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Review: Society (1989) ★★

Society 1989 orgy

&NewLine;<p>The &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;body horror genre” holds a strange place in the hearts of both film theorists and genre fanatics&period; Painting with a broad brush&comma; the genre usually consists of low-budget B-movies that use shocking transformations to create horror and&comma; more often than not&comma; comment on some negative aspect of our society&period; This last feature might be something that viewers like to project onto the films and their creators&comma; but that is definitely not the case in Brian Yuzna’s <em>Society<&sol;em> &lpar;1989&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In <em>Society<&sol;em>&comma; a Beverly Hills teenager named Bill &lpar;Billy Warlock&rpar; doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of his family&period; Despite being one of his school’s star football players and a certified lady’s man&comma; Bill can’t shake the feeling that there’s an ever-present distance between himself and many of those around him&comma; including his sister&comma; Jenny &lpar;Patrice Jennings&rpar;&comma; and their parents&comma; Nan &lpar;Concetta D’Agnese&rpar; and Jim &lpar;Charles Lucia&rpar;&period; Bill attends therapy to cope with his anxiety and the increasing number of bizarre hallucinations&comma; but his therapist shows little concern for Bill’s predicament&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Bill’s anxiety is only heightened when Jenny’s ex-boyfriend reveals an audiotape in which Jenny&comma; Nan&comma; and Jim discuss having incestuous sexual encounters together&period; At first&comma; Bill dismisses it&comma; but the mounting evidence pushes him to investigate what’s going on&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; Bill’s parents try to teach him about the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;importance of society” and fitting in with his peers&period; However&comma; as Bill learns more about &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;high society” in Beverly Hills&comma; he comes to realize that many of the people closest to him are not quite what they seem&period; In fact&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;re another species entirely&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you know nothing about <em>Society<&sol;em> other than the summary above&comma; you might actually enjoy the viewing experience&period; I will save you some time and state that it is not a good film&period; In fact&comma; it’s a complete mess&period; However&comma; the remainder of this review will contain a lot of spoilers&comma; so read on at your own risk&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>For those that do know a little something about <em>Society<&sol;em>&comma; the final scenes are the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;payoff” that you get for sitting through a dull&comma; poorly-written drama&period; The concept of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;society” is never fully realized in the film&comma; even though it is supposed to be the focal point&period; We know that &&num;8220&semi;society&&num;8221&semi; is some kind of sex cult for the super-rich&comma; who are not altogether human&period; Instead&comma; they are anthropomorphic beings who physically attach themselves to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;low status” humans to feed and entertain themselves &lpar;an act known in the film as &&num;8220&semi;shunting&&num;8221&semi;&rpar;&comma; creating a huge mass of flesh and debauchery&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i0&period;wp&period;com&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;04&sol;society-the-upper-class&period;png&quest;fit&equals;800&percnt;2C450&amp&semi;ssl&equals;1" alt&equals;"Society &lpar;1989&rpar; orgy" class&equals;"wp-image-1807"&sol;><figcaption><em>Society<&sol;em> &lpar;1989&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The underlying premise is not subtle in the least&comma; though it doesn’t necessarily have to be&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;05&sol;john-carpenters-they-live-and-the-dilemma-of-retrospective-film-critique&sol;"><em>They Live<&sol;em><&sol;a> manages to critique the issue of wealth inequality and the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;alien” nature of the elite class without devolving into a hodgepodge of narrative inconsistencies&period; Unfortunately&comma; Brian Yuzna couldn’t figure out a way to make <em>Society<&sol;em> work&period; The payoff is simply not worth the price of admission&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>So&comma; where exactly did the filmmakers go wrong&quest; It&&num;8217&semi;s hard to choose just one mistake&comma; but Brian Yuzna tries way too hard to push shocking content rather than build anxiety&period; Some of the characters and images are more shocking than others&comma; but some of them were only shocking insofar as they just felt out of place&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>For example&comma; Bill starts a sexual affair with a girl at his school named Clarissa &lpar;Devin DeVasquez&rpar;&period; He worries that Clarissa might be part of the elite group of sex cult weirdos &lpar;spoiler&colon; he&&num;8217&semi;s right&rpar;&comma; especially when he meets her mother&colon; a woman who barely speaks&comma; likes to eat hair&comma; wears over-the-top makeup&comma; and randomly assaults people&period; Her character is never explained&comma; nor doe she fit in with the rest of her elite &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;species&period;” Yet&comma; she ends up serving an important role in the final moments&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In the end&comma; <em>Society<&sol;em> is a lackluster addition to the body horror genre&period; Sure&comma; the final scenes are somewhat shocking and gruesome &lpar;in a good way&rpar;&comma; but they can’t compensate for the preceding hour and a half&period; Whether or not you find the ending worth the trouble will depend on your ability to put up with bad acting&comma; poor writing&comma; and just generally confusing artistic choices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&starf; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>Society<&sol;em> &lpar;1989&rpar;&comma; it is currently available to stream on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;shudder&period;com&sol;">Shudder<&sol;a> or <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B075B5BZBJ&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B075B5BZBJ&amp&semi;linkId&equals;0e484b1ab328207475022ee3a2fe4c60">Amazon Prime<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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