Society (Brian Yuzna, 1989)

Brian Yuzna was a producer of Reanimator, one of my favorite horror-comedy films of all time. He struck out on his own with Society, a similarly themed movie that blends horror and gore with humor and even cultural critique. The film is about Billy, a young, priviledged man, who feels that there's something different about his family. Everyone he talks to about this fear, though, either thinks he's crazy or gets killed. Surprise of surprises, there is something different about his family, and other members of the community, and the pretty gross final thirty minutes shows us what Billy had feared all along. It is a typical 80s horror film in a lot of ways - there are pretty but vapid blonde girls, a brunette temptress, wacky friends, and lots of terrible slang. The acting, as could be predicted, is pretty bad, but that's part of what makes this such an enjoyable b-movie. Acting aside, the plot really unravels in the final scene. Usually, that doesn't bother me in horror films, but since Yuzna brings out the big, disgusting gore guns in the final scene (at times, I had no idea what was going on, which was both an enjoyable and frustrating thing), there should have been some coherance of story. There wasn't. There are way more questions than answers at the end, and stupid questions at that. The good people (for the most part) survive, and the bad guys are left ambiguously. An enjoyable film, but not particularly scary nor funny; other films have done this better, but it's still worth a watch. It also has one of the creepiest pseudo-catchphrases in recent memory: "You're going to make a wonderful contribution to society." 6/10 RIYL: Reanimator, Dead Alive

Stumble It!