FILM GUTTER REVIEW: ​SOCIETY (1989)

Dir. Brian Yuzna, USA/Japan, 99 mins

When it comes to horror movies, I record a huge amount from TV. I'm constantly filling the Sky box with all sorts of films – old, new, things I've seen, things I haven't, things I've never heard of and things I want to revisit. And on a recent trawl through the selection Society leapt out to me – a movie I've not seen since my University days, where I watched it as part of an all-nighter of five movies rented from the video shop (oh yes, the video shop) for £5. Most of those cheap rentals were fairly terrible, but man it was fun to watch so many of them on VHS back in the day. That was probably about three in the morning, where I was half-nodding off, and while numerous of the details were pretty hazy (it's more than likely I missed large chunks of the plot) I did have a reasonably clear recollection of the ending if nothing else.

Thirty years on from its release, does Society still have the same sort of impact it did all that time ago?

Society follows the story of Bill Whitney, a young man who feels distinctly out of place in his family and indeed in the rather swanky end of society that he inhabits. He doesn't really get on with his parents and his sister, and has only a few friends at high school, most of whom are not on the 'cool jock' end of the spectrum. As time wears on, he starts to wonder if there is something more behind his strange sense of disassociation, and when his sister's stalker catches a very strange family chat on tape things take a much darker turn, and Bill begins to wonder just who the people he knows are really...

Society is a fascinating animal in many ways, much more slow burn than many of the subsequent offerings from cult director Brian Yuzna. While there's still a comedic edge to much of the film, there is something distinctly dark and off-kilter too, and the conspiracy theory that runs throughout is plenty sinister. You can understand why Billy is afraid, and you could easily wonder if he's imagining things or something real is going on. There's a lot of solid performances, and as an on-point rip on 80s culture it's dead on. Honestly it's probably as prescient now, if not even more so, with the rich just getting richer and poverty growing and growing all the time and class gaps expanding all the time. Some movies seem not to age at all in terms of their relevance, and this is one of those occasions.
 
And then there's that finale of course, which is the most talked-about element of the film, and rightly so. It really goes from subtly weird to flat-out, in your face, balls to the wall crazy for the last half-hour. The visuals are bonkers, and the effects feel really laboured over – they've probably dated a little, but they still have quite the impact as a viewer. Despite how disgusting they are, they still remain fun somehow – which might just be the perfect summation of this movie…

RATING: 8.5/10. Society is very much worth watching, not only as a creepy, fun film in its own right but also one with a truly unforgettable denouement. There are lots of likeable performances, and the tale is well-paced and nicely structured, with the oddities building and building throughout before exploding in a truly raucous set piece to close. I'd hesitate to call it a stone-cold classic, but there's plenty of cult appeal and you'll probably laugh and gaze on in silent horror in equal measure.