The Road To Halloween - Eliminating The Horror 'Classics'

Normally I don't read YouTube comments sections unless I really want to feel bad about humanity, but I'm glad I had a read of them under the upload of Society I watched for this marvellous exchange:-

Xyclon87 3 months ago
I wonder if its possible to actually "shunt" somebody in real life? Could you actually reach you're hand all the way up to someone's face?

JFsebastiansDolly 3 months ago
If you could would you really want to?

Xyclon87 2 months ago
Yeah.

I love the internet.

I missed Society loads of times when I was younger. I missed its Moviedrome showing when BBC2 got lots of complaints for showing it uncut. You're watching a Moviedrome horror film at 11pm on a Sunday night on BBC2, what the fuck were you expecting? I also missed its Dr. Terror's Vault Of Horror airing when it was also aired uncut except it didn't get any complaints that time because nobody watched those films except me and a handful of other sad bastards / nerds who had nothing better to do on a Friday night than watch horror films and The Word.

I also then missed its numerous showings on Sky and since I joined Letterboxd, it's received surprisingly little coverage on my activity feed. Society seems to have been the horror film that I kept losing down the back of the couch until today. As I commented on my earlier review of Cemetery Man, I do wish that I had seen it all those years ago though because I reckon I would have absolutely loved it back then too.

Mind you, I thought it was pretty great in 2014. Even in 2014 I'm amazed there's a horror film that became a cult favourite and a widely lauded minor horror classic that was headlined by Billy Warlock. Like a slightly nerdier and cheaper Charlie Sheen, he was. The odd thing being that Sheen would then end up doing loads of films that even Warlock might have turned down. I reckon he would have been ashamed to have been in The Chase.

That amazement still hasn't worn off but by golly he really is superb here. He's actually perfect for this role considering the Beverly Hills setting of the film and the high school background to a lot of the story and the fact that it requires a slightly dopey but clean cut American hero to see it through. He was just ideal. And then months later he was getting to have it off with Erika Eleniak in Baywatch. 1989 was a good year for Billy Warlock.

Obviously Society gets most of its attention for its eye-opening last 20 minutes or so but there really is so much good stuff happening in the rest of the film that seems to have been ignored in the stuff that I've read regarding the film. I enjoyed the fact that you could never be quite sure about several of the characters in this film and whose side they were on, plus the odd bits of revolting special effects that you get sprinkled about the place.

I also liked Devin DeVasquez's mum and her hair eating fetish. I don't even want to know why that was in this film and what meaning it could have, if any. I just thought it was extremely bloody funny and I'm glad Brian Yuzna put it in there and I don't want him to ever explain why he did it. Some things are best left untold. I also liked Devin DeVasquez but possibly for rather different reasons.

Society is as funny as it's disgusting and was well worth the wait. I think I tend to side quite strongly with films like this, where a lot of people who are usually not very good or a part of anything notable all get together and somehow make something memorable and really good that defies all expectations and logic. I'll go to bat for Society whenever it wants me to.