So much of what we enjoy, or don’t enjoy about film hinges on our moods at the time we watch them. For me, it sometimes takes two or even three viewings to really nail down my opinion on a particular movie. There are, of course, exceptional films that reach out and grab us right away, even in the first few minutes, but those are – and I think should be – rare.
Enjoyment hinges on context too, and I think for Joe Lynch’s new film Suitable Flesh, which is both an HP Lovecraft adaptation and a loving tribute to filmmaking legend Stuart Gordon, of Re-Animator and From Beyond (as well as that classic horror, Honey, I Shrunk The Kids) fame, context is pretty key. On the surface, and especially in the first half of Suitable Flesh, it feels like a bottom-shelf 90’s sex thriller, of the type that paraded along after the success of Basic Instinct. But there’s more going on here, if you take the time to sit with it.
I don’t think Suitable Flesh works quite as effectively without at least some familiarity (and I will absolutely judge you for not having it) with the work of Gordon, who was involved with this project along with collaborator Dennis Paoli, before his death two years ago. Looking at it with objective 2023 eyes that have taken in the Ari Aster oeuvre and are steeped in A24 and NEON productions might make Suitable Flesh seem cheap or too trite. For me, though, that’s a refreshing change, and isn’t self-referential retro styling and throwing a film grain filter over a standard horror for aesthetic reasons as much as it feels like the genuine article. If the glossy, highly-produced (and, in my opinion, often joyless and recursive) work of Blumhouse and David Gordon Green is whatever the polar opposite of ‘cheap’ is, then you can have it. I’m more than happy with horror that has a DIY aesthetic and a heaping dose of questionable bodily fluids smeared over top.
It does help to steady oneself on a couple of constants though, and Suitable Flesh leans not only on Stuart Gordon but a very on-trend reimagining of an HP Lovecraft story, in this case his The Thing On The Doorstep. Additionally, casting both Heather Graham and Barbara Crampton, both screen legends in their own rights, as the main characters is a comfort in this project that gets, at times, hilariously uncomfortable.
Crampton plays Dr Daniela Upton, who is a psychiatrist at the famous Miskatonic University Hospital, the setting of Gordon’s Re-Animator. As she is identifying a corpse, she’s called to attend to a patient, wild-eyed and ranting, in a cell. This is Dr. Elizabeth Derby (Graham), who madly demands to know about the mutilated body next door, and warns that “if he does it a third time, it’ll be permanent.”
Switching to flashback, we learn that Derby is also a psychiatrist, and in a narrated voiceover describes an encounter with a new patient. He’s a young man named Asa (Judah Lewis) who is experiencing blackouts and strange, inexplicable behaviour, some of it connected to his eccentric (to say the least) father, Ephraim (Bruce Davison) who Asa is convinced is trying to steal Asa’s body. Things only ramp up from there as Derby is infatuated with the young man, and a cat-and-mouse game of chasing identities and body swapping ensues, twisting and turning and eventually culminating in an outrageous orgy of saxophone-scored debauchery and violence. It undulates between seriousness and dialogue that could only be intended as satire, which will definitely turn a certain number of people off in the first half of the film.
Some of this is deliberate, as Lynch and Paoli make their intention and tone with Suitable Flesh a moving target even from scene to scene. It might be a sendup of 90’s erotic thrillers, a Lovecraft love letter, an emotionally-weighty drama, an 80’s horror revival piece, or all of these things at once. It’s tough for the actors too, who – regardless of skill – all have a tough time feeling consistent from one setup to the next. Graham’s Dr. Derby especially struggles with reacting appropriately, whatever that means, to the occult weirdness she’s presented with. But one thing you can’t say for Graham, Crampton, and Lewis (as well as a supporting cast that aches for the spotlight), they’re game for anything.
Ping-ponging tone aside, Suitable Flesh sticks the landing. It casts off it’s unfocused first two acts in the climax while retaining it’s sense of unhinged chaos. January can be kind of thin for horror, but if you’re willing to stick with Joe Lynch and Suitable Flesh, there’s a delightfully depraved experience in store that Stuart Gordon would surely be found in front of, reclining in his seat and laughing like a maniac.
Suitable Flesh arrives on Shudder on January 26, 2023 from RLJE Films.
