{"id":4307,"date":"2015-07-30T03:43:28","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T03:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/?p=4307"},"modified":"2015-07-30T03:43:28","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T03:43:28","slug":"society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/?p=4307","title":{"rendered":"SOCIETY!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Society<\/a><\/strong>– 1989, Brian Yuzna, USA<\/p>\n

\"soc1\"<\/p>\n

Yowza!<\/p>\n

In the psychotronic community, Brian Yuzna is mostly known for three things; One<\/strong>;\u00a0his long, fruitful working relationship with horror\u00a0film icon\u00a0Stuart Gordon.<\/strong> Two<\/strong>; he directed the two Reanimator<\/a><\/strong><\/em> seq<\/a>uels<\/a> <\/strong>because Stuart\u00a0apparently had better things to do, and three<\/strong>; he’s the dude behind The Dentist, <\/strong><\/em>parts one<\/strong><\/a> and two<\/strong><\/a>. Those are probably the best known highlight’s of Yuzna’s long, active career, but he’s done all kinds of other shit throughout the years, too, and of all the projects he’s ever laid his grubby little mitts on, Society,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>his first directorial effort, is far and away the finest accomplishment that he can rightfully claim\u00a0to be\u00a0his own. He really set that bar pretty high with this one, and never, ever came close to shining this bright ever again.<\/p>\n

Seriously, this masterpiece came from the same dude who farted out Return of the Living Dead 3<\/a><\/strong><\/em>? Don’t get me wrong, I liked Riverman, but that movie… Damn…<\/p>\n

Society<\/em> is the story of a young man\u00a0from a\u00a0well-to-do family who becomes suspicious of the superficial\u00a0class system into which he was born. Bill (Played by some bozo called Billy Warlock) feels alienated from his peers, and soon, he\u00a0starts to see\u00a0a darker, more\u00a0perverse\u00a0side of\u00a0wealth, privilege,\u00a0and social status,\u00a0which casts\u00a0his family, friends, and society as a whole, in a terrifying new light.\u00a0As things become more and more bizarre,\u00a0Billy quickly\u00a0begins to suspect that there is more going on in his upper class community than appearances would suggest, and as he attempts to get to the bottom of it, the bodies begin to pile up.<\/p>\n

Society<\/em> touches on a lot of ideas regarding nepotism, class warfare, and even\u00a0regular-ass teenage angst, but\u00a0regardless of how specific, or universal, the message in this film feels to you, one thing is for damn sure;\u00a0it’s spattered some\u00a0seriously\u00a0creepy sequences, and the pay off in the third act is tremendous. The special effects (All practical, mind you, this was ’89, after all) really steal the show, and give Society<\/em> one set in stone reason why all horror fans should\u00a0count this film\u00a0as required viewing at least once in their lives. It’s much, much more over the top and silly than what you’d see in early Cronenberg<\/strong> films, but I’d still say that Society<\/em> is a classic of the\u00a0body-horror sub genre, so it does occasionally draw comparisons to David’s many forays into that territory.\u00a0Even more importantly, it’s a pretty\u00a0good time, and the “frustrated 80’s teen who can’t get the adults to listen to him” trope keeps the film feeling fun, and light, regardless of it’s somewhat subversive, anti-establishment message.<\/p>\n

But it isn’t\u00a0perfect. Society<\/em> has\u00a0a few bothersome flaws that hold it back from\u00a0living that fly Criterion<\/strong> life.\u00a0For one, the score is cheesy and obnoxious. Additionally,\u00a0The lighting is bland for 98% of the runtime, and\u00a0the cinematography is flat and lifeless throughout.\u00a0If you’re familiar with Yunza’s catalog, then you already know that this is typical of\u00a0his style, but in the case of Society,<\/em> you could almost\u00a0assume that it’s\u00a0deliberate, like some sort of\u00a0bizarre, self aware, Paul Verhoeven<\/strong>\u00a0stlye attack the American social class system\u00a0wrapped up in the trappings\u00a0of a twisted, Hallmark Channel movie of the week. If you look at the film’s aesthetic in this way, it\u00a0becomes an easier pill to swallow, but it still nags at the back of my mind as a legitimate drawback,\u00a0because he clearly\u00a0didn’t do this shit on purpose. I can pardon all of that, however, and if you’re anything like me, you can too, because Society<\/em> is also a movie where THIS happens:<\/p>\n

\"society-image\"No caption needed!<\/strong><\/p>\n

A-<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recommended Double Feature: Society<\/strong> <\/em>and Brain Damage<\/a>, OR Society <\/strong><\/em>and Flesh For Frankenstein!<\/em> <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Society– 1989, Brian Yuzna, USA Yowza! In the psychotronic community, Brian Yuzna is mostly known for three things; One;\u00a0his long, fruitful working relationship with horror\u00a0film icon\u00a0Stuart Gordon. Two; he directed the two Reanimator sequels because Stuart\u00a0apparently had better things to do, and three; he’s the dude behind The Dentist, parts one and two. Those are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[920,145,1336,1334,1323,1330,1329,204,1321,1322,1332,359,1333,1335,1328,338,1326,1320,334,1327,1324,1325,1092,1331],"class_list":["post-4307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-920","tag-a","tag-andy-warhols-frankenstein","tag-arrow-video","tag-beyond-reanimator","tag-billy-warlock","tag-body-horror","tag-brain-damage","tag-brian-yunza","tag-bride-of-reanimator","tag-cool-name-bro","tag-david-cronenberg","tag-dudes-butts-that-have-faces-coming-out-of-them","tag-flesh-for-frankenstein","tag-paul-verhoeven","tag-re-animator","tag-return-of-the-living-dead-part-3","tag-society","tag-stuart-gordon","tag-the-criterion-collection","tag-the-dentist","tag-the-dentist-2","tag-usa","tag-who-does-billy-warlock-think-he-is"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4307"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4327,"href":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4307\/revisions\/4327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fantasticcrapcomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}