Society

Teenager Bill Whitney doesn't belong in Beverly Hills. He feels different from his parents, who lavish all their attention on his sister and tells his psychiatrist that he thinks he's adopted.

Sounds like regulation issue teen angst? Something that's about to develop into a John Hughes flick or a gay teen coming out story? A nice enough but ultimately unchallenging little film? Read on…

Bill is right. The rest of his family are are different. They were born into society, he wasn't. They "fit in", he doesn't.

Only society isn't just WASPs or UHBs with an attitude: it's a cabal of body-contorting, flesh-melting polymorphously perverse Nietzschean übermensch whose orgies would give De Sade a run for his money…

The fantastic has always provided an arena for satirists and social critics. Few take genres like horror and science fiction seriously compared to their more realistic counterparts, with the result that so much more slips under the noses of the powers that be.

The problem is that for every Dawn of the Dead that conveys its message in an entertaining way there's a Jonathan: Vampire Sterben Nachts that goes too far for heavy-handed, didactic quasi-Marxist polemic.

Mercifully Society is of the former sort and, along with the likes of Bob Balaban's Parents, John Carpenter's They Live and Paul Bartel's Eating Raoul, stands as one the high water marks of 1980s satirical horror.

Initially one may struggle to see past the big hair, shoulder pads and other fashion crimes. Soon, however, such grotesqueries come to appear yet another – albeit presumably unconscious – facet of the assault on Reaganite America.

Woody Keith and Rick Fry's script and dialogue are sharper than the performances, most of which are of the somewhat broad variety. Brian Yuzna's direction often feels somewhat flat and televisual though the odd effectively suspenseful sequence, like the one that opens the film, may lead one to believe this was intentional.

The real stars of the show, however, are Mad Screaming George's prosthetic effects, showcased in an incredible orgy sequence that really has to be seen to be believed.

At first the ending – don't worry, I'm not going to reveal it – feels unsatisfactory, and certainly isn't helped by continuity lapses. On reflection, however, it comes to seem the only appropriate (ir)resolution.

Recommended to fans of body horror, Buñuel, Pasolini and John Waters.

Tartan have released Society as a Region 0 DVD. The good news for those in the UK and North Americans with compatible equipment is that the release is in PAL rather than NTSC, with the superior quality of the PAL format really showing through in a transfer that possesses bright colours, solid blacks and a sharp, well defined image with minimal damage, artefacting and graininess.

Sound is adequate rather than spectacular, but is clear and free from hiss and crackle.

Extras are pretty poor.

We get cast and crew filmographies, the original US trailer for the film, production notes from director Brian Yuzna and a short critical essay by seemingly omnipresent critic Mark Kermode.

All good stuff, but too slight. A feature-length commentary or a documentary on Screaming Mad George's prosthetic effects would have added much more to the disc's value. (It's worth noting for those with Multi-Region players that Anchor Bay's Region 1 release contains a full-length commentary from Yuzna.)

The package is rounded off by the traditional trailer reel showcasing other "Tartan Terror" product.