Billy Warlock (who had a bit part in Halloween II – probably because his father played Michael Myers in the film - but is probably best known for strutting along the beach with David Hasslehoff in Baywatch) plays Bill, a high-school senior, with some unusual social problems. He feels that he doesn’t fit in with both his family and his friends and even goes so far as to tell his psychiatrist, played by Ben Slack of Silent Night Deadly Night 4, that he thinks he’s adopted.
While the film starts off in the same vein as a lot of teen comedies from the 80s, it quickly progresses into something much darker and much weirder when Bill starts looking into the reasons why he feels so disjointed from his family and friends.
When he starts to perceive his family and friends as incestuous and cannibalistic perverts, his psychiatrist starts to really question Bill’s sanity, but what if it’s all true and what if he’s not imagining it? One of his friends produces a tape recording of his sister engaged in some kinky sex acts with her mother and father urging her to keep going and indeed, even offering some suggestions as to how to make work better for her.
Bill, obviously perplexed by recent events, sets out to uncover what’s really going on as no one will listen to him or give him any credibility. And this is where the movie starts to get into some seriously bizarre territory (about two thirds of the way through) with some rather unorthodox visuals and genuinely disgusting moments that carry on through the rest of the movie to a particularly unsettling climax.
Sure, it hits on some clichés and the humor is lowbrow at times, but it doesn’t feel out of place when dealing with the teenagers in the film.
Brian Yuzna (Return of the Living Dead Part III, Bride of Re-Animator) crafts a tense and freaky work of horrific social satire with this directorial debut, and it remains, in my opinion at least, his best work to date. Solid performances from the lead and supporting actors and some all too familiar sets and locations make Society work on a level that, for anyone growing up in the 80s, is recognizable enough to really get under your skin. The special effects, by Screaming Mad George (Faust: Love of the Damned, Bride of Re-Animator) are a notch or two above the work you would expect to see in a low budget 80s horror movie and still hold up even in these days of over abundant CGI.
http://www.dvdmaniacs.net/Reviews/Q-T/society.html
