Suitable Flesh evaluation: wild, gory cosmic horror for Re-Animator fans

Movies impressed by H.P. Lovecraft’s writing are sometimes so oppressive that they are often exhausting. Lovecraft’s most central theme (other than the virulent racism and all) was the concept that we reside in a howling, empty void — a cosmos that’s detached to humanity at very best, and so inimical at worst that even a glimpse on the true horrors of the universe would drive most individuals insane.

And but a handful of filmmakers have discovered the wry humor in Lovecraft’s tales — typically for satirical functions, however typically with out shedding the sense of cosmic horror on the coronary heart of his work. Chief among the many Lovecraft horror-comedy administrators is Stuart Gordon, whose Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Dagon all lend a specific amount of goofiness to Lovecraftian horror. With the gleefully gory new film Suitable Flesh, Mayhem and Knights of Badassdom director Joe Lynch is overtly working in Stuart Gordon mode. He has the most effective help potential: screenwriter Dennis Paoli, who wrote all three of these Gordon movies, and is in his aspect right here, loosely adapting Lovecraft’s 1937 quick story “The Thing on the Doorstep.”

It’d be simple for impatient streamers who’ve by no means seen From Beyond specifically to overlook the tone Lynch and Paoli are going for with Suitable Flesh. They would possibly flip it off early, considering it appears to be like too low cost, flat, and shiny to really feel convincing, that the performing is simply too broad, or that the feelings on show really feel too fervent. Those are all no-nos in an period of oppressively real looking horror settings. But early quitters will miss out; by the point Suitable Flesh hits its peak and totally reveals its creators’ intentions, it’s a wild bacchanalia of violence, over-the-top humor, and genuine cosmic terror.

Photo: RLJE Films/Shudder

Heather Graham stars as Elizabeth Derby, a psychiatrist navigating the same old ailment of psychiatrists in horror motion pictures. Faced with occasions the common horror film character would shortly settle for as supernatural, if solely to maneuver the story ahead, Elizabeth retains trying for rational psychological explanations. And even when she begins to just accept that she will’t rationally clarify the issues she’s experiencing, her colleagues preserve attempting to pathologize her, slapping reductive scientific labels on each earth-shattering occasion she experiences. (See additionally: Rose Cotter in Smile, a a lot much less humorous, a lot much less Lovecraftian horror film that’d nonetheless make for an ideal double invoice with Suitable Flesh.)

Elizabeth’s newest affected person, Asa (Judah Lewis), is an emotionally ragged younger man who’s frantic to get somebody to take heed to him, even when most of what he’s saying doesn’t make sense. His makes an attempt to clarify his anxieties are woefully unclear: When he talks about his father, Ephraim (Bruce Davison), attempting to take his physique, he may very well be speaking about something from sexual molestation to paranoid schizophrenic delusion. Elizabeth initially assumes the latter, particularly after seeing Asa endure a surprisingly violent course of that winds up with him adopting a very totally different persona. She instantly decides he’s affected by dissociative id dysfunction — which under no circumstances limits her fully inappropriate attraction to him.

What follows between them begins out as half body-snatcher horror, half ludicrous erotic thriller, full with a panting Cinemax-era softcore intercourse scene that’s just a little too ridiculous even for one thing overtly meant as satire. But the stability shifts sharply towards the body-snatcher finish when Ephraim decides he wouldn’t thoughts claiming Elizabeth’s physique in a number of methods. When Elizabeth finds out that Asa’s father actually can use occult powers to pressure physique swaps — the primary few of them non permanent, main as much as a everlasting one — she solely has a number of probabilities to cease him earlier than she finally ends up trapped in another person’s far-less-suitable flesh.

Suitable Flesh is an intensely messy film. It strikes breathlessly from solidly plotted psychological thriller to nearly Army of Darkness ranges of slapstick violence — together with a scene involving a van’s backup digital camera that’s a must-see for each true fan of grisly horror film results. Its broadest construction is basic horror, as Elizabeth tries to beat her personal doubts about what she’s experiencing, then tries to persuade different folks that she isn’t simply having a psychotic break. And all the time, she’s going through a assured, competent foe who is aware of way over she does, and is nearly at all times three steps forward of her. (Purely when it comes to plotting, this movie would additionally make a stable double characteristic with the unique Nightmare on Elm Street.) But on a scene-for-scene foundation, it’s in all places tonally, as Lynch and Paoli preserve shifting their intentions.

Photo: RLJE Films/Everett Collection

Suitable Flesh is a “yes, and” film that simply retains taking up new baggage. It’s a cosmic horror film that respects the intentions and anxieties in Lovecraft’s “Thing on the Doorstep.” It’s a satire of that basic age of steamy potboiler erotic dramas, at the least for a number of scenes. It’s a cat-and-mouse thriller between two unmatched adversaries. It’s a giddy chase film that pushes its bodily confrontations far sufficient that even devoted gorehounds could really feel like they’re watching the horror-movie equal of Sideshow Bob stepping on the rakes in The Simpsons. And it’s an occult thriller with just a little ’80s throwback fashion and just a little for-the-fandom nodding to Lovecraft references. (“Filmed in Cthuluscope,” a label on the movie proudly declares.)

It’s quite a bit to absorb, and it doesn’t at all times work collectively, the best way a extra tonally constant and coherent film would. The shifts don’t at all times serve Graham properly, both — it’s typically laborious to purchase her as the identical character from scene to scene, as a result of these scenes put her in such totally different psychological and emotional locations, a few of which she’s higher outfitted for as an actor than others.

All of that stops mattering by the ultimate climax, which locks in on that “serious situation, slightly silly execution” that serves Re-Animator and From Beyond so properly. For a film with such a cluttered, kitchen-sink ramp-up, Suitable Flesh costs to a memorable conclusion that’s excellent for celebratory group viewing, whether or not on the native multiplex with different die-hard horror fans in search of a seasonal thrill, or at residence with a bunch of pals and a stack of Stuart Gordon DVDs as follow-up.

Lynch and Paoli are overtly aiming this one at audiences who love Lovecraft-derived work, however don’t take him so significantly that they should come away from each Lovecraft film feeling depressed and oppressed. And they’re purposefully pouring this one out for each Stuart Gordon fan who nervous nobody else would ever make motion pictures fairly like he did. His legacy is in good arms.

Suitable Flesh is in theaters and is offered for rental or buy on Amazon, Vudu, and different digital platforms.