Review CXIX - Society

Review 119
Society (1989)

Happy Halloween everyone! I know I don't really have that much time to review movies during the school year, but I try and make an effort to watch at least a Halloween movie for this time of year. I'm a bit late this time, but horror movies can be enjoyed any time of the year, am I right? And today I bring you one that I had heard of before but completely forgot about it. It is Brian Yuzna's Society.

Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) should feel like he has it all - born into a rich and loving family, a wonderful girlfriend, living a high class life - but instead he feels like he doesn't quite belong. His parents don't treat him exactly as his sister, his friend keeps warning him against his family, and he has weird... visions. Is Bill just crazy, or is there a disturbing truth about this... society?

The film apparently has special effects done by a well-known man going by the name of "Screaming Mad George". I don't follow horror movies all that much, so I had never heard the name before, but it might mean something to someone out there. For those who know nothing about him and want to know what I thought of the gore, well, it was... creative. This is maybe spoiling a little bit, so be warned. You only really get it at the end, and I found it pretty minimal. I mean, what's there is good, though it wasn't as bloody as it was gooey, and even the goo wasn't as exaggerated as I would have liked. What was there was creative, I'll give it that - there's one cover for the film that demonstrates this - but to say it was a film for the gore and special effects, no.

What you'll check this movie out for (maybe) is the plot. Society is like Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, except with no finesse and beautiful camera shots. It goes right out and tells you about an upper class preying on the middle/lower class and claiming they have every right to. And it adds it in a horror movie style. Also, the acting and characters in Society are flat as hell - the main guy is just too typically eighties-sitcom protagonist. And the ending was lame.

Overall, Society has a proper message to deliver, but it fails to do it well with characters tripping and falling on their faces, gore that's interesting but lacking, and a vibe way too eighties for my liking. It's an interesting watch, but only check it out for a little introduction to Eyes Wide Shut. And to see a face where an ass should be.