Suitable Flesh: A campy, violent, stylized and twisted horror movie
Filmmaker Joe Lynch is not afraid of creating gory, bad-ass and head-twisting movies, such as Knights of Badassdom and Mayhem, resulting in much praise from the horror community. His latest feature, Suitable Flesh, will also be welcomed by everyone who loves outlandish, bloody and over-the-top films. While the feature isn’t perfect — the character development is a bit shaky — it still delivers a very entertaining, fun and sometimes scary time.
Suitable Flesh, based on the short story The Thing on the Doorstep by H.P. Lovecraft and adapted by Dennis Paoli (who returns to the big screen in more than two decades), tells the story of Dr Elizabeth Derby (Heather Graham), a psychiatrist who slowly but steadily loses her mind after becoming obsessed with one of her patients. Elizabeth’s life is pretty normal at first. She has a stable but demanding job, a loving husband and a wonderful house. However, her dream life becomes a nightmare when Asa Waite (Judah Lewis) enters her office. He has many mental issues, and he even claims that his unwell, devilish father wants his body. Elizabeth writes it down as a dissociative identity disorder, but when she sees the young man having a seizure and a personality shift, her mind shifts, too.
The more Elizabeth discovers about her new patient, the more her internal conflicts collide. She knows that what she’s witnessing goes against everything her profession believes in. Still, when Elizabeth feels the dark, demonic and body-infiltrating forces, she doesn’t know what to think anymore. Was Asa right after all, and are they both being controlled by darkness, or is Elizabeth just imagining it, and is she becoming just as crazy as him?
Lovecraft’s work is well-known for the otherworldly experiences, superstition and cosmic dread, and both this filmic adaptation and Paoli’s other one, Dagon, perfectly bring those elements to the big screen. Suitable Flesh even adds some intriguing aspects to the original story. The biggest one is, without a doubt, sexuality. There are many scenes in which Asa makes creepy sexual advances on Elizabeth, and most of the times, she rejects his dark fantasies. Still, she sometimes accepts them, with many sinister consequences to follow. There are even some body-swapping sex scenes going on that will make some of us blush.
Those tonal shifts between Suitable Flesh being an erotic thriller and a supernatural horror happen frequently throughout the 100-minute runtime. While they mainly work, sometimes, the movie becomes hard to follow, especially when the supernatural forces are on the loose. Therefore, it takes a lot of work for the audience to connect with the characters. When one of the characters goes through a personality shift and stays there for a while, you get into it and see some glimpses of excellent character development. However, the mind and body swapping occurs so frequently — especially towards the end — that you don’t get the chance to do that often.
The character development isn’t 100% on point, but the acting certainly is. Graham (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Boogie Nights) gives an impeccable performance as she captivatingly shows the audience the determination of her character but also the fragility, doubt and increasing insanity. You feel the pain Elizabeth experiences but also how her curiosity is fuelled every time she sees and feels Asa’s personality shifts. Graham’s performance is elevated even more when she faces the excellent Lewis.
Lewis is a relative newcomer — as he only appeared in a handful of movies, such as Demolition and The Babysitter — but he’s a star in the making. In this film, he takes on five different personalities and brings every one of them to life with ease and wittiness and at a lightning-speed pace. He also ensures that no character feels stereotypical or cliched. While Barbara Crampton (From Beyond, You’re Next) only has a minor role as Dr Daniella Upton and Elizabeth’s friend, she makes the best of it by delivering twisting and intriguing acting.
The performances are sometimes over-the-top, but so are the production designs and the stunning effects. In other movies, that wouldn’t have worked, but in this one, it certainly does. Those incredibly stylish visuals and bombastic performances contribute to the campy, violent and 80’s vibe of this movie. To heighten the sense of impending doom, Lynch decided to use very visceral and grotesque visuals. While those visuals might suppress the psychological aspect of the movie sometimes, they hit the right notes most of the time. And so does the haunting score.
Suitable Flesh is one of those movies that the longer it goes on, the better and crazier it becomes, and thanks to the spectacular Lewis and Graham, the visceral visuals, the wicked sense of humour and the sexual aspect, it becomes a feature that will be loved by horror fans all over the world.
Suitable Flesh is out now in UK cinemas courtesy of Vertigo Releasing.