Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Michael_Elliott Society (1989) ** (out of 4)Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) is a popular high school teenager who has two great parents, a wonderful sister and an all around great life. That's until one day he gets a warning from a friend who believes that there's something off about the society they're living in.SOCIETY comes from Brian Yuzna who was sitting in the director's chair for the first time after producing RE-ANIMATOR. This is a film that has a rather large cult following but I must admit that it didn't do much for me. It's weird but SOCIETY was one of those movies that I respected a lot more than I actually enjoyed it. I say this because the movie was certainly well-made and for the most part it was a lot different than what you were normally seeing out of horror movies in 1989.You can say that this was influenced by INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS as we've got a lead character who basically begins to realize that the normal life he's in isn't so normal anymore and the people around him aren't like him. The film has a very strange atmosphere and I give the director a lot of credit for building this up and really deliver a different type of movie. The first eight-minutes or so features very little gore but that all changes towards the end when we get some really bizarre and great looking effects.The orgy sequence is certainly the highlight of the picture and this includes several now notorious creations including the man down on all fours with a face coming out of his behind. Fans of Fangoria will probably remember this still as once you see it you're certainly not going to forget it. The performances are good for what they are and on a technical level the film is quite good.With that said, I just didn't find the movie entertaining enough to hold my attention throughout the running time. The social satire just didn't work for me and in the end I just didn't care too much for it.

gavin6942 The teenager Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) feels misfit with his parents and his sister Jenny Whitney (Patrice Jennings). When his sister's boyfriend David Blanchard (Tim Bartell) bugs his family, he shows the disturbing tapes to Bill showing incest and a weird society. When Blanchard dies in a car accident, Bill decides to investigate his family and find a scary truth.I am still trying to grasp the concept of "body horror". In the context of David Cronenberg, it makes sense. "Rabid", "Videodrome" and "The Fly" all clearly have elements of a person's own body working against them. Here it is a little bit different. Although we have some bodies getting a very malleable treatment, the horror seems largely external. The lead character (and his friend) have nothing happening to THEIR bodies. And yet this makes the list of "body horror". Someone needs to really fine-tune a definition.Anyway, this film is hit and miss. The first half is really strong, with plenty of mystery that leaves you wondering. Following from Billy's point of view, we only know what he knows and only see what he sees. That makes it rather fun, trying to determine who we should trust and who we should not.And, of course, the effects from Screaming Mad George deserve praise. This could be compared to "Videodrome" or "From Beyond" in its effects, but George really takes it to the next level. So, for technical points, this film gets a perfect ten.But it definitely has its flaws, largely resulting from gaping plot holes. Some say those holes do not matter as the whole thing is meant to be an allegory on "society". But it does matter. The phrase "good breeding" does not answer all the questions. And the Carlin family is especially unclear: why does the daughter rebel? Why is the mother mentally impaired? Is this drugs or a genetic issue? And for Billy, why was nothing weird until his senior year of high school? So yeah, the effects are great and the message is good (even if way too obvious). But the third act drags on much too long and just leaves me very unsatisfied. Perhaps Yuzna should have gone with his original idea of the vampire film?

