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

H.P. Lovecraft inspired movies Lovecraft’s writing are often so oppressive that they can be exhausting. Lovecraft’s most central theme (apart from the virulent racism and all) was the idea that we live in a howling, empty void — a cosmos that’s indifferent to humanity at absolute best, and so inimical at worst that even a glimpse at the true horrors of the universe would drive most people insane.

And yet a handful of filmmakers have found the wry humor in Lovecraft’s stories — sometimes for satirical purposes, but sometimes without losing the sense of cosmic horror at the heart of his work. Stuart Gordon is the most notable of all Lovecraft-inspired horror comedy directors. Re-Animator, BeyondDagon All of these add a sense of silly to Lovecraftian terror. The gleefully bloody new film It’s Flesh, MayhemThe following are some examples of how to get started: Knights of Badassdom Joe Lynch, the director, is clearly in Stuart Gordon mode. He has the best assistance possible: screenwriter Dennis Paoli, who wrote all three of those Gordon films, and is in his element here, loosely adapting Lovecraft’s 1937 short story “The Thing on the Doorstep.”

It’d be easy for impatient streamers who’ve never seen Beyond Lynch and Paoli’s tone is not to be missed. It is a suitable Flesh. The audience may turn off the show early because they think it is too glossy, too flat and too cheap to be convincing. They also might feel that the actors are too nonchalant or the emotion displayed too strong. All of these are no-nos when it comes to a world where horror is portrayed in a realistic manner. But those who quit early will be disappointed. It’s Flesh hits its peak and fully reveals its creators’ intentions, it’s a wild bacchanalia of violence, over-the-top humor, and authentic cosmic terror.

Asa (Judah Lewis), shirtless, drenched in blood, and grinning unnervingly, stands in a house with a fire creeping up the wall behind him and holds up a severed head dripping with gore in Suitable Flesh

Photo by RLJE Films/Shudder

Heather Graham plays Elizabeth Derby, the psychiatrist who deals with all of the horror movie afflictions that psychiatrists face. Elizabeth Derby, who is a psychiatrist, struggles to explain events that the horror film character in the movie would accept immediately as supernatural. She does this, however, only so the plot can move forward. And even when she starts to accept that she can’t rationally explain the things she’s experiencing, her colleagues keep trying to pathologize her, slapping reductive scientific labels on every earth-shattering event she experiences. Rose Cotter also appears in Smile, a much less funny, much less Lovecraftian horror movie that’d still make for a perfect double bill with It’s Flesh.)

Elizabeth’s latest patient, Asa (Judah Lewis), is an emotionally ragged young man who’s frantic to get someone to listen to him, even if most of what he’s saying doesn’t make sense. He is unable to clearly explain the reasons for his anxiety. When Asa says that his father Ephraim, Bruce Davison, tried to steal his body, it could mean anything, from a sexual assault to a paranoid schizophrenia delusion. Elizabeth is initially convinced that Asa has a paranoid schizophrenic delusion, after witnessing him undergo an incredibly violent and violent procedure which ends with Asa adopting a totally different personality. She immediately decides he’s suffering from dissociative identity disorder — which in no way limits her completely inappropriate attraction to him.

What follows between them starts out as half body-snatcher horror, half ludicrous erotic thriller, complete with a panting Cinemax-era softcore sex scene that’s a little too ridiculous even for something openly meant as satire. But the balance shifts sharply toward the body-snatcher end when Ephraim decides he wouldn’t mind claiming Elizabeth’s body in multiple ways. When Elizabeth finds out that Asa’s father really can use occult powers to force body swaps — the first few of them temporary, leading up to a permanent one — she only has a few chances to stop him before she ends up trapped in someone else’s far-less-suitable flesh.

It’s FleshA messy, intense movie. This film goes from well-structured psychological thrillers to an almost Army of Darkness levels of slapstick violence — including a scene involving a van’s backup camera that’s a must-see for every true fan of grisly horror movie effects. Its broadest structure is classic horror, as Elizabeth tries to overcome her own doubts about what she’s experiencing, then tries to convince other people that she isn’t just having a psychotic break. And the entire time, she’s facing a confident, competent foe who knows far more than she does, and is almost always three steps ahead of her. This film, in terms of plot, would make an excellent double-feature with the original Nightmare on Elm Street.) But on a scene-for-scene basis, it’s all over the place tonally, as Lynch and Paoli keep shifting their intentions.

Elizabeth (Heather Graham, in a hospital gown), curls up weeping on the floor of a bare psychiatric hospital cell as a psychiatrist friend (Barbara Crampton) kneels next to her and puts out a supportive hand to her in Suitable Flesh

Photo: RLJE Films/Everett Collection

It’s Flesh is a “yes, and” movie that just keeps taking on new baggage. It’s a cosmic horror movie that respects the intentions and anxieties in Lovecraft’s “Thing on the Doorstep.” It’s a satire of that classic age of steamy potboiler erotic dramas, at least for a few scenes. It’s a cat-and-mouse thriller between two unmatched adversaries. It’s a giddy chase movie that pushes its physical confrontations far enough that even dedicated gorehounds may feel like they’re watching the horror-movie equivalent of Sideshow Bob stepping on the rakes in The Simpsons. The following are some of the ways to improve your understanding. it’s an occult mystery with a little ’80s throwback style The following are some examples of how to get started: a little for-the-fandom nodding to Lovecraft references. (“Filmed in Cthuluscope,” a label on the film proudly declares.)

It’s a lot to take in, and it doesn’t always work together, the way a more tonally consistent and coherent movie would. The shifts don’t always serve Graham well, either — it’s sometimes hard to buy her as the same character from scene to scene, because those scenes put her in such different mental and emotional places, some of which she’s better equipped for as an actor than others.

All of that stops mattering by the final climax, which locks in on that “serious situation, slightly silly execution” that serves Re-Animator and Beyond It works so well. It’s amazing that a film with a cluttered kitchen sink ramp-up could work so well. It’s Flesh charges to a memorable conclusion that’s perfect for celebratory group viewing, whether at the local multiplex with other die-hard horror fans seeking a seasonal thrill, or at home with a group of friends and a stack of Stuart Gordon DVDs as follow-up.

Lynch and Paoli are openly aiming this one at audiences who love Lovecraft-derived work, but don’t take him so seriously that they need to come away from every Lovecraft movie feeling depressed and oppressed. And they’re purposefully pouring this one out for every Stuart Gordon fan who worried no one else would ever make movies quite like he did. It’s safe to say that his legacy is well taken care of.

It’s Flesh The movie is currently in theatres, and it is also available to rent or buy on Amazon, VuduYou can also use other digital platforms.

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