Know your place or the monsters will get you

Title - Society
Language - English
Genre - Horror, monster

Bill - our hero

Milo - Bill’s Friend

David Blancher - Bill’s Friend

Jenny - Bill’s sister

Dr. Cleveland- A Psychiatrist

Shauna - Bill’s girlfriend

Clarissa - A rich girl

This will contain some spoilers

Society is a horror film from 1989 that I've seen a few times and it still creeps me out now.  The Film follows Bill Whitney, a normal kid in his late teens.  He’s popular, is from a rich family in Beverly hills and shouldn't have much to worry about, but Bill has a problem, he doesn't feel like he fits in.  He suspects that there is something strange about his family.  Because of this Bill is seeing Dr. Cleaveland who keeps telling him that is normal for people of his age to feel like that. As the film progresses Bill starts noticing strange things. He sees some people who seem to have twisted themselves into strange positions or people having conversations about a crop of slugs.  Bill is approached by David who is one of his friends and Jenny, Bill’s sister’s ex.  David claims that he knows that Bill is right and that he can prove it.  David gives Bill a tape of Jenny’s ‘Coming out’ party this is a party that 18 year old's go through to recognize that the have become adults.  David had bugged Jenny and recorded the party and, when Bill’s the tape it sound like the part is just an excuse for sex and incense.  Bill takes the tape to Dr Cleveland but, when the tape is played back the next day it’s totally different and before he can get a second copy of the tape David is killed in a car accident.

Society is extremely atmospheric for the first hour of the film Bill is trying to find out what is happening whilst trying to remain sane.  For the most part everyone seems normal but there is always the feeling that something else is going on, there is the odd word here or there such as the references to ‘Shunting’ or strange events like objects appearing in Bill’s car and locker.  The soundtrack helps to set the mood with old classic songs with quite high voices singing.  Unlike a lot of horrors society does not rely on jump scares, the first hour is quite slow paced and the viewer is not sure at the start if there is anything wrong or whether Bill is crazy.  Most of what he sees and hears is explained away or seems to be some kind of a hallucination, even the death of David is brought into question part way through the film.

The last half hour changes the film from the psychological to the horror as Bill finally finds out what is happening and, oddly enough this part of the film has the most humour and this would normally be an odd turn for a film that’s spent so much time setting such a paranoid environment and which is now introducing the true horrors of what is going on. In this case it works though, without the humour the film would turn to dark, there is virtually no sex in the film but the implications of both the feeding and the ‘shunting’ make for dark implications for the true nature of the rich society.

This brings is to the true moral of the film.  Each class of society sees the other classes as different but most classes have one thing in common, to get enough money to live.  The rich don’t have this problem but it seems that they will do whatever they need to to get more.  This can give the impression of the rich being out of touch with the normal people.  Society (the film) takes this to the extreme making the high society a completely different race who feed of humans.

The film is full of interesting characters and the way they interact is interesting. There are always signs that there is something wrong but you can never put your finger on it. The only character that seems to a monster actually comes to Bill help at the end.

The final message rings true, it doesn't matter if you fight the monster or what you uncover, you may get away but nothing changes and in some ways this makes the film a prime candidate for a sequel that it's never got.

Given it’s age Society doesn't come across as being too dated, a couple of the monster effects show their age but, for the most they still stand up.  apart from the fashion the only other thing that could date it is the equipment that David uses to bug bug Jenny.

Over all society is a solid film with a strong story and a disturbing monster that has some great lines and may give you something to think about is well worth at least one watch.