callanvass Bill's family seems to be a tad off. He feels excommunicated from his family, and doesn't feel like he belongs. He sees a shrink who tells him that what he's going through is perfectly natural, and it's all in his head. With the help of a friend named Milo. Bill uncovers some heinous secrets about his family. I had one thought pop into my head when this movie ended. "What the F did I just watch?!" Subsequently, another commenced right after that one. "What a damn good horror film" Any movie that is ubiquitously in my head throughout the duration of the movie's running time is doing the job very efficiently. This movie is filled with things that you didn't even think was possible. I'm talking things that even the most psychotic people couldn't even conjure up. Think of a very bad nightmare, only MUCH worse. You know what the frightening thing is? The culprit isn't behind metal bars in a prison, or in any type of institution. Brian Yuzna is the culprit, and he's somewhat of a famous director (!) Yuzna does a wonderful job with top notch character development. He makes sure to slow burn you with a build-up that makes sure to take it's time. We aren't sure at first if our hero Bill really is going mad, or if his family is off their rocker like he insists. It's a very smart mystery that lasts until the inconceivable finale. The acting is actually very solid, considering the relatively unknown nature of the cast. Billy Warlock is solid for the most part. He has a couple off moments, but he improves constantly as the film goes along, especially in the second half. He goes from a paranoiac to someone on the brink of insanity in the second half. He conveyed his emotions pretty well. He was quite sympathetic. Evan Richards is decent as Bill's best friend. Devin DeVasquez is hotter than donut grease. I don't care if she was one of "them" I wouldn't hesitate to do it with her. She was actually pretty likable as well, and does some unexpectedly helpful things near the end that actually had me rooting for her. Patrice Jennings is definitely hot as Warlock's sister, and creepy at the same time. David Wiley may give you nightmares with his sickening performance as the Judge. I thought Michael Myers was scary, this guy takes the cake! You may want to keep your lights on when you sleep after this movie is over, because of him. This may just be the nastiest movie I've ever seen. Oddly enough, it's not all that bloody, but some of the stuff is far grosser than any type of blood. The finale almost made me lose my lunch (No exaggeration) we get heads coming out of asses, and a dude becomes a giant hand. We get sick scenes of incest, and flesh is tangled together in the most grotesque ways imaginable with old perverts, and young people alike. I can't reveal any more, but let me just say it's a long ride filled with unspeakable sexual acts. Even the strongest of stomachs will be perplexed at all the twisted atrocities committed. Trust me. You have to see it to believe it. It's not the goriest, but it might just be the sickest. I've seen TONS of horror movies. It's tied for my favorite genre, along with action movies. I've watched Nekromantik 1 & 2, Dead Alive, among others, but they don't compare to the messed up acts in this one. I have no idea what Brian Yuzna was going for in this movie. I just know that it was a very provocative and highly original horror film that engrossed me until the very end. You will find it difficult to stop thinking about it. If I ever run into Brian Yuzna on the street, I'll be getting the hell out of dodge! You have my respects Yuzna, just stay far away from me with whatever drugs you did during this movie. Maybe you really are that twisted, who knows. 8.6/10

chaos-rampant Parts Blue Velvet and Videodrome, parts Repo Man and Braindead, this thing rocks and is surely one of the cult classics from the decade that you just have to see (forget The Warriors).The 80's had a strange resonance. It seemed as though nothing was happening, nothing beyond spending and watching TV. It was morning again in America, but a kind of peculiarly false morning as though someone had reached out with a brush and painted false skies. You couldn't even trust it was day, much less anything else. So, something had to be happening that wasn't so clear at first sight, had to. It had to be ugly, since everything looked idyllic. It couldn't be that Watergate had been exposed and that was that.But it couldn't be a political cinema anymore either, not in a convincing manner, since the people seemed satisfied. So Taxi Driver transformed into Videodrome. Both films are about a helpless observer of a life awash with foulness, but in the second case, he's a corporate type, and he's watching a TV broadcast, a TV broadcast that reveals something malicious in the airwaves that transmit reality that is just gnarly and insane beyond belief. Both films perceptively suggest the damage is in the retina of the mind's eye, and that damage is not a simple madness: the images madden.This is much less strategic, of course. It was made near the end of the decade, so with enough hindsight to pass around buckets of paranoid blame. The satire is screamingly obvious, because who'd believe something so simple anyway, a conspiracy so pervasive, so blatantly evil, which is the clever little device used here: the film delivers subversive blows in the same channel as the people consumed reality on TV, the channel that played soap opera and assured life was something like it. Watching the rich and privileged for weeks on end engage with utmost seriousness in lachrimose trifles about sex and power, is rendered here as a kind of goofy, since it was a TV lifestyle, malevolent conspiracy for sex and power over the viewer. This alone would make the film required 80's viewing. It's a lot of fun, sunny, increasingly unhinged. It's strongly anchored on this end by having a famous TV star of the time in the role of the (paranoid) observer.The icing on the cake is the unforgettable finale that parodies its own soap-operatic parody: the sexual games mockingly turn into an actual orgy for power. You get to see an actual 'butthead', among other slimy things.