgy starts is suitably funny or scary whichever way you wanna look. But overall Society is a miss because ofa lack of a good story.

I remember watching this film in the early 90's while I was well underage of the certification and it stuck with me, occasionally having nightmares about people being pulled inside out. I've watched it many times since and still love the film although I don't have those childish nightmares nowadays. Billy Warlock plays Billy Whitney, a product of the social elite in upper-class Beverley Hills, America. People have been treating him like crap his whole life, like he's not part of the "in-crowd", he slowly starts to get suspicious that not everything is as it seems. Sit back and watch far out 80's horror which despite the visual assault delivers a firm message about class differences which is as relevant today as it was when the film was made. OK, so the acting is a little ham at times, and maybe the OTT gore looks a little dated now but this film still packs a punch and stands out as one of the more random but cult films of the 80's. Incest, cannibalism, comedy, sexual perversions, gore, horror, and shoulderpads. This is a great film, I definitely recommend this if you haven't seen it and like your films nutter than a peanut butter sandwich sprinkled with hazelnuts. Enjoy.

A well-paced and utterly bizarre horror film with plenty of black comedy and a finale which is unforgettable once seen, this is probably Brian Yuzna's most controversial movie and one of his best along with it. It's certainly unlike any other movie I've seen and therefore deserves points for originality. The film starts off like a typical conspiracy thriller as our young lead Billy Warlock starts to discover some unpleasant things about his family. So far, so good, you might think, but then things become a little weirder as bizarre sex acts are hinted at and Warlock witnesses people twisting their bodies into impossible positions. The suspense thickens and the plot becomes taut as people begin to die and Warlock finds himself mixed up in a far-reaching plot and then WHAM!, Yuzna hits you with an utterly disgusting - yet fascinating - finale which is unlike anything ever before witnessed on film.Although this film is awash with mucus, slime, and perverted sexual situations, the heady helping of dark comedy stops it from being too overwhelming and keeps it entertaining and hilarious in parts. Special effects genius Screaming Mad George contributes probably his finest effects work to date with the "shunting party" at the film's close, which has some graphically nasty gore but mostly just plain yuckiness to recommend it, an extended sequence so surreal that I'm sure Salvadore Dali would be impressed if he was alive to see it. Billy Warlock rises above his BAYWATCH heritage and proves to be a likable male lead and the rest of the supporting cast put in commendably straight performances, up until the end that is when everything takes a bizarre comedic turn for the worse. Utterly watchable and quite unique, this stands true as a pinnacle of cinematic weirdness that hasn't really been matched since in terms of vision and imagination.

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.