Society (1989)
Society is a horror-comedy film and the directorial debut of Re-Animator producer Brian Yuzna.
Bill Whitney is a popular teenager living in Beverly Hills, the only son of a wealthy upper class family. Despite his privileged position, he feels out of place in his family and life. Several strange circumstances lead him to suspect that his family and friends may not be what they seem, as Bill uncovers a conspiracy among the higher members of society.
It is revealed that Billy's family, and the rest of their Beverly Hills elite, are a "variant" species of shapeshifters who eat humans, or at least suck all the nutrients from their bodies. They use their shapeshifting powers in the most repulsively visible fashion possible, twisting their flesh like plasticine and merging their bodies with each other as they feed upon the poor. Billy was adopted from ordinary people and raised by a family of them for this express purpose; he is viewed as a "delicacy" for this reason.
The Substance (2024)
The Substance is a 2024 black comedy body horror film directed and written by Coralie Fargeat (Revenge) and starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid. The movie also features original music by Benjamin Stefanski (Raffertie).
The movie concerns Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore), a once-popular Hollywood actress-turned-TV-aerobics-instructor who's suddenly fired by her boss Harvey (Quaid) on her 50th birthday due to her age. Her morale at its lowest, she receives a proposal from a laboratory regarding "The Substance", a drug that "unlocks" the user's DNA, and will transform them into the "better version of themself" that they've always dreamt about. When Elisabeth uses it, and "Sue" (Qualley) enters the picture, she spirals into an unpredictable path that threatens to unravel everything.
Elisabeth and "Sue" work as commentary on body dysmorphia and the self-destructive lengths it can drive people to, ageism and its potential impact on people's minds, using an addiction to try to recapture a sense of lost youth during a midlife crisis, plain old dissociative identity disorder, a toxic mother-daughter relationship, and any and all of the above in the context of the famously shallow world of showbiz. Our culture sadly does not lack for unhealthy reactions to the aging process or unkindness towards our own bodies to map the events of the film onto.
Tusk (2014)
Arrogant best friends Wallace Bryton and Teddy Craft host a podcast called The Not-See Party where they interview eccentric people. Wallace flies to Canada to interview the Kill Bill Kid, who has become an internet sensation due to a viral video of him accidentally severing his leg with a katana. The video's popularity was thanks to Wallace's and Teddy's coverage. Wallace's girlfriend Ally stays behind.
Upon arriving in Manitoba, Wallace learns that the interviewee committed suicide. Determined not to waste his trip, he tries to find another person to interview. He finds a flyer offering a free room and the guarantee of interesting stories. Intrigued, he arrives at the mansion of Howard Howe, a retired seaman in a wheelchair.
Howard tells the story of how a walrus, whom he named "Mr. Tusk," rescued him after a shipwreck. Wallace passes out from the secobarbital-laced tea Howard made for him. The next morning, Wallace wakes up to find himself strapped into a wheelchair and his left leg amputated. Howard tells Wallace that a brown recluse spider bit his leg, and the amputation was necessary to save his life. Howard then reveals that he can still walk and lays out his plans to fit Wallace into a perfectly constructed walrus costume in an attempt to re-create Mr. Tusk while carving Wallace's tibia bones into tusk-like shapes. Ally and Teddy, who are having an affair, ignore their phones when Wallace calls for help. After leaving voicemails, Wallace is knocked unconscious by Howard, advising him to stick to "becoming a walrus."
Having read the voicemails and become aware that Wallace is in danger, Ally and Teddy fly to Canada. Back at the mansion, Howard continues to mutilate and alter Wallace while relaying his backstory. He amputates Wallace's right leg, cuts out his tongue, and stitches the skin of his upper arms to his torso, leaving only his forearms able to move. Howard explains that he was a Duplessis orphan following his parents' murder; he was abused for five years by the psychiatric hospital staff, leaving him with severe misanthropy.
A local detective puts Ally and Teddy in touch with Guy LaPointe, who has been hunting Howard for years. LaPointe explains that Howard, nicknamed "First Wife," has been kidnapping and then murdering people for years. His victims' bodies were found with no legs, stitched arms, no tongue, and fragments of tibia bones in their jaws. He warns them that Wallace may still be alive, for now, and that he was eventually going to be killed.
Meanwhile, Howard finishes sewing Wallace into a walrus costume made of human skin with the tusks attached. Howard proceeds to condition Wallace to think and behave like a walrus. Howard reveals that shortly before being rescued, he had killed and eaten Mr. Tusk to survive. Overcome with guilt, he has spent the last fifteen years turning his victims into his beloved savior in an attempt to relive their last day and give Mr. Tusk another chance at survival.
With Howard later dressed in his homemade walrus pelt, the two engage in a fight that ends when Wallace impales Howard on his tusks after Howard tries to beat him with an oosik. Howard dies satisfied. LaPointe, Ally, and Teddy enter the enclave as Wallace bellows victoriously. LaPointe aims a gun at him to put Wallace out of his misery, much to Ally’s horror.
One year later, Ally and Teddy visit Wallace and feed him a fish. In a flashback, Ally tells Wallace that her grandfather once told her that crying is what separates humans from animals. Ally tearfully tells Wallace she still loves him before leaving. Wallace cries as he bellows, implying he has retained some of his humanity.
Flesh Films Final Take 2
Society (1989)
The Substance (2024)
Tusk (2014)
Voting ended onMar 7
