Society - Lisa's Review

*** Contains Spoilers ***

As I finished this movie, I wondered how on earth I was supposed to review this.  Half an hour later as I type the beginnings of this review, I am still wondering.  So, here goes...

The movie starts getting to know our main character Bill, a privileged teenager living in Beverly Hills with his perfect parents and cute little sister Jenny.  He seems to be a decent enough lad, well liked and popular, but as we start the movie with Bill visiting his psychiatrist and having a rather weird hallucination, we know, not all is well.  Is this perhaps a clue that Bill is going to see some weird stuff as the movie progresses.

I have to admit that from very early on I was weirded out by Bills family.  There is such a thing as being a happy, loving family and being borderline incestuous and I felt we were almost crossing a line as the family got ready for Jennys coming party.  I actually had to google this.  I had no idea 'coming out parties' existed.  For anyone as culturally unaware as myself, this is where a young lady of high standing comes of age (usually 17 or 18) and is introduced to society.  Anyways, back to the movie.  While Jenny is getting ready for her party, there is a scene where Bill helps her with her dress.  It was here that I realised things were not as they seemed.  I think we're supposed to go with the idea that Bill is prone to hallucinate rather than think there is anything amiss with perfect Jenny and her picture perfect family.

We get some proof that Bills family are a bunch of wierdos when Jennys ex-boyfriend Blanchard keeps trying to get a cassette tape (yes, a cassette tape) to him.  He had his suspicions and had bugged Jenny.  This tape had an extremely odd recording on it with Jenny and her parents talking about her party and how she would 'do it' with someone her own age, followed by her parents and then the host.  It later progresses into rather lewd conversations with other women about what they all do together.  It sounds as like an orgy as you're likely to hear.

Sickened, Bill takes the recording to his psychiatrist, who later plays it back to him.  It is simply Jenny having fun at her party with all the lewd conversations removed.  When he tries to get another copy from Blanchard, he winds up dead before he can get the tape to Bill.  In fact, every time he tries to find out more, or reveal his growing suspicions to others, he comes up against a hurdle.

So, we sit through an hour or so of a banal American 80's style 'thriller' and then we cut to another style entirely, which is how I imagine the movie ended up on a horror list.  The following contains LOTS of spoilers so don't read if you don't want to know.

Earlier in the movie when Bill helped Jenny with her dress, I assumed that certain people (definately Jenny and her parents) were aliens.  The wierd skin thing also came up with a girl Bill got lucky with (Clarissa).   It turns out they are not actually aliens, but a different species to human who have lived alongside humans through the centuries.  Caeser and Genghis Khan are mentioned.

In the final reveal (which comes about half an hour before the films ends) we see Bill back at his house, which is full of high society friends of his family.  He is noosed with one of those loops on a pole used to catch aggressive dogs by his psychiatrist, who is also one of them... it's at the party we find out what 'they' are.  Blanchard is brought out and we see he is actually alive.  His death was staged earlier in the movie.  Everyone strips off to their underwear and the guests at the party start to eat Blanchard alive.  I say eat, but I should really say absorb. They refer to it as 'Shunting'.   I don't really know what to say to be honest.  His body becomes a gelatinous goo and everyone sucks parts out of him and puts fingers into him and through him.  At one point a hand is inserted where the sun don't shine and emerges from his head which is swiftly pulled apart.  While this sick orgy-like feeding is going on, all the participants have become pliable and gooey.  They all start to merge together, with peoples bodies turning into very odd shapes.

It is during this lengthy and very sick scene that Bill see's the woman who he thought was his mother who has a pair of mans arms instead of her legs.  We also see Jennys head pop from between her arms as if in some kind of vile adult birth.   If that wasn't gross enough, it's dad next.  His face is moulded onto an ass.  He utters the line "Who you calling Butthead now?".... My eyes are rolling out of my head by now.

I could probably give a lot more detail, but it's loads more of the same until Bill fights with one of the top gooeys - Ferguson.  Long story short, since Ferguson is all soft and pliable from the feeding frenzy on Blanchard, Bill inserts his arm into his stomach, pushes his way up to the head, his fingers out through the eyeball sockets and pulls Ferguson inside out.  He manages to beat a hasty retreat with a friend Milo, who is also human and the girl he slept with earlier Clarissa, who is actually one of 'them'.  Here the movie ends.

I suppose the effects were good for the time, but there was absolutely nothing horrific about it.  It definately has yuck factor, but it was all a bit skin crawly, embarrassing and silly for want of a better word.

Three quarters of the movie was dull, boring and too long.  The last quarter of the movie was just like something a teenage boy had dreamed up and handed to a producer.  I didn't see the point.  It was a mess as far as I was concerned.   I could see the last half hour ending up on one of those 'Tales from the Crypt' programs, but as a movie?  Seriously?  No.

I heartily advise to avoid